My Weekend: Hermanus Hotel

On Friday afternoon, Nash picked me up from work and we set off to a "secret location". He wouldn't tell me any details or where we were going and it was all very exciting. The past couple of weeks have been completely crazy and we haven't been able to see each other for the past two weekends, so a weekend away was the perfect treat for both of us. Nash organised everything and I felt so excited and spoilt.

We arrived in Hermanus at around 7pm on Friday and were shown to our amazing room at the Harbour House Hotel (Village & Life) by the friendly Jamie. We were greeted by a chilled bottle of bubbles by latern light with the smell of the sea in the air. Our spacious suite was absolutely lovely. We stayed in one of the Romantic Rooms, which has a king size bed and a beautiful bath the size of a small swimming pool in the room

We took a brisk walk just around the corner to Fabio's Italian Restaurant and had a catch up of recent events over a bottle of Spookfontein Merlot and big bowls of pasta. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for more bubbles and I  had an hour long soak in the bath with my book while we both just enjoyed having time to relax.

On Saturday morning we ordered cuppucinos up to the room and lazed around in our bathrobes before walking across the road to the Burgundy where we had an amazing eggs benedict. I am constantly in search of the perfect eggs benedict and was a bit sceptical when it first arrived (it's served in a bun, which I don't normally like) but the flavour was amazing and the eggs were perfectly runny-just how I like them.

We've been told a lot about Birkenhead Breweries so we decided to head out there for Saturday afternoon. I was so dissappointed by the whole experience. I found the venue to be garish and tacky. The "tasting" is 6 little beers served along with a laminated tasting sheet and the staff are unfriendly. I didn't bother to ask them about any of the beers, but I can't imagine they would have been very helpful if I had. The beers were horrible, the lot of them. The blonde was the best of a bad bunch, but I wouldn't suggest any of them. This was the low point of my entire weekend.

We decided to pop in a Klein River Cheese Farm on the way home for supplies for dinner. It's a quiant little farm with a great variety of cheeses and preserves - one of my many food weaknesses. We stocked up and headed back to Hermanus in search of another of my favourites - oysters.

The spot we normally go to was closed, so we decided to brave a place called Lemon-Butta. The name is a bit of a discredit to the place and I found their wine list was quite nice and their oysters were some of the best I've had. Fresh and perfectly shucked (I despise when there are little bits of shell in the meat or you have to fight to get the meat off the foot) and the Japanese option of terriyaki sauce and caviar was phenomal - you have to try it. We paired the oysters with a bottle of Moreson's Miss Molly (one of my favourites) and a view of two whales and a small pod of dolphins in the bay made the whole experience just incredible.

Our weekend of hedonistic pleasures continued as we arrived for our 60 minutes of full body massage bliss at the Marine Hotel's day spa. I opted for the Aromatherapy and Nash went for the Swedish massage. Back at the hotel we had a delicious spread of cheeses and preserves from Klein River, including Nash's new favourite: Pronto Mama slow roasted cherry tomatoes. I couldn't stay out of the bath for long and after the rugby I spent another two hours and a whole bottle of bubble bath luxuriating in its comfort.

Sunday morning was for sleeping in, eggs benedict round two and a slow drive through to Nitida for the Durbanville Soup, Sip & Bread festival, which I will tell you all about in another post. Hermanus is the perfect place for a relaxed weekend away...especially in winter when everyone is running amazing specials!