Tuesday 12 January 2016

South Africa 8: Cape Town

We stayed in Cape Town from Tuesday the 27th to Saturday the 31st. It was our third time in Cape Town so we didn't have the need to run around the city like headless chickens to try to see everything. This time it was more about chilling and sundowners. That's also the reason we chose the Bluegum Hill Guest House: I wanted to stay in a place where I can sit ouside on the terrace when the sun is slipping below the horizon while I am sipping my sauvignon blanc or methodé cap classique.

Morning sun and breakfast
We had decided to keep the car for the first day in Cape Town because we wanted to do the Chapman's peak drive which we hadn't done during our previous visits. Well, we did do it this time but the day was bad. The whole west side was covered in fog and we didn't see anything. We didn't even stop to take a one photo because it would have been useless. Not until we reached Simon's Town did the sun come back out again the clouds were gone. Because of the bad weather we also skipped a visit to the Cape of Good Hope. At least we will have some things left to do for our next visit in Cape Town :D

Simon's Town ahead.

A stop on the beach in Fish Hoek

A fisher boat

Beach and houses
After we arrived back to the Cape Town city centre we gave a way the car and headed for a late lunch in Charango Grill & Bar, a peruvian-japanese fusion restaurant. The food was great and the service as well. Afterwards we walked back to the waterfront and visited the Two Oceans Aquarium.

Charango Grill & Bar

A pisco sour

Tuna tacos and sweet potato fries

Tuna tacos

Hubby's warm "pannini"

Waterfront

Waterfront

Two Oceans Aquarium

Two Oceans Aquarium

Waterfront

Table Mountain and the waterfront

Evening back at the guesthouse

Dining/living room of the guest house

It's getting dark

A beautiful night view

The next day, Thursday, was a day we had been waiting for a long time. We had made a lunch reservation for The Test Kitchen,  number 28th of the world's best restaurants and a winner of the continental restaurant awards. We would have prefered dinner, but as I booked the table in MAY all the dinners during our stay were already booked out. Luckily they still had places free for lunch. The restaurant is in the Woodstock, in the Old Biscuit Mill. There is no photos for you to see from our lunch. We put a camera aside and just enjoyed the perfect food and perfect service. A five course lunch for two was 1050 ZAR (about 69 EUR/76CHF), wine paring for two was 600 ZAR (about 40 EUR/43CHF) and water plus coffee 92 ZAR (6 EUR/7CHF). So all in all we paid 1742 ZAR (about 115 EUR/125CHF) which we found very cheap. In Switzerland in restarant of that standard you would be paing close to 1000 francs. We also bought things for our dinner in the Old Biscuit Mill. Opposite the The Test Kitchen there was a small deli, Saucisse, selling South African cheese and charcuterie. So the evening we spent "home" drinking some wine and eating tapas.

The Old Biscuit mill

Shops in the Old Bicuit Mill



The entrance to The Test Kitchen

Our last whole day in Cape Town was a bit of a lazy day. We went for a walk along the see and had sundowners in our favourite place on the Waterfront, The Harbour House. Upstairs is a bar deck and downstairs a restaurant. 

Table Mountain is getting the table cloth

Walking in Cape Town

Walking along the seepromenade.

Singnal Hill and Lion's Head

View of the mall from the Harbour House

View of the harbour from the Harbour House

It wasn't very warm, speciall after the sun was down.



Our dinner at the Harbour House Restaurant

A fish platter

Our last night
So, I finally managed to finish writing about our trip :D Better late than never. I have had some other things like work keeping me busy so it has been pretty quiet here in the blog. Won't promise that it will change but I'll try to write something every now and then.