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Published: October 2nd 2012
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Sleeping on a bus is easier if your fellow passengers keep their mobile phones on silent and don't receive messages all night. It's also easier if they close the curtains so toll booth lights don't shine directly in your face and if you don't get woken at a very early hour for breakfast. Not happy Jan!
We were really pleased that when we got to the hotel the room was immediately available and the Argentina vs Australia match was on the TV. We were able to shower, watch the game and have a bit of a sleep, all before lunch. Harriet didn't think that was enough sleep for her, so Toby and Fiona left her to sleep some more and went off to discover the city of Cordoba.
It was stinking hot when we walked out of the hotel. The first museum we wanted to visit wasn't open so we stopped for coffee instead. Then we went to the plaza and had a quick look inside the cathedral. We have probably seen enough churches to last a lifetime, but it is interesting to compare the styles in different cultures. Argentinian churches are usually much simpler than their Italian counterparts,
but no less splendid. In some ways the simplicity makes them more splendid. However the cathedral was very ornate. One difference we noted here was that Jesus had bloody knees.
Behind the cathedral we were expecting to find a museum of memory for those who went missing under military dictatorship. We found the museum but couldn't find an entrance or a sign that showed when it would be open. We were beginning to sense a theme occurring. The museum was decorated outside with huge fingerprints. The prints were formed from the names of those missing. It was very sobering. We were really disappointed not to have been able to see and learn more.
We then walked down to the Jesuit block. We wanted to go in the church but couldn't get much further than the door as mass was on. Across the road a choir was busking. They were amazing. A large crowd was gathering to listen and it was nice to find a shady spot and join the crowd enjoying their voices.
We weren't doing very well with museum opening times, but we did manage to go in to the Collegio Nacional de Montserrat. We weren't
Courtyard
Cordoba uni really interested in the museum which seemed to be ancient scientific equipment, but we were interested in the building which was beautiful. The architecture of the whole Jesuit block was wonderful to see.
We took a detour back to the hotel via the bus terminal to get tickets to Salta tomorrow. The inside of the Cordoba bus terminal is pretty big and we went to several bus companies offices to find tickets. We couldn't get anything better than cama seats, but at least we had tickets. On the way we passed several police on corners as usual. They all seem to spend their time on their mobile phones. We decided its a job creation scheme more than a necessity. A couple were walking in front of us some of the way to the terminal. We had to suppress our sniggers when one who was looking at his phone walked into a wall. His partner turned to talk to him and didn't know where he had gone. He had been on his phone too and missed the fun.
Back at the hotel, Harriet finally got up and ate her chocolate phone from Bariloche. We had only planned to come
to Cordoba to break up the journey to Salta and so had only scheduled one night. As we hadn't managed to get into many of the museums and we had such a short time in Cordoba we thought a bus tour of the city would be the most effective way to see it. The lady at the information office had suggested we go to the city museum in preference to the bus tour, but we were feeling lazy. Besides the bus was an old English double decker, enough said.
The tour was pretty informative and a very simple way to see the city with the least amount of effort. We did get off at the Parroquia Sagrado Corazon de Jesus de Los Capuchinos. This is a church and there were no cappuccinos or macchiatos to be seen. The church is very unique because it is missing a steeple to emphasise the perfection of God on one hand and the imperfections of man on the other. Inside there were steps behind both sides of the altar that led up to a chapel. We had never seen anything like it before. The tour continued on to the park which looked like
a great place to hang out if you lived in Cordoba or had more time than we did. There was even a structure designed by M. Eiffel of the Parisienne tower fame. We headed back to the city and saw the government building, the longest road in Cordoba and another road which is the longest road in America ( it could have been the world too?) and some beautiful old hotels.
Once we got off the bus we walked to the barrio of Guemes for a market. We detoured through the shopping mall but only because of its architecture. The feria or market in Guemes was supposed to be one of the best in the country, but we decided that all markets seem the same. It was large but the stalls all seemed to be of an ilk. We cut the visit short and went to a restaurant called la Niete for dinner on the charming rooftop terrace.
Even though it was about 8pm when we got there, the waitress gave us a menu with afternoon tea dishes. We were a little surprised and wondered if we had either got the wrong place or if it had changed
since the review we read had been published. It turned out that we were in the right place and it hadn't changed. We were apparently just early for dinner. We had noticed in the other parts of Argentina that we have visited so far that people eat dinner about 8.30 pm onwards, but it seems that here it is even later. Once we got the right menus we ordered and had what was probably one of the best meals we have had so far in Argentina.
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