poor satellite connection

… more photos will follow, here is some text – no editing by Sigi this time:
Day 3: Buenos Aires sightseeing tour through the city and various barrios on a double decker tourist bus. We had to stand in line at ticket booth in full sun and later in another line waiting for the bus. The vendors around the city are clever and came to the line-ups selling hats to sweating tourist to prevent heat stroke…
We were lucky to get 2 seats on the upper deck of the bus which was open on all sides for a good breeze but had a canopy roof for sun protection. Well planned. The tour took us to the main attractions of Buenos Aires: city center, obelisk, Casa Rosada (seat of the government – think Evita…), Avenida de Mayo, Nuevo Julio Avenida, the great soccer stadium ‘La Boca’ and surrounding barrios. The whole tour took about three and a half hours and was well worth the time and money. Since we couldn’t have visited all the areas we saw on foot in just 3 days it gave us a good overall impression of Buenos Aires and outskirts.
After a little afternoon siesta at our marvelous hotel Moreno we went out on foot again to find a good steak house down at the canal. We walked across the Plaza de Mayo downhill across the bridge to a real great Argentinian steak restaurant, got a table outside on the terrace and enjoyed a delicious steak dinner with a bottle of fine Argentinian Malbec. It is very curious that most meals in BA consist mainly of meat, meat and more meat. It is not very common to be served any accompanying dishes such as vegetables and/or potatoes/rice etc. Sigi was very happy about this and didn’t miss anything, I ordered “vegetales grillados” (grilled veggies) which turned out to taste fabulous alongside my super duper tender piece of perfectly cooked (“a punto”) steak.
Day 4: Saying ‘adios’ to Buenos Aires and leaving the city on the “MS Veendam”. The transition from the hotel to the port went extremely smoothly. We checked out at noon, had the taxi take us directly to the Holland America Line Terminal and checked in there at 1 pm without a hitch. Everything was organized to perfection, and even immigration and security checks were done swiftly and efficiently. In no time at all we were on the ship in stateroom #321 on the first promenade deck with view out a big window to the balcony and sea. We went for lunch to the Lido deck on the 11^th floor, and by the time we came down to our cabin, our 2 suitcases had been delivered, sitting on the bed and ready to be unpacked.
We familiarized ourselves with the layout of the ship, getting lost a few times in the process but memorizing the most important areas. Dinner was served in the lovely “Rotterdam Dining Room” with excellent personnel attending us in a very attentive manner. It was already getting dark and closer to the departure time at 9 pm when we took our coffee and were contemplating if we should go on the outside decks to observe the big adios. Unfortunately it was dark by that time, and we decided to go to the grand theater instead to get an introduction of the entertainment staff on board. Michael, our cruise director hailing from Sasketchewan in Canada, gave an overview of the programme, and the entertainers came out to give us a taste of their various talents in singing, dancing and stand-up comedy. All of a sudden an officer asked on the PA system for the medical staff to call the bridge and get up there pronto. We didn’t think anything of it and enjoyed the rest of the evening. In the middle of the night we heard loud noises coming from the machine rooms that sounded like the anchor being lowered. Sure enough we had anchored in the Rio de la Plata River not far from Buenos Aires and stayed there until 11 am the next morning. The captain came on over the PA system to tell us that there was an accident on the sports decks #12 last night at departure. A crane arm on a barge that we passed had taken out one side of the railing of the deck which came down in a domino effect. There were passengers on deck, and some got slightly injured with abrasions and bruises, but luckily no one was hurt seriously. We had to stay anchored until the Argentinian coast guard had inspected the damage. Therefore we were a day late getting into Montevideo/Uruguay, arriving there around 7 at night instead of 7 in the morning. For that reason the port call of Puerto Madryn was cancelled, and we are now sailing directly to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Tonight is the first formal night with meeting the captain and celebration of the official start of the big voyage with champagne.