Oom Samie se Winkel

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

What does that mean? I couldn’t tell you either. I had to look it up. It means “Uncle Sam’s Shop” in Afrikaans. Oom Samie Se Winkel is located in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa; Wine Country. On a wine tour Brian and I took a few years back we stopped at this old timey country store for lunch and browsing.

The shop is nestled in the rolling hills and countryside of days gone by. Oom Samie se Winkel is not the kind of place that my mom would enjoy. Mom isn’t a fan of clutter. The first word she taught me was “purge” (well not quite the first word, but close). Mom doesn’t like a mess and this store is nothing but a mess. You’ll see from the photos just how cluttered the store is. I was wearing a small backpack and had to be careful not to knock anything over when I went around corners. This is one of those, “you break it, you buy it” kind of stores.

The store has goods for sale that I could not fathom people would actually buy. I think it exists solely for the tourists like me. Just look at the number of pantyhose they have on display: Pantyhose on mannequins, pantyhose on a spinning wheel, and pantyhose on hangars. I’ve posted more photos on my flickr site for you to enjoy to get the full experience. I could have sworn I was in Victoria’s Secret circa. 1900. For the gents, there were hats and neckties (though I presume some of the gents may have enjoyed buying some of the pantyhose for the Mrs. as a gift – and for a smaller few, some for them).

If I had to summarize this store, it is a collection of crap. Kitchy crap, but crap nonetheless.

Visit the adventures with ben online store for travel ebooks