We
had meant to go to Franschhoek Uncorked on Sunday and the Tourist board
organised accommodation for us, so that we could stay for an extra day on
Monday and visit more farms, while not burdened with the festival. Something
important came up and we switched to Saturday but, on Sunday afternoon, after a
family lunch in Tokai, we headed back to Franschhoek
The hotel has been built over a pre-existing car
park, which is just off the main road
It has 8 rooms on the top floor and
building continues on the first floor, where the reception and breakfast room
are open
It is right next to the starting point of the
Franschhoek Tram tours
We checked in at reception
where they have a lounge and where breakfast is
served. Franschhoek has famously huge selection of restaurants, so they do not serve other meals
We checked into our room, which is large and
nicely appointed. It is called the Palm room and is appropriately decorated
The bathroom is separated from the bedroom by a
frosted glass sliding door which stops half way. It is an interesting decor
device, but we are not sure if it works for us. You can't see the view from the
bath. There is also a main bathroom door
There is also a large shower in one corner of the
bathroom
High quality percale linen and good thick white
towels are appreciated. There is also air conditioning
A small tea and coffee station has a six bottle
fridge below and a mini bar. They supplied bottled water
Lynne liked the Indian bone inlaid bedside cupboards
We had met Johann van Zyl, the owner of Allora restaurant,
at GlenWood on Saturday and he had invited us to join him for a drink on Sunday
evening. The entrance to the restaurant complex is on the deck of the hotel. It
was warm enough to sit outside. This is just off Main Road
They were nicely busy for Sunday evening. The menu
is good. You can see it on line here http://allora.co.za/menu/franschhoek
We each had a carafes of the house white wine
which, of course, made us hungry even though we had a large lunch. We decided
to stick to starters. Lynne went for the smoked salmon and avocado stack, which
came with a spicy but not hot Peppadew puree, olives, caper berries and some peppadews.
It may look small; it was very filling
John chose the beef Carpaccio which came on sliced
green apple. He also had a side of pickled artichoke hearts. Thank you so much
Allora, we were not expecting to have a meal
The interior houses the huge pizza oven and the menu
does have an Italian theme with good steaks added
The restaurant from our room's corridor, showing
its summer terrace
The next morning broke damp and misty. This was
the view from our room
Down to a sunny themed breakfast. Yoghurts, fruit,
cereals, juices and pastries on the buffet table
The inclusive breakfast menu
Lynne chose the Eggs Onassis, ordered without the
spring onion, but the citrus tapioca seemed to be missing. The eggs were not
runny, sadly, and the hollandaise was rather tart
John had the weekend Breakfast with a rather
scrambled omelette. He said the rosti was very good, as was the pork banger
© John & Lynne
Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016
