Bit of a change of tact from renovations. Still not totally finished on the renovations, maybe because I am a little too much attention to detail - it is driving the contractors mad as well as Jon as he can't see any of the blemishes I see…. But anyway those of you following our blog must be bored silly of a year of renovations, so back to the title of the blog, Travels……
After a very long trip, LGA to Miami (delayed of course) then Miami to Montevideo (how long can you sit on a runway in Miami) we (my colleague and I) arrive 19 hours after we arrived at LGA….
Trip started off not too badly, as I sat down on the 2nd leg the lady beside me just assumed I was from Uruguay and proceeded to chat away to me in Spanish - my Spanish really is not that good, but I tried to chat back until it got to the hard bits. When she then complimented me and said I looked as though I was from Uruguay - based on my travels today this is compliment indeed as the women are very attractive looking in this part of the world. Problem we now had was is she going to want to talk to me for the whole trip. Those of you who have traveled long distance with me before know that this is not an option, plane, PJs, wine, sleep, crawl off plane and off we go. Luckily she didn't persist - unlike my chatty colleague - will have to apologize in the morning for not being particularly social!!!
So enough of that. Montevideo airport is very modern and efficient. I whizzed through immigration, while my poor colleague (on a visa) was questioned to the nth degree. Still wasn't that long, especially compared with the queues in NY. The Bank had sent a car, always nice, so plain dialing into the hotel. The drive from the airport is lovely, all along the Rio de la Plata, mentally thinking a walk along the boardwalk might be quite nice this afternoon.
Hotel, standard Sheraton. Snooze was called for but then up and at them. When you only have an afternoon of sight seeing in a country planning is required, and planning I did….. Took a cab to Mercado de la Puerto - wow the food I could have eaten here, and boy do I wish my planning had been a bit more careful and then I would have ended here. I then had a mission to tick off most of the to be seen place in Montevideo. For those of you with a map I started back at the port and walked zig zag back to the hotel…… Last part of it along the immense and very chilled boardwalk of Montevideo.
The Ciudad Vieja - wow. The buildings are just amazing, see photos later on. I took some wrong and some right turns. The wrong turns left me feeling a little exposed, not least on a Sunday everyone is down on the boardwalk and no one is in the old town streets. But you have to live a little - right?
There are also a lot of dogs in Montevideo - Hippo would have felt right at home, a lot of scruffy dogs like her…… One problem is that unlike NYC there seems to be no fine for not picking up dog poop….. A few near misses were had.
After covering most of the Ciudad Vieja I decided that I would take a right straight down to the waters edge - I could see the water in the distance. Sounds like a plan right, unless you take a walk straight through the "projects' (need to find the local name for it here) and are just about to lift the camera to take some photos of gorgeous old style buildings when you realize that it is probably not such a great idea…. What do they tell you? Look confident and keep going, which I did past the "crack" addicts - what would I know, but they looked like they were inhaling/smoking/doing no good and headed straight for the water.
This is not an example of the beautiful buildings that were in the projects, but the not so beautiful buildings…….
Anyway this brought me to the boardwalk of Montevideo and what better day to see it than on a Sunday when the world and his friend are enjoying a stroll along the waters edge - it was so peaceful and relaxing - helped by the 30 degrees…..
One thing that struck me as fabulous, the playgrounds, initial look seems like a playground, then you take a closer look at the "swings", no these are essentially gym machines!!! Take a look at the photos of young and old using the machines differently, but what a fabulous idea.
The Mercado del Puerto was an amazing place to start and as I was finishing my walk I wished I had ended there as a great place to eat by all accounts. Although the head of the RO has just suggested we go there for lunch on Wednesday. Maybe he hopes this will help with the audit rating :)
The other thing of note and I lost count of how many I saw and didn't photograph them all was the old fashioned cars… I had read in one of the trip advisor type blogs that some of the cars reminded people of being in Cuba - I cannot confirm that as I have not been there, but perhaps if you are reading this and you have then let me know. I have tried to take some pictures, but I am not sure they do the cars justice. At the end of my walk as well there was an area where obviously you could only hang out if you had an old beaten up car. They were all parked facing the water, and ultimately the sunset. I have to say what a perfect way to spend a Sunday.
After a very long trip, LGA to Miami (delayed of course) then Miami to Montevideo (how long can you sit on a runway in Miami) we (my colleague and I) arrive 19 hours after we arrived at LGA….
Trip started off not too badly, as I sat down on the 2nd leg the lady beside me just assumed I was from Uruguay and proceeded to chat away to me in Spanish - my Spanish really is not that good, but I tried to chat back until it got to the hard bits. When she then complimented me and said I looked as though I was from Uruguay - based on my travels today this is compliment indeed as the women are very attractive looking in this part of the world. Problem we now had was is she going to want to talk to me for the whole trip. Those of you who have traveled long distance with me before know that this is not an option, plane, PJs, wine, sleep, crawl off plane and off we go. Luckily she didn't persist - unlike my chatty colleague - will have to apologize in the morning for not being particularly social!!!
So enough of that. Montevideo airport is very modern and efficient. I whizzed through immigration, while my poor colleague (on a visa) was questioned to the nth degree. Still wasn't that long, especially compared with the queues in NY. The Bank had sent a car, always nice, so plain dialing into the hotel. The drive from the airport is lovely, all along the Rio de la Plata, mentally thinking a walk along the boardwalk might be quite nice this afternoon.
Hotel, standard Sheraton. Snooze was called for but then up and at them. When you only have an afternoon of sight seeing in a country planning is required, and planning I did….. Took a cab to Mercado de la Puerto - wow the food I could have eaten here, and boy do I wish my planning had been a bit more careful and then I would have ended here. I then had a mission to tick off most of the to be seen place in Montevideo. For those of you with a map I started back at the port and walked zig zag back to the hotel…… Last part of it along the immense and very chilled boardwalk of Montevideo.
The Ciudad Vieja - wow. The buildings are just amazing, see photos later on. I took some wrong and some right turns. The wrong turns left me feeling a little exposed, not least on a Sunday everyone is down on the boardwalk and no one is in the old town streets. But you have to live a little - right?
There are also a lot of dogs in Montevideo - Hippo would have felt right at home, a lot of scruffy dogs like her…… One problem is that unlike NYC there seems to be no fine for not picking up dog poop….. A few near misses were had.
After covering most of the Ciudad Vieja I decided that I would take a right straight down to the waters edge - I could see the water in the distance. Sounds like a plan right, unless you take a walk straight through the "projects' (need to find the local name for it here) and are just about to lift the camera to take some photos of gorgeous old style buildings when you realize that it is probably not such a great idea…. What do they tell you? Look confident and keep going, which I did past the "crack" addicts - what would I know, but they looked like they were inhaling/smoking/doing no good and headed straight for the water.
This is not an example of the beautiful buildings that were in the projects, but the not so beautiful buildings…….
Anyway this brought me to the boardwalk of Montevideo and what better day to see it than on a Sunday when the world and his friend are enjoying a stroll along the waters edge - it was so peaceful and relaxing - helped by the 30 degrees…..
One thing that struck me as fabulous, the playgrounds, initial look seems like a playground, then you take a closer look at the "swings", no these are essentially gym machines!!! Take a look at the photos of young and old using the machines differently, but what a fabulous idea.
The Mercado del Puerto was an amazing place to start and as I was finishing my walk I wished I had ended there as a great place to eat by all accounts. Although the head of the RO has just suggested we go there for lunch on Wednesday. Maybe he hopes this will help with the audit rating :)
The other thing of note and I lost count of how many I saw and didn't photograph them all was the old fashioned cars… I had read in one of the trip advisor type blogs that some of the cars reminded people of being in Cuba - I cannot confirm that as I have not been there, but perhaps if you are reading this and you have then let me know. I have tried to take some pictures, but I am not sure they do the cars justice. At the end of my walk as well there was an area where obviously you could only hang out if you had an old beaten up car. They were all parked facing the water, and ultimately the sunset. I have to say what a perfect way to spend a Sunday.
Back to my tour through the old town, I will just load some photos and not tag them at this time, but the architecture was amazing. Solid brickwork with so much detail. Why can't they make buildings like this anymore.
By the time I got back to the hotel my flip flops were killing me - haven't worn them for a while given the NY winter and not sure I chose the right ones (as no idea where everything is in the apartment these days). But I will nurse my wee feet and pray for the best tomorrow.
For just an afternoon's sojourn I got a really good vibe from Montevideo.
