Back to Stellenbosch

On Monday morning, we rose early and got on the road for the 5 hour ride back to Stellenbosch.  While there was some awareness of the route because we'd done it before, that didn't take away from the tediousness of it.  It was great weather and we stopped halfway for a great bakery in Riviersonderend, which helped a little bit.

We got back to our home away from home, the Stellenbosch Hotel, by early afternoon.  The hotel and the surrounding neighborhood had become familiar and comfortable.  I don't know if I mentioned how the area really rocks with sidewalk activity all day and into the night.  You really don't need to be anywhere else.

Kelly had schoolwork to do.  We went shopping and wandered around beautiful Stellenbosch.  This is their law school.

This was a big night in town.  The national college rugby championship (a very big sport here) was being held in the University's stadium because the Stellenbosch Matties were playing the University of Pretoria Tuks for the title. Tickets had sold out right away, so we had no chance of attending in person.  When we picked up Kelly for dinner we saw mobs of students proceeding en masse for the field, much like an American football tailgate, with lots of beer, posters and outfits.

We settled for having dinner at our favorite sidewalk restaurant, Java, which is adjacent to our hotel.

There were no seats available to watch the game on TV inside so we sat outside and watched through the window while we ate our dinner.  It was an exciting game, and Stellenbosch lead for 78 of the 80 minutes of regulation.  The win looked like it was in the bag when one Stelle player literally booted the ball to a Tuks player, who picked up the ball and took off down the field, lateraling to another just short of the goal, and the other player ran it in.

Devastating.  Not enough time to recover, and the visitors won the national trophy.  A little bit of a damper on our last dinner with Kelly, but we still had one more day together, and we had a big plan--to do the Franschhoek Wine Tram.