Saturday--A City Tour and a few hundred pictures!

We started Saturday with a bang: A three hour tour of Buneos Aires. I wish I could remember all of the names of the buildings that we took pictures of. I will do my best to tell you what everything is.

They picked us up about 9:45 and we headed down toward the pier where all ton of tour buses met and they distributed people based upon what tour they signed up for. First we saw the English Tower. I can't remember the exact story, but apparently there is some irony about the location of this tower because of a battle between the Spanish and English or the English and Argentians or something. Anyway, I liked the tower.

We putted around a few more streets and ended up in a neighborhood of town (Recoleta is the area of town, I believe) and many of the museums as well as the Buneos Aires Law School were located there. The Law school (and I believe the undergraduate programs) were FREE of charge to locals and foreigners. Farley and I think we should learn medical Spanish and move to Argentina. Near the Art Museum and the Law School there is a giant flower. I'm not sure it's exact name, but it costs over three million to build and it open and closes at dawn and dusk as well as when the wind is too bad. I hear it lights up at night too. We went to the Art Museum on Sunday, so I have more pictures of this area to post when discussing that .

After leaving the little neighborhood, we ended up on Avenida 9 De Julio (Avenue of July 9th--their Independence Day). This is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk is located (more pictures to come). On this street, not too far from our hotel, is the Colon Theater which is the third most influential and important theater/operas in the WORLD. Unlucky, it is in the middle of a major remodel and we didn't get to go on a tour of the theater nor did we get to go to an opera, symphony or ballet. Bummer for us! Here is the building:

After leaving this area, we went through the fancy-dancy areas. Many of the mansions that were build initially for the rich European immigrants. Now, they are designer stores. I love Burberry as much as the next purse shopper, but I couldn't get any good pictures from the bus. Sorry!!

Next we ended up at May Square (it had a different name, but it was for a political movement that occurred in May) and it is located right near the Casa Rosa (the Pink House) or the place where the Present does his work. It looked a bit like the White House, and it sounded like the equivalent of the White House, except that the President does not live in Casa Rosa. Rather he lives 10 Km away and FLYS via helicopter to the Casa Rosa every day. Here are some pictures of the square and Casa Rosa. Argentina has LOTS of statues so there are many in the area.

After finishing up at the Capital we moved to the Football stadium and the neighborhood (I don't remember the name of the area).

Above: Football Stadium. The colors of the team are obviously Blue and Yellow. They LOVE soccer!!

After finishing up at the soccer stadium, we headed toward the La Boca neighborhood. It is BRIGHT, COLORFUL and full of life. This is also where the tango dancer attacked Farley. In retrospect, I think it is funny; however, if I was grabbed by a tango dancer, who is older than my grandparents, I'd probably think it wasn't funny either. Every time I look at the picture, I laugh, but Farley hates it. There were beautiful younger tango dancers, but they weren't so aggressive and thus I don't have any pictures of either of us with them. Throughout this beautiful little neighborhood, there were artists, restaurants, sculptures, musicians, dancer and such. Here are some pictures.

After finishing up in La Boca, we headed back toward the pier then we were dropped off by the Galerias Pacifico. We decided to walk past the mall (in the opposite direction of the hotel) and headed toward a park. Buneos Aires was beautiful, in large part, because of so many little parks. Here are some pictures. First where the pedestrian street ends (you cross a street and your in the park)

We wandered around the pedestrians streets for the next few hours. We took a few more pictures on Avenida 9 De Julio---remember, this is the BIG 14 lane wide avenue and it is where the Oblelisk. The Oblelisk looks a lot like the Washington Monument (see it behind Farley's head in the first picture).

Later that night, about 10:30, we headed out for Steak dinner. It was pretty good. In fact, it was Farley's favorite. We had an amazing wine, which we tried to get shipped home for Christmas presents but we couldn't find a way to send any home without having to pay an enormous amount. We went back to the Oblelisk to take a few night shots of the street.

Above: look at all those headlights--that's just half the road!!!