Our first stop was a bookstore. But not just any bookstore: El Ateneo Grand Splendid. Someone at my conference had mentioned this. El Ateneo is just a chain bookstore (think Barnes and Noble), but this flagship store is located in an opera house built in 1890 and refurbished by the book chain in 2000. On one list, El Ateneo Grand Splendid is listed as the second most beautiful bookstore in the world. (We assumed it was second to Lello in Porto, but Lello is third and the most beautiful bookstore is in a church in Holland.) In any case, El Ateneo was fantastic. There are reading nooks in the box seats and a cafe on the stage. We bought a book of simple Spanish words for Cora.
From here we headed to our second stop: Cementerio de la Recoleta ('cause what do you do on a rainy day besides visit a cemetery?). La Cementerio de la Recoleta is apparently one of the most photographed places in Buenos Aires (actually, it might be the MOST photographed... definitely the case for Tim). It's also considered one of the top ten cemeteries in the world (yes, there are apparently lists for these things). We like the fact that it was like a little town of mausoleums situated within a very urban area of Buenos Aires. There are lots of famous people buried here: former presidents of Argentina, Eva Perón, and many others. It's also enormous (covering 14 acres). We spent a couple of hours just wandering around and looking at the sculptures, the cat, etc.
After seeing the cemetery, we were hungry, and I'd read that the best empanadas in Buenos Aires were in the Recoleta neighborhood (actually in the nearby Palermo neighborhood, about a 20 minute walk from the cemetery). What we didn't know at the time was that the chef/owner of this restaurant (while also being known as the model of this portrait) is famous for his "locro", which is apparently the Argentinian national dish and commonly eaten in celebration on "Dia de la Patria". Guess what that translates to? Yup, "Revolution day". So in hindsight, that explains why the line for food at this restaurant was tens of people deep. We opted for takeout (I think we waited a bit less than an hour, but not a huge amount less than an hour) and grabbed six empanadas to go. We ate them on a bench in the park across the street. They were fantastic.
After lunch, we headed back into the Recoleta neighborhood to see the Floralis Genérica, an enormous (23 meters high) steel flower that sits in a small park. The petals on this enormous flower actually open and close according to the sun (they start to open in the morning and then close in the evening as the sun sets). It was quite striking.
At this point of the day, it started raining for real, so we went inside the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. This is the city's art museum, and it has a very nice and diverse collection. It would be a great museum to use to introduce kids to fine arts. It has works by famous masters across all styles and time periods. But its manageable in size.
After the art museum, we headed back to the hotel to clean up before heading out to dinner. We had reservations at a fancy prix fixe restaurant called Chila. It was really really good. We made a mistake and agreed to have the wine pairing with our tasting menu, which ended up being eight courses with a full glass of wine paired with each course. It was too much wine, although it was very very good wine (and very very good food). Our waitress kindly called us a taxi back to our hotel, and we collapsed.
[32,233 steps, 13.26 miles]
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