Buenos Aires - These Shoes Were Made for Walking
These Shoes are Made for Walking
After having a light breakfast at The Carles Hotel, we walked to the Opera House or Teatro Colon which is named after Christopher Columbus who discovered Argentina.
Bill feels like this place rivalled our tour of the opera house in Vienna. There is some merit to this since it is ranked 3rd best opera house by National Geographic. Acoustically it is ranked in the top 5.
Teatro Colon has been independent since 1925 when the president hired locals to manage the performances - choir, orchestra and performers. This ensured that they were not reliant on other theatre companies and artists (mostly Italians), prevented delays and ensured performances each year from March - December.
It opened in 1908 after 18 years of construction, delays due to funding. To display the wealth of the city, it was constructed with materials from Italy, France, Belgium, etc. - marble, mosaics, stained glass windows, canvas paintings, and plaster hand painted to look like marble. Recently, it cost $35 million to restore the building.
We toured the lobby, former smoking area and the gold room designed to resemble the Versailles Hall of Mirrors where they now host free concerts before entering the theatre.
The theatre, which can host an 80 piece orchestra,\ is horseshoe shaped to produce the finest acoustics. Also, the materials were carefully selected to perfect this - soft materials on the first three levels to absorb the sound and hard materials in the top few to reflect the sound. There is even an acoustic chamber with ventilation under each seat to make the sound carry like the wind.
Everything is managed within the building - orchestra and theatre practice, custume and set design. Many things happen two or three stories below ground level here.
Nearby we took some photos in the park of other beautiful buildings, the cool trees, statues and not pigeons, but parrots at Plaza Lavalle.
We walked out to the large 9th avenue and took our picture in front of the BA sign and the main obilesque at the Plaza de la Republica.
From there we walked to Cafe Alacena in Palermo for lunch. I had a small bottle of Malbe and Bill had a small bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. We shared fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta to start. Bill had a fantastic pasta stuffed with ricotta and garnished with peas and mint. I had chicken with a side of rice, green beans, black beans and barley. My meal was also excellent. Bill capped off lunch with a refreshing Aperol Spritzer.
We then walked to MALBA, the Latin American art museum that Eileen had recommended. The exhibit featured Mexican art. It was very busy today and we had to wait in line outside for a while.
The exhibition was well done, but modern art is certainly not my thing. The most interesting pieces where the ones featuring Frieda. They were definitely the most popular works on display.
We walked through several parks, and checked out several art and craft stalls in one of the larger parks.
We wanted to check out the cocktail bar at The Four Seasons, but it was closed for the Argentinian Tennis Pro Tour private event.
So, we retraced our steps and had a drink at Pradoy & Neptuno. It was a Cuban bar and was very smoky despite no one in there was smoking at the time. We headed upstairs and had the small, cozy room to ourselves.
It was getting late and we wanted to walk back to the room before dark, so we hit the pavement.
I showered and Bill relaxed and flipped between channels. There are several movie channels and some were actually in English with Spanish subtitles (all other stations we have seen so far have all been voiced over in Spanish, they must have a huge industry for voice actors).
At 8:45 we hailed a taxi and drove to Don Julio’s in Palermo, which is a highly rated steak restaurant on Eater.com. Earlier the front desk called to try to make a reservation and were not able to. We were advised to go and wait to see if there was availability.
They were not kidding about being busy. They were set up curb side with bottles of presecco and wine to service the 20 people waiting at any given time from the time we arrived until around 10:30.
We did not wait more than one glass of bubbly and were seated outside. We had some interesting people watching, the one man who read each line of the menu and wine list with his flashlight on his phone, the loud tipsy English speaking woman that was constantly talking with her mouth full of food, the foreign students beside us, the guy collecting wine bottles because it was garbage collection day, the waiter sharing a leftover bone with a man and his dog on their evening walk....
We must both have appetites because we ordered two starters this evening! We had a thick slice of grilled provolone that looked like a waffle, pork sausage (not nearly as good as the one at La Brigada) and the T-Bone steak with a quinoa, cucumber, tomato and mint salad. The steak was outstanding. On the menu they explain that they select only grass-fed Aberdeen Angus or Herefords that are 3 years old and weigh between 450 and 480 kg from a the Argentine Humid Pampa region that boast high quality, flavour and tenderness. I can tell you from personal experience, that they are not exaggerating! Our waiter selected a great Malbec for us, Le Angeles (it had a small angel on the cork too).
We enjoyed exploring Buenos Aires today and did a ton of walking. My phone said we did 17km and Bill’s phone said we did 19km. Either way, it was a lot!
Buenos Aires is a great city and has a lot to offer - beautiful architecture, lots of parks and trees, great cultural experiences, wide sidewalks for getting around easily, great bars, cafes and restaurants, and it is easy to get by with the few words of Spanish that we know.