Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 MONTEVIDEO
Thursday, 10 December. During the night
we lost the hour (clocks forward) we'd gained between Rio and Buenos Aires.
Montevideo is just 150 miles across the Rio del Plata from Buenos Aires, and
we arrived there at 9:30. We were glad for the chance for a leisurely
breakfast. It was a warm, mostly sunny day.
Our bus tour of the city left the pier at 10:20. We drove a few blocks to Independence Square, featuring a large equestrian statue of Jose Artigas, Uruguay's national hero. The Salva Palace, the Solis Theater, and the Estevez Palace (former presidential residence) are also there, as is a gate from the old city walls.
Our next stop was the Congress building that houses the legislature. It was
an unusual structure in that it was a basically classical structure, but had
a massive square tower incongruously protruding from its roof.
Next we drove to El Prado, an upscale residential district where the President of Uruguay lives. There we visited Belloni's La Diligencia (1952), a large bronze sculpture commemorating Uruguay's early pioneers. We passed the official Presidential residence, used only for official functions. We stopped briefly at Centenario Stadium (1930), not much to look at from the outside. Much like the stadium in Rio, its capacity has been reduced from 100,000 to 65,000 with the imposition of safety measures (e.g., no standing room). We stopped at another bronze monument, this one in honor of the indigenous peoples of the area.
We got back to the ship at 2:00 and had a quick lunch, Then we went ashore on our own to visit the Mercado del Puerto a short distance from the ship. On the way we passed the anchor of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. In December 1939 the ship was heavily damaged in an engagement with British ships (the Battle of the River Plate). Upon entering the neutral port of Montevideo, the captain of the Graf Spee, was told that the limit of his stay could not be extended beyond the 72 hours provided by international law. At the end of that time, he put to sea and, faced with what he believed to be overwhelming odds, scuttled his damaged ship rather than risk the lives of his crew.
The Mercado was filled mostly with eating places, but there were some interesting shops in it and nearby. We looked at a large selection of the cups (with metal straws) used to drink mate, a tea-like drink ubiquitous in Argentina, Uruguay, and nearby areas, but we didn't know what we'd do with one if we bought it. (The cups are also called mate.) We were back on the Veendam by 4:00, had dinner at 6:30, and went to the 8:00 show. The show featured the Street Singers, a male quartet of ship personnel. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
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