My classiest cup of tea

Afternoon High Tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel is officially the classiest activity I have done while in South Africa. I, along with seven other girls, enjoyed an afternoon of tea, coffee and delicious finger foods at the beautiful hotel one Sunday.  I finally had the opportunity to enjoy a cucumber sandwich and other little treats like salmon and cream cheese wraps, egg salad sandwiches, small fudge squares, little pieces of cheesecake, hazelnut chocolate cake and much more. The tea menu was more extensive than anything I had seen before. They had so many types of herbal, black, green, and rooibos tea, plus coffee upon request. 

The environment was full of people who appeared as if high tea was a weekly activity for them. We saw several parties of daughters, mothers and grandmothers and then other parties of women catching up on a casual Sunday afternoon. Men were there as well with their wives or mothers it seemed, but the majority of tea-goers were female. Overall, the demographic was white. Since I haven't done any other "high class" activities like this since I've been here, I don't know if the white majority is to be expected at places like this in Cape Town.

One thing I never quite figured out while I was at the hotel was the reasoning behind the pink color of the building. The whole hotel was gorgeous, inside and out, but the faded bubblegum pink color never quite made sense to me.

After tea, we explored outside and walked around the grounds. Behind the hotel is a beautiful courtyard and outdoor area with bright green grass, where we stopped to take a few pictures before leaving.