Tag: travel

Merry Christmas from Argentina!

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December 25, 2024 (and 26-27)

We woke up the next morning still tired from the long travel day the day before, but filled with excitement! We were going to make a quick day trip to Uruguay – a new country for us – by high-speed ferry.

I had assumed it would be pretty similar to trains in Europe, where you can show up 20-30 minutes before the train departs and be fine. But before I fell asleep, I had translated our e-tickets and saw a note that we needed to be there two hours before our departure time. Our departure time was at 12:15 – so we needed to get there around 10AM. We realized that it was Christmas in Argentina, and that most businesses were completely shut down.

So we had a beautiful walk in Buenos Aires over to the port to catch our ferry. We quickly realized that the ferry there was more similar to an airport experience. You had to check in – go through security – go through both Argentina’s customs AND Uruguay’s in the same area. Because I’m paranoid, we had plenty of time to get through all of these hoops and hurdles.

Not to mention, I had booked “business” class because it wasn’t that much more than the normal seats. We had no idea what it all included, but we stumbled into the VIP lounge and finally found food and much needed coffee.

Unfortunately for us, our Spanish has become rusty over the years. All of the announcements were in Spanish, so we were relying on the other passengers to understand what was going on. It turns out, our ferry was running over an hour late… and this ferry also could bring cars over. We heard (but can’t confirm this) that there were over 200 hundred cars loaded onto our ferry as well!

What was supposed to be a 2.5-3 hour event in Uruguay – ended up getting more and more delayed. By the time we got to Colonia del Sacramento, we had 20 minutes before we had to check back in with security again. We had planned on having lunch and strolling through the historic district (which is a UNESCO world heritage site), but ended up power walking through the district instead.

The ferry terminal in Colonia del Sacramento was much smaller, and less organized than the one in Buenos Aires. But we made it through the same security/customs we had cleared in BA – and then sat down in a cafeteria area. We had met our first fellow Americans while in line, they were at the end of their trip – we enjoyed sharing different travel stories with one another.

We quickly realized that we were on the same ferry as we traveled over on – and had a good laugh that the crew would see us and wonder what we were doing back so soon. (Only one woman noticed us – and we had shared a knowing smile).

This time the ferry was on time – there were far fewer cars that needed to be loaded on this leg of the trip. If you’re in the area, I’d highly recommend traveling with BuqueBus – it’s allegedly the fastest ferry in the area, but I’m sure other providers are good too.

Once we made it back to BA – we started our search for restaurants that were starting to open up. I had read that most things were closed on Christmas, but if they were going to open it would be around 6 or 7 and only for the dinner service. We found a burger joint – we resisted the temptation of the Hard Rock Cafe and found a local spot instead.

After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel to relax. The next two days would be pretty low-key as Andy was working remotely. I’m going to provide a quick highlight of our time in BA below!

Buenos Aires highlights:
– Puerto Madero: a vibrant and upscale neighborhood, known for its stunning waterfront views and fun dining and entertainment options. It was originally an old port district, it has undergone a dramatic transformation into a trendy hub, featuring luxurious hotels, stylish restaurants, and high-end office buildings.
– Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman) is another famous landmark, a pedestrian bridge that is shaped like a sailboat.
-Lots of shopping and restaurants near the hotel. We ate dinner at a few – interestingly enough there were a ton of Italian restaurants (of course in addition to all of the Argentinean steakhouses).
– Tango shows: we didn’t have enough time to do one of these, but I did a lot of research and wish we could have made it work!

Hotel:
-Hotel Emperador Buenos Aires

Up Next:
– Flight to Ushuaia
– Board cruise ship

Expedition Antarctica

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December 24, 2024

Antarctica. Our FINAL continent to visit! Did you know that on average only around 75,000 people visit Antarctica each year? This number has been increasing each year – last year even saw 100,000 people! The interesting point to mention is that it’s not a country – it’s only a continent.

There has been a treaty in place since 1959 that means there can be no military activity, each country has to publish their scientific findings publicly, strict rules in place to protect the environment, and no country can claim it as their territory. Pretty cool, right? It’s like the only thing they could agree on!

We had long dreamed about when we would get to Antarctica – and as most of you know already, I always have a running bucket list for our travels. We booked this trip SO many months ago, which made it feel pretty unreal. It was something that we were going to do at some point, but December 2024 seemed so far away!

We had selected Hurtigruten (now known as HX Expeditions) as the company we would travel with to Antarctica. Taking a cruise ship is the most common way individuals get to Antarctica – I think technically you can fly there on your own, but I think it would involve a lot more research and likely wouldn’t be as comfortable or affordable!

All of this to say, HX was taking us to Antarctica from December 28, 2024 -January 7, 2025. We could have booked flights through HX to Buenos Aires, but opted to book them on our own. We hadn’t yet visited Buenos Aires, so we decided to fly in a few days early and take advantage of Andy’s time off from work over Christmas Eve/Christmas.

Our flight left at 1:00 AM on Christmas Eve morning – and had a connection in Mexico City. Everything went by rather smoothly – and we found out that we had gotten an upgrade with AeroMexico. (Really – we had just bid to have a row to ourselves to allow for extra space). Since we had a red eye flight – we slept for part of the flight down to Buenos Aires.

Once we landed, we made our way to our hotel. Our flight arrived a little ahead of schedule, so we were able to check in and get settled into our room by 11:00 PM. This was the same hotel HX would put us up in a few days later, but we decided for convenience we would just stay there ahead of when the rest of the group got into town.

It was around midnight that we started to hear fireworks! We realized quickly that in Buenos Aires – both the city and residents do fireworks at midnight to celebrate Christmas. It was really fun to watch the show from our room, not quite Disneyland, but still fun! It was a fun way to end our long travel day.

Hotel:
Emperador Hotel Buenos Aires

Up Next:
– Ferry to Uruguay

Montserrat & you guessed it – more wine tasting!

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September 7, 2024

Our final full day in Spain began in Montserrat, which was only about an hour drive from our hotel. We had another beautiful sunrise from Sitges, as we started to climb the mountain – we realized rather quickly we were really socked in with the cloud cover.

Montserrat Monastery is located in the Montserrat mountain range near Barcelona, Spain. It is a significant pilgrimage site with a rich history dating back to the 10th century. Originally established as a small chapel, it evolved into a Benedictine monastery and became renowned for housing the Black Madonna, or La Moreneta, a statue believed to date from the 12th century.

The monastery’s construction features Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. They used local limestone that blends beautifully with the dramatic mountain landscape. Over the centuries, it has undergone several renovations and expansions, which has only made it that much more impressive.

I had received an email a day or two before from Montserrat explaining that there was a special church service that day. Candidly, it wasn’t really clear (likely lost in translation!) what we were supposed to do instead. Andy and Yvonne dropped myself and Jon off while they went to find parking – and I went to ask what the email meant.

Unfortunately, we either had to get in and view the basilica before 9:30 AM or wait until after 12 PM when it reopened. We decided it would be better to try to see as much as possible inside so we didn’t delay our other plans that day.

Once inside the basilica, it was incredible to see how ornate everything was. When I had booked the tickets, we weren’t able to secure a time for the Black Madonna, which is why a lot of people make their way to Montserrat. It was fun to pop around into the different chapels and other areas outside of the basilica.

The cloud cover really made the whole place feel really moody – and I wish we could have seen it with clear skies. However, it was a really cool view with the clouds. Sort of spooky!

We were deciding if we wanted to go into the museum that opened at 10, or if we wanted to do the aerial tram or funicular to explore further. We ran into some accessibility issues, and I was also concerned how much more we could see because of the cloud cover. We ended up making our way down the mountain to begin our wine tasting.

One of the other wineries had recommended a winery to Jon, but unfortunately, Google maps took us to a more residential looking place. A bit disappointed, we made our way over to a winery that Jon and Yvonne had visited on their last trip to Spain, Frexienet.

The visit started with a short video on the history, and then we were able to dive into the tasting. The tasting came with four different cavas, and they were each paired with a different food. Our server was pretty young, and he was going to be heading to Washington soon for school. He was super knowledgable and really gave us a great experience.

The bottle shaped car!

From there, we made our way to Codorníu, another cava house. We had a tour booked at this one – which we were pretty excited about.

Codorníu is one of Spain’s oldest and most prestigious wineries, it was founded in 1551 by the Codorníu family. In the late 19th century, Joseph Codorníu recognized the potential for sparkling wine and adopted the traditional méthode champenoise, establishing Codorníu as a leader in this genre.

The winery is renowned for its stunning modernist building, designed by architect Puig i Cadafalch in 1895, which showcases Catalan modernist architecture. This historical site features beautiful arches and an impressive setting, reflecting the winery’s rich heritage. Over the centuries, Codorníu has continued to stay relevant, which means it is still competitive in the market today!

Codorníu primarily utilizes indigenous grape varieties like Macabeo, Xarel·lo, and Parellada, alongside varieties you might recognize, such as Chardonnay.

No surprises here, we ended up shipping a case home from our Cava tours to enjoy in the future!

After our last tasting, we ended up eating something light at the hotel since we had an early morning flight back home!

Up Next:
– Highlights of Spain/Portugal
– Closing thoughts and next adventures