Christmas in Cape Town

Not celebrating Christmas left Alan and I a little lost as far as what we should do in Cape Town last weekend. We weren't sure what would be open or closed or empty or crowded and were totally thrown off to be in summer weather during the holidays (especially given all CNN news was covering was the winter wonderland back in the States and in Europe). In many ways though, it was a relief to be in a place where there was less hype and craziness over Christmas than the US. We barely spotted any holiday decor in the malls or on the streets and only came across a Christmas song on the radio once and a while.

We made grand plans for the Christmas weekend including lots of outside activities since the weather would be spectacular and we figured everyone else would be inside celebrating the holiday with their families. Saturday we drove to the wine country which is about 45 minutes from Cape Town. We went to a town called Paarl which we were told has a great farm/restaurant with fresh cheeses and their own winery. We figured it would be open although looking back, it now seems obvious that they wouldn't be. So we arrived to their huge parking lot and were the only car which gave it away pretty quickly. We decided to head into town as there had to be some restaurants open for lunch. The town was as sleepy as towns can get and we were about to head for the McDonalds which apppeared to be the only thing open when we found a small Mediterranean restaurant open just banking on the hope that all the other restaurants would be closed. Of course they had an expensive prix fixe menu only but we were so hungry, we had to do it. After a unimpressive meal, we decided today was just not meant to be a spectacular day and spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.

But Sunday, we thought, would be our day. And it started off great. We ventured into the amazing Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for a walk and were amazed at the the beautiful array of flowers on display there. Alan was so amazed he took a coffee table book's amount of photos of the flowers. Here is a sampling.






Then we decided to head to the beach. Cape Town is surrounded by beaches although we were told the water is too cold to swim in. But it was a beautiful sunny day so we though we could at least dip our feet and take a walk on the beach. We first drove to one of the more popular beaches where people are there to be seen. Our assumption that people would be at home with their families was way off! It was packed with people...we could barely move in the traffic surrounding the beach and parking was sure to be a nightmare. So we drove to another beach, and another beach, and yes...another beach before it became crystal clear that the beach is the number one activity that Cape Town residents do over the Christmas weekend. After 2 hours of driving to find a less crowded beach, we got out of our car and were quickly frozen by chilly wind gusts and sand being blown in our faces. We walked for 5 minutes before heading back to the car and deciding today was also not meant to be our day.

We ended the weekend hoping our tour of the wine country early in the coming week would bring more success.