Mountains, Whiskey, and Friends

After our township tour yesterday, we decided to head up Table Mountain. It was our last full day in Cape Town and the concierge told us we'd better go that afternoon because it's been really windy in the mornings lately and they often won't open the tram until the winds die down. Considering we were leaving the next morning at 11:00 a.m., we decided to go.

Another nice thing about the Cape Grace Hotel is that they have a complimentary fleet of vehicles their guests can take anywhere if they haven't been booked by another guest. All you need to do is call. So, we called and Ricky sped us up to the tram.

When we got there, the line was really short which we were thankful for. We headed straight up to the top and put the cameras to work. The views from the top are stunning. It was also freezing cold and windy. We read in the newspaper at breakfast about a British couple that got lost and spent the night up there a day or two ago. Can't imagine. We're really glad we had the opportunity to go up with the weather we've experienced since we got here.

One of the gifts we got from the hotel was a complimentary whiskey tasting in their whiskey bar, Bascule. They serve over 400 types of whiskey, including a 50 year old Glenfiddich that they charge R18000 ($2400) per OUNCE. I obviously wasn't doing the conversion correctly when I mentioned it in another post. Anyway, it was delicious! Kidding... as if...

We learned a lot at the tasting. First, we learned that we don't like whiskey. Second, we learned that you don't have to do a complimentary whiskey tasting just because it's complimentary. When you go for wine tasting, you toss around words like cherry, dark chocolate, and cinnamon. Here, we were getting told flavour profiles like peat, burnt tires, and iodine. Umm... no thanks. It was fun, though, and the guy leading the tasting was a trip. Big huge laugh after everything he said. I felt a bit bad for him, to be honest. We, obviously, took it very seriously.

While we were finishing up our tasting, my old (not age, Tanya... length of friendship) friend met us and we went out for dinner. It's been years since we had seen each other (lived in the same Taiwanese city going on 8 years ago) and it was like no time had passed. We went to a restaurant called Fork and had an evening of wine, laughs, wine, food, and wine... which eventually steered the evening somewhere it might normally not have gone. That said, no complaints!

We woke up this morning and packed our things. A driver was sent from Bushman's Kloof, the next place are be staying, and we drove the 3.5 hours to get here. Now, we've been lucky enough to stay in some pretty amazing accommodation over the years but after they took us to this room, we both agreed that it is the BEST hotel room we've ever stayed in. Stay tuned.