2009-10-09 - the last full day

(This blog entry is what happens when we don't write the darn thing right away, and instead write it several weeks later, when we've forgotten everything!)

We started our day with a trip to the V&A Waterfront to deal with our VAT return papers. Doing the paperwork there makes things a lot easier and less hectic once you get to the airport; you bring all your receipts and fill out some paperwork, and when you get to CPT you go in an express lane, show off your stash, and get a check or money into your credit card. Very straightforward actually.

Our timing was quite good. There was only one person ahead of us in the line when we got to the office. While we were processing our forms, a huge line suddenly formed. It would have been at least 15 minutes waiting had we arrived 15 minutes after we actually did. *whew*

When we were done, we drove to Signal Hill, mostly to enjoy the view of Cape Town. Among other things, you get a nice view of the football stadium at Green Point; the 2010 World Cup final will be played there. We also saw some rather tame Guinea fowl being hand-fed by stupid picnicking tourists. While doing that is not quite as bad as feeding the baboons, the birds are still wild animals and should be treated as such. The birds end up getting the wrong kind of food when people feed them scraps from their picnic. Also, they seem to expect handouts from people. Ms. Penguin held out her empty hand to some of them to see what would happen, and she was approached by the normally very shy birds, who seemed disappointed that there was no food to be found...

Oh, and while we were up there, we heard the Noon Gun at... *drumroll* noon!

Anyway, there's only so long you can stay up there. We decided to head back to Stellenbosch to do some more wine tasting. Because we hadn't done enough. But first we had to have lunch. And for some odd reason, finding a place proved to be difficult. We wanted to go to Eikendal and one other place (don't remember what), but they were both closed... hmmf. We eventually found a farm called Somerbosch that served Ms. Penguin some tasty duck and Mr. Penguin some tasty kudu pie...

After lunch, we did a wine tasting at Kleine Zalze. We learned that their "basic" stuff is sold as "Foot of Africa" in Scandinavia. But we tasted their high-end range... lovely!

By then it was getting late, and we had to pack... blah! Our vacation was drawing to a close!