Three Days of Wine, Tea, Shopping in Stunning Cape Town
Days 105-107, 2024 Grand World Voyage
Wednesday-Friday, April 17-19, 2024; Cape Town, South Africa.
I don’t think I have ever before spent two nights and three days in a port during a cruise, but what a thrill it is to do so in Cape Town – one of the world’s most beautiful cities. A nice feature of a world voyage is overnight stays (11 this year). But a silver lining of our re-routing around Africa is this leisurely stay in Cape Town.
We arrived in dense fog, which delayed us an hour or so past the planned arrival time of noon. Once we approached the pier, the fog lifted, giving us a glorious bright sunny day at the foot of Table Mountain. Over the next two days some fog came and went, but the skies were mostly clear and brilliant, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s as the Southern Hemisphere is squarely in the midst of autumn.
On the two days we were here last year, I took all-day tours out of the city – a day of wine tasting in South Africa’s famous winelands and another along the coast to the Cape of Good Hope. This year I stayed closer to the Mother City, as Cape Town is known.
You can’t come here and not think of wine, so I joined a ship’s excursion to the picturesque university town of Stellenbosch an hour away. Not only did we taste five wonderful wines at Blaauwklippen wine farm, but we also had an hour to roam about the city, with its Dutch architecture and old oak trees. I sketched the Moederkerk Church and then spent the last few minutes ducking in the boutiques – enough time to purchase a gathered skirt that promised one-size-fits-all (it did, as you can see in a photo below).
Back on the ship, I had to say goodbye to Katrine, a beverage server I’ve known from the 2023 world cruise. When I joined the Zuiderdam in December, she ran across the Lido Deck to greet me just as I boarded – my first indication that I had was “welcomed home!” She’s off on vacation to see her son, but I hope our paths will cross again.
On day 2 in Cape Town, with my sisters still away on a four-day safari, I hopped on the hop-on-hop-off blue route, a two-and-a-half-hour loop of the peninsula. We headed through the city to the back of Table Mountain, where I transferred to the wine route bus and Groot Constantia, the oldest wine farm in South Africa.
My wine tour ticket allowed me to tour the manor house, the gardens and the vineyards. In a real change from ship excursions, I was the only American on our tour of the winery, along with a women’s bike tour group from Brazil and other tourists from around the world. For the five-pour tasting, I sat with a man from Australia, who had flown to Dubai for a MSC cruise to the Mediterranean, only to learn it was canceled. He decided to fly to Cape Town for a week before traveling on.
After a great lunch of fish and chips at Simon’s restaurant on the farm, I rode the bus the long way back to Cape Town, to Haut Bay and along the coast. The fog teased us from just off shore, but didn’t return until that night.
This time the shuttle back to the ship dropped us off at the cruise terminal. When we arrived the first day, we docked at an industrial area, allowing a Virgin Voyages ship the preferred berth as it had a total turnover of passengers. Seeing that I would have a 30-minute wait while the ship was in the process of moving, I opted to head upstairs to a restaurant bar. I enjoyed my gin and tonic while waiting for the ship to open its gangway and the reboarding crowd to disperse.
The new berth was just a short walk from the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, full of ships, restaurants, bars, a huge shopping mall and throngs of people enjoying the sunny day. My sisters (who returned the night before from their safari) and I joined the crowds, finding the strong U.S. dollar made shopping very affordable.
By midafternoon we headed for the Mount Nelson Hotel and its high tea. Elaine had brilliantly booked our reservations for a fraction of the cost of the ship’s excursion there. We should have fasted all day – the finger foods, scones and desserts proved to be our last meal of the day.
Back on the ship, the South African Youth Choir performed a stirring concert of traditional African music and outstanding musical theater solos. As we were about to sail later that night, I heard faint singing. When I stepped out on my balcony, the choir members were spontaneously singing a cappella as they walked off the ship. What a beautiful memory of South Africa!
You certainly did a lot in your couple of days in Cape Town. I did see the new skirt you purchased. Looked lovely paired with the jeans jacket. Elaine’s hair has gotten so long and looks great. Say hi to Deb from me. And last but certainly not least, did Eloise get new glasses? Something seemed to look different in that photo. Enjoy the last month of your wonderful cruise.
Cute skirt! Sounds like you had a lovely time in cape town!
Wonderful blog about Capetown and you are so right, it’s one of the the loveliest cities. In December we ended our Grand Africa Voyage in Capetown adding several days at the lovely Alfred & Victoria Hotel at the waterfront before flying home. It was the perfect ending to the cruise.
Excellent wrap up. Ed and I did the Blaauwklippen winery last year. Matter of fact, just opened my last bottle of their good Zin a couple of nights ago. It kinda got tucked away in the nether reaches of the cupboard – glad I found it!
Enjoy the rest of your voyage and hug Deb and the “sistahs” for me. See you soon!
So glad you had this silver lining on your enforced diversion. The pink gin while waiting for the ship move was an inspired idea. (Some years ago we were on the (very narrow) Llangollen Canal when a boat load of young guys behind us yelled out to ask us to pull over so they could pass – they only had their boat for a day and wanted to see as much as possible. We obliged, being in no rush, besides which we were probably all doing the same (maximum 4 mph) speed. Shortly afterwards, the young guys jackknifed their boat across the canal, causing a massive traffic jam in both directions for the Sunday morning traffic. Too early for a gin (pink or otherwise) we moored the boat, put on the pot of coffee and waited in comfort, watching the semi-spectacle unfold before us.
Just love your stories & photos, thank you so very much.
Your skirt looks great. Great wine in SA, too.
We did South Africa as a land tour, flying between some cities, etc.
Thanks for refreshing our memories.
Barb
Love your narrative and photos. Would also love to see some photos of your sisters safari.
Suzie
Great read!
WOW! What a great experience.
I very much enjoyed your wonderful Capetown post, Jo. You seem to have really gotten the hang of this travel blog thingy! LOL.
The Ravinia summer season tickets go on sale this week for donors. We’ll raise a glass to you (wherever you are). The mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be in competition with the mighty and very noisy simultaneous emergence of two different large periodic cicada broods (XIX and XIII) in our area this summer-a 0nce in two hundred years event.- so it will be interesting. Thomas Jefferson was President the last time this phenomenon occurred in 1803.
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So lovely experiencing Cape Town South Africa with you! Thank you
Now I must pass along the link to your blog from a friend I made in my exercise class. You see he’s a native of Cape Town but relocated to Florida. He’ll be quite glad to learn of the positive exchange rates for the US dollar.