Franschhoek

The last holiday post for the Christmas break, and there are two parts to this post. We went to the Franschhoek wine area for 2 beautiful nights, and visited the Franschoek motor museum, which was amazing to me (but kind of boring to the other J's....). They have over 600 cars, with a changing display of about 80 of their collection. It included this old motorbike below, but there was not sign with this one, does anyone know what this is?

They had a really nice display of old Mercedes cars, something I have always been interested in

An then.....10 Ferarri's in one hall, quite a sight.

Ok, that is all for the cars, now more about the wine and the food. The area is known for many great chefs, and of course we sampled some of the places.

A view of the mountains, with the vineyards right in front of them, we really love this place!

The Vrede en Lust winery included a cheese tasting opportunity to go along with the wines, as well as babysitting for JJ.

A picture of the cheese display below.

Another picture of the beautiful scenery below.

There was also a local coffee roasting company, who even made a 'babychino' for JJ!

After this, with a stop on the way in Kimberly, we made it back home. And we managed to bring quite a selection of great wines home, in addition to a supply of limes (not available here)

Cape Town

Next stop on the trip, the "mothercity", always a treat. Of course the V&A waterfront is always nice, but this time we also went to a few less touristy places. The below picture is at a really nice Greek restaurant in the waterfront.

 Christmas tree at the waterfront, and some other decorations.....

 The Banana Jam Cafe, a really nice Jamaican restaurant and micro brewery, a really nice place, with a lollypop for Julia...

and beers for us.... 

 next day we went for a nice drive down to Kalkbay and walked around in the harbour, watching the seals

 From there we drove back through the famous Chapmans peak drive, with a beautiful view of the city.

 This last picture is taken from Bokaap, where we later enjoyed a great cape-malay meal

Cape town is always great, maybe we get to stay there some day in the future......

Next and last holiday post is about the Cape winelands, which will finish all the holoday stuff

Plet

Ok, let me do another holiday post straight away, this as Christmas at Plettenbrug Bay, enjoying the beach.

 and the ocean....

and a really nice seafood Chrismas dinner with our friends

Not a bad way to celebrate Christmas!

Hogsback

Sorry, there has been a little delay in me finishing the holiday story, due to various distractions such as knee operations etc, but the pictures of our holiday are quite nice, so I will quickly finish the holiday story, so we can post some recent stuff.

After Durban we went to Hogsback, a very nice small place on top of a mountain, in the days before Christmas it was foggy and only 12 degrees C. The place is very laid back and alternative, much more on the Hogsback website.



 We bought this beautiful smoked trout from someone smoking them in their backyard / garage.

 Some really nice small pubs, restaurants and cafes to enjoy a meal and a glass of wine.

And because it was so chilly, there was a roaring fire in every place, very cozy for the Christmas period.

The place we stayed was also great, with a nice fire again....

J1