Avenida 9 de Julio

After our Tango night, the next day it was time to explore again. Once more, we were on our own and after a slight diversion to a lovely scrap-booking shop in Esmeralda, our first stop proper was a guided tour of the Teatro Colon. This is the fantastic opera house which was completed in 1908 and it was an atmospheric visit where we could imagine that we were part of the very grand audience taking tea or champagne in the Golden Salon! The acoustics in this place are said to be near perfect and the likes of Maria Callas and Pavarotti have all performed here. In fact, the acoustics are so perfect that performers are in fear of getting something wrong , as they won’t get away with it here. I was especially impressed with the place as my friend Sue, had actually performed here which must have been amazing.

After this we continued along Avenida 9 de Julio. This is the big 12 lane Avenue that kind of divides the city. It’s wide and noisy and a little bit seedy and unlike elsewhere, the architecture is big and brash and really rather ugly. Still , we walked down here until we got to the big city landmark of the Obelisk. This monument commemorates the 400th anniversary of the founding of the capital and is visible from all around the city.

We made our way onto Avenida Mayo, which crosses A. 9 de J , and was much more pleasant and definitely has a Parisian feel to it. Here we were heading to another of the cities famous coffee house , Cafe Tortoni, which is the oldest in the city. We had to queue to get in here but inside it was v nice with Tiffany lamps and pictures all over the walls. We ordered a coffee and some churros but were a bit disappointed when no chocolate was served with them.

Next we started walking up the long pedestrian street called ‘Florida’. It’s full of uninteresting shops and unsavoury characters. The whole street seemed to be lined with unsavouries shouting ‘Cambio, Cambio’. These are the unofficial currency dealers who seem to want to swap your dollars for pesos. They didn’t seem to be particularly targeting us as tourists and we just couldn’t work out why there were so many of them. Anyway, we didn’t engage.

We did a short diversion to find the Guimes Gallerias shopping mall. I’d read that there was a terrific view of the city from the 14th floor here but we struggled to find a lift that went further than the 6th floor. Eventually, a nice janitor complete with bucket and mop helped us find the correct lift and up we went. Sure enough on the 14th floor there was a chap selling tickets and then we climbed a spiral staircase 2 floors until we reached the viewing platform. Here the views were indeed splendid …not as pretty as some cities but good to see it all from a different perspective. we could see as far as the River Plate Delta and Uruguay.

By now we were well on our way to 10,000 steps and were pretty exhausted. We made it back to the hotel and after a quick cup of tea , headed out for an early dinner. We’d chosen a place recommended by Laura our guide. Recova de Posadas, which was only a 9 minute walk away. However, as it appeared that we needed to go under an underpass to get there we decided to get an Uber. It took literally 3 minutes and it turned out that the restaurants here were all under the underpass! The recommendation was actually for one called El Mirasol, one of the famous steak houses of Buenos Aires. It was completely empty at 6pm which was lucky as communication was somewhat difficult. Jane chose a sirloin and I chose a breaded chicken breast just to be controversial! But before it arrived we had another controversy with the wine. We tried to order a £30 bottle of Malbec but when it arrived it was cold, fridge cold. Via Google translate we discussed this with the waiter who said ALL of the red wine was cold and no they couldn’t warm it up for us! He pointed us at the only bottle that was at room temperature and that cost only £7. Reluctantly Jane agreed…but the funny thing was it actually tasted ok. What a result!

Jane’s steak was very good but I have to say my squashed whole chicken was a bit dry and definitely a bit much. The French fries were fab and the ice cream pudding with Dulce de Leche and nuts was delicious. It wasn’t quite the culinary experience we’d expected although after all the waiters had finished eating their tea with us, the place did start to get busy as all the local olds came in for their supper!

To round off the evening we ended up needing to get a taxi back to the hotel as Uber suddenly didn’t want to accept our credit card. The restaurant weren’t interested in helping these two old birds and so we were out on the street corner trying to hail a cab. I waved at everything as there seemed to be no logic to which cabs were free. I turned out to be quite skilled at this and we were soon whizzing along dodging through the traffic on the way back to our hotel.

So….that left one more day …and a few different options for how to spend it.