Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Well we are back

I left off with the overnight bus trip from Necochea to Buenos Aires. The trip wasn't bad and the seats reclined flat so you could sleep. Sleeping flat on a bus over the roads in Argentina gives a little thrill, but we got there OK with some sleep. They give you a goody box when you board the bus which is nice. I had a little trouble with my seat so my daughter traded seats with me, now she is behind me. A nice Argentin lady showed everyone how to use the seat adjustments and then went back to her seat. There were only 6 flat folding seats on the bottom and the regular reclining seats were on the second deck. So we had a section to ourselves almost. Thursday we arrived in Buenos Aires and took a taxi to our bed and breakfast (which I stayed at last year) and were able to get to our room at 7 AM. We all took naps before our trip to Colonia. The boat is very nice and we were in first class both ways. Colonia is very nice. Our trip back was delayed by over an hour for reasons unknown so we didn;t get back to Buenos Aires until 10 PM. Took a car to the restaurant and because of the crowd we didn't eat until 11:15. By the time we got to bed it was 2 AM. On Friday we had out walking tour of Buenos Aires with Jessica who was very good. Saw all the sights and rode the oldest subway in the Southern Hemisphere. Built by the British and out of wood. Then had a great dinner at 3:00 PM at this BA restaurant and were taken to the airport by Lincoln Town Car ( basically a limo) that my daughter arranged. Got to the airport and said our tearful goodbys and went to the Continental ticket counter via their version of the TSA. I had three bags to check and was prepared to pay the extra bag fee when the agent said that I was in Elite status (remember Continental just joined Star Alliance of which I am an Elite member) and I was in first class from Houston to Phila portion of the flight so all the bags went for free and the airline had paid my Argentine departure tax. Not bad. Went right to the gate and after a little time and another inspection of the carry-on bags got on the airplane. Got to Houston at 6:30 AM and made a mad dask for customs and imigration. Got thru imigration without any problem, but then at the baggage carosel my third bag was missing. Were after a few moments of panic I went and found someone had taken it off the carosel and seeing it wasn't his just left it there. So off to customs, virtually no stop there and gave the agent the bags for the next leg of our flight when we discovered it was on the other side of the airport. So another run but we spotted a Contenental Golf cart (ok a big cart ) and flagged down the driver. We quickly told her our plight and she took us to the gate. Having first class tickets may have helped. So we get to the gate and go around the crowd to the elite line and get on the plane with 10 minutes to spare. Nice flight and when we get to Philly all our luggage made it too. My sis in law picked us up and everything going good until we got a flat tire(it was only flat on the bottom) So AAA was called and in about 45 minutes were on our way home. The greeting by Midnight was to say the least very noisy. He sat on my lap and recounted every detail of his week.
But we are back, now off to Florida
Ciao

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that is one good story that you told! I have some good ones too, in my trip to Argentina. I stayed in an apartment in Palermo which was near the botanical garden. I had such a great time since I met people from all over the world.
I hope i can go back, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.
Kell