Cruise Queen Victoria - Uruguay

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Thursday 13^thFebruary 2020

Montevideo is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. It is situated on the Rio de la Plata and was founded in 1726 by a Spanish soldier – Bruno Mauricio de Zabala and claimed Independence in 1830. It seems very flat apart from a 450ft knoll with an old fort on top, now a military museum and gained its name Montevideo when a Portuguese sailor called out on first sighting - ‘Monte vejo eu’ (I see a mountain!!’)

Docked in Montevideo, Uruguay at 08.00am and off the ship by 8.30am! Walked up through the town, with its tree lined streets, lots of flowers about and some beautiful squares with flowering trees. Apparently, Uraguayans have a lot of civic pride and the streets are well tended and maintained and the parks are landscaped, making the city seem very tidy! There seemed to be lots of Police about, some with police dogs – don’t know if that is to make you feel safer or whether there is / was a lot of crime, but the place didn’t feel unsafe. There were three main squares, the first one was Plaza Zabala with a statue and some very noisy parrots, the second square ( my favourite!) had a French feel to it, as it was covered by huge plane trees with a fountain in the centre!

The third square was Plaza Independencia which was quite huge, had a statue of Artegas in the centre and was surrounded by a Palace, old and new Government buildings and a block of flats! Wandered about until it was 10.00am when we had our Free Walking Tour.

I don’t like to be negative BUT it was full of history facts that I cant remember anyway, the guy’s accent was so bad, it was like a monologue and we spent 2 ½ hours walking back to the ship the way we had come!! The only new things he showed us was part of the city wall, the theatre, and the Cathedral – which we would have found anyway!! It was maybe the worst walking tour we have had!! But then again, its very difficult to show you sights if there aren’t really many to show!!

Walked back towards Independence Square and ended up walking to the sea front before cutting up back to the square. Wandered back to Constitution Square (2^nd one!!) and sat under the plane trees for a while!. Walked back down to the market again to see if there was wifi (no joy!) and then back up to Independence Square.

Montevideo’d out and back to the ship for 17.00 hoping for some wifi! Still no joy so sat in the sunshine and listened to the band before we sailed away at 18.00.

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