Saturday May 25, 2013
Our vacation in Africa started May 24 2013 at 11:15am as I boarded South African Flight 204 non-stop to Johannesburg. It would be a very long flight arriving a little late at 08:45am the next day. I was apprehensive about this 14 hour flight but was lucky that the seat next to me was empty and impressed that the crew encouraged quiet, and sleep. After enjoying the movie, "The Great and Powerful OZ" on my own personal TV attached to the back of the seat in front of me, I was able to catch a snooze and wake up refreshed to catch my next flight to Cape Town.
We had to pick up our luggage, pass through customs and recheck the luggage back to the domestic portion of the airport. I started to revert back to my nervous travel self as I grew uncomfortable with the unfamiliar space, annoyed with the late arriving plane, ticked at the luggage delay, and a bit panicked as I realized we had only an hour to make our connection. Fortunately the panic dissipated as I realized everyone around me waiting for luggage was also trying to make that same connection. The plane would wait for us and it did.
We boarded our connection to Capetown and I quickly went back into snooze mode. I wanted to be ready to tackle my jet lag and force myself to stay up and start my travels.
On our arrival at the Cape we were promptly picked up by the folks at Tom's Guest House located in the Oranjezicht section of the City Bowl neighborhood. I chose this particular guest house because of the location near the waterfront, beaches, wineland, and great restaurants and because of the beautiful sunflower displayed on their website. Friendly hosts and a nice location made this a perfect way to start our vacation.
We took a taxi to Groot Constantia the oldest winery in South Africa. We were rewarded with peaceful scenery out of a postcard, an interesting tour of the wine cellar, and a wonderful wine tasting that put a smile on Allen's tired jetlagged face.
We ended the day with a quick taxi ride to the opulent Mount Nelson Hotel where we spoiled ourselves at the Planet Restaurant enjoying a five course wine pairing menu. My choice was from the vegetarian part of the menu (the reason I chose this restaurant) and Allen daringly tried Springbok (a South African antelope) as his main course. I think my Vegan Chocolate desert may have been the best desert I have every eaten in my life. Yum Yum.
No comments:
Post a Comment