Jaded Hotel Report Vineyard Hotel, Capetown, South Africa

May 6, 2010

At the  Vineyard Hotel in Capetown.  I have not made up my mind about this place yet.  Dee Dee recommended it, so I trust her judgement.  They put me (very late last night, and I sense that the hotel is quite full) in a room all the way at the end of the hall on the ground floor.  I am not usually enthusiastic about ground floor and in this case I am right – it’s very moldy/mildew smelling.  It is right on a garden courtyard and I could not figure out what the noise was this morning until I peeked out of my curtains and saw a bunch of guys in rain gear right in front of my window doing some kind of repair on balcony out there.  So, curtains closed for this stay!!  It is pouring rain today – pouring.  I am sitting at late breakfast ( took me a while to get out of bed) and they put me at a table right under some gutters, so the sound of pouring water is very loud.  I suppose in a way it’s kind of nice, but given that there is a huge room full of tables here, it seems they could have given me a better one.  Sneezing a lot – very moldy here. 

Also cold!! 

So the room is old, kind of beat up in the infrastructure, but the amenities are pretty nice.  The bedding is soft and quite comfortable – the pillows are perfect softness.  Nice fat comforter, and lots of extra blankets, I get the feeling that things tend to be chilly this time of year. 

The omelet has arrived and it’s quite good.  Nice and hot.  The coffee is also good – but the breakfast bar does not have any fruit or anything – menu says it does, but I don’t see it anywhere.  Also no jam offered with toast, but I did not ask for it since I don’t really need the calories….

So – the bathroom looks nice, and tub seems pretty new, the shower was good, not too hot though so I could not steam my clothes.  No water provided so I assume it’s drinkable, but I won’t.  The minibar seems to be well stocked, and the coffee kettle has good selection of coffee tea and proper supply of cream and sugar.  Even a little pot to make tea in!  Bathrobes provided but no iron.  I will just have to be rumpled this trip since I did not bring my iron. 

TV is small, and I have not been able to check out channel selection.  At least I know the English selection will be good…..

There is wi fi free, and I have had no trouble connecting this morning even though the signal is a bit weak.  The main restaurant sounds kind of good, I might try that tonight if there is no dinner with the clients. 

I asked for a taxi to go to my meeting this afternoon and they provided complimentary car service, which was really nice. Nice guy = Stan.  Nice car too.  So – I told them at the desk about the workers, which was very loud and they were right out there so I was sneaking around covering myself, and very self conscious the whole time.  Otherwise I had to keep my shades totally drawn.  So if I were staying longer I would have changed, but frankly they should never have put me in that room.  Never.  I will let Dee Dee know about it.

I went into the little shop in the lobby, and they have a few cute things – a couple of goofy rock things that would be fun for Owen, but I am thinking these days that I don’t like stuff that just goes on a shelf.  Until you get older and you need knick knacks to a certain extent.  Then I looked in the clothing shop over by the gym, after I made my way with umbrella through the puddles and pouring rain.  So what else about the hotel…safe seems to be fine – not huge, I don’t think my laptop will fit in there.  The front desk staff was really nice when I complained about the room.  Nothing they can do about it now, no sense for me to move since I am only staying for two nights.

Friday – the breakfast was included and the poached eggs were perfectly done.  I will say that the food here is fantastic.  Last night I went for dinner in the Garden restaurant because the Myoka was booked.  I really enjoyed myself.  Had a great chardonnay – Durbanville something – and then some pinotage that went perfectly with the duck.  The baby squid salad was soooo tender and tasty little bit of spicy sauce along with greens and herbs like cilantro and mint.  Yummy!  The duck was tender with a nice sweet sauce, and tangy little orange peel with leeks I think.  Also delicious I was having such a good time that I ordered chocolate soufflé with salted caramel ice cream for dessert and almost ate all of it.  Even the bread was delicious.  Thank god they did not keep coming back with more bread, otherwise I would have pigged out on it.

I was thinking that they should include the percentages of the ingredients that they list on fancy menus with like six different things in the dish, because you create this picture in your mind of what the dish looks like and the proportion of each of the things, and usually it is not at all in the proportions that you expect.  And then it’s a let down when it actually arrives. 

This morning I peeked out of my curtains and there were the guys standing right outside of my window.  Damn!!  I walk down the hallway looking into other rooms that are bright and sunny, with porches and patios, looking out onto beautiful garden scenery or the mountain.  I am highly annoyed that my view is of a cruddy messed up courtyard with scaffolding piled up and workmen outside the whole time so I could not open my curtains, without being totally on display.

I am going to put it on trip advisor and the website.  That room was horrible.  I went to the gym this morning, and it was nice but actually kind of small.  There were three people in there with personal trainers and basically taking up a lot of room on the floor.  There was no sit down bike.  But all things considered it was good.  The equipment was very new and nice.  Full supply of balls and weights, etc.  The pool looked nice – the grounds around it for sunning were gorgeous, with lots of view of the mountain.  Then I walked around the “riverwalk” – wow, that was amazing!!  Like walking through a garden, with little nooks and crannies everywhere to sit and read or just watch nature.  A little black cat came up for pets along the way.  Cool weird ducks in the pond/river.  Little bridge and stone crossways across the river too – just a small thing, more like a creek than a river.  But the trees and plants and variety of flowers and things were really wonderful.