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17-19Jan 2011
Stellenbosch
What a great town! Much bigger than Fr.Hoek, it has the continent's (and so I'm guessing the world's) largest Afrikaans university. This gives it a real vibrancy, and means eating out can be affordable.
After checking in, a light lunch and explored the town, market, and made a dinner reservation at Ernie Els' restaurant, The Big Easy. (That's a "booking" here. You must always have a booking. "Do you like the menu? Shall we book?". "Yes. Let's book") Dinner there was OK. Wine from one of his vineyards, very good.
Walked home after dark feeling perfectly safe.
Went to the excellent village museum in the heart of old town. It encompasses 4 different houses, the oldest having been built in 1710. Each home is furnished according to the time frame in which it was built. The back gardens also reflect what might have been grown as food staples at the time, though I suspect the latest may have taken some liberties. Still, it is the equivalent of our mid-July here, and they already have tomatoes ripe on the vine! From the museum to the equally impressive botanical garden, and then for a drive down to False Bay for lunch and a walk along the beach.
Pretty much breakfast and off for the airport the following day.
Just a couple of linguistic notes on our departure: One thing I love here is that the answer to "thank you" is always "pleasure". This is pronounced "pleh-zhah" (plih-jahh?) Gus thinks the formal "madams", "sirs" and "pleh-zhahs" ring as colonial obsequiousness, but I like it. Beats the southern US response of "un-huh".
Another peculiarity of speech that Afrikaans speakers have is the word "yah". It ends many sentences (in both Afrikaans and English) and is also an answer in it's own right. It is pronounced "yaaw" and has several inflections and often 2 syllables.
Lastly, like the Germans, the Afrikaaners like an awful lot of letters in their words. Case in point, the nearby town of Baardskeerdersbos. These words do not fall easily from my tongue!
I am sorry to leave Africa. It is absolutely a world apart, and I have enjoyed it all immensely. The food, the wine, the sky, animals, people and the ever changing landscape. Next time Rwanda and the gorillas!
Sorry, no pictures this time. I think you can expect fewer now that we are out of Africa.
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