Our Day in Steellembosch

Good morning from Stellenbosch South Africa. Above is the view of our mountain from our window this morning at about 7 am. 

After breakfast we visited the university's botanical garden. Sheila enjoyed herself looking at all the plants and trees there. Below are some of the pictures Andy took.

I plan to do pictoral study of  South African tree bark. 

It had rained overnight so I have several pictures of water drops on leaves.

The Protea is South Africa's national flower. This variety is less spectacular than the King Protea which is very large.

There were many bird of paradise flowers.

 They had extensive water lilys, some in bloom. The bees were visiting this one. We will return tomorrow to see a blue water lily that was just about to open.

After the garden we bought a SIM card for the phone Donnie kindly loaned us. The Vodacom agent was complaining about high cellular rates. Sound familiar?

On our way to the mall we passed this sculpture. Can you see the face? I couldn't for a while. It is a a plate of steel over a stone map of South Africa.

We went to book a car for tomorrow to visit some of the gardens in the wineries. We passed this sculpture on our way home from dinner, but the light was better for a photo in the day. Sheila is striking the same pose as the women in the sculpture but of course she has her clothes on :). These two examples are only some of the many pieces of public art on the streets.

After a 'ploughman's lunch' at a local bakery with local meats, cheeses and four kinds of bread, we did some shopping and visited the Village Museum which consists of four original historic houses with interpreters in each house. In the first house there was the town's first fire engine. The town has had many disastrous fires over the years and even this summer they had some severe forest fires.

In one of the houses, a house from the Victorian era, was this delightful wooden Noah's Arc in the room made up as a nursery.

We are putting our feet up now and updating the blog. Tomorrow I try my hand driving on the left hand side.