rhkkmk's off Wednesday on 2 spring trips
 

we leave wednesday on the first of two back to back trips.....wednesday we fly air canada to london via montreal---cheapest ticket at the time....
we are attending two 65th surprise birthday parties, combined, for karen's 50 year pen pal and her husband.....we will come home on sunday..

tuesday morning we leave for argentina for 3 weeks.....continental from boston-newark-houston-buenos aires.. FF tickets courtesy of delta miles...
the trip will takes us to buenos aires; then up to asuncion, paraguay--where karen lived for a few years in the 1950's; then via private driver to iguazu falls on the argentine side; then the driver will take us back to asuncion for a few more days; then we fly to buenos aires again and that nite take a 13 hours lux bus ride to the western side of argentina to mendoza--wine courtry....crelleston tells me the ride is fantastic in 1st class, 180 degree recline airline seats....they serve two meals and there are movies if you wish....we hope to sleep all nite thanks to little pills; we stay there 4 nites, visiting this interesting city and its surrounding wine regions, and then do the whole thing in reverse back to BA; we then have about 4 more days in BA.
we may take one day and go to colonia uruguay, just across the river from BA, but we may not have the time for that...

as usual we have made some internet friends during the planning of this trip....Avrooster, the JamesA of the argentine board, will join us with his wife one nite for dinner.... i found a young architect in asunsion on the TA board who will act as our paid driver for a few days.....also a young guy and his wife who has given me some info on paraguay will join us another nite for dinner.

karen hopes to rekindle her spanish.....she has done a few tapes and found them to be quite easy....

we look forward to some really good steaks, some other argentine specialities and a very informative and fun time.....guenmai loves the place so it can't be all bad...

we may set gpanda up as the new evita--can't you just see him on the balcony in his speedo, singing..... now that is trully a dismal thought picture....

we will add to this thread from time to time, but not often as we are not taking a laptop with us on either of these trips...

i will miss the fodors new format badly....

Have a fantastic time (in both locations) you two. We can't wait to read about Buenos Aires. We thought of going there this November, but, alas, Asia won out...as it always does. :)

Safe travels...and we look forward to your TR!

Bon Voyage and I too hope that you and Karen will have a great time. Don't forget to ask permission before you take any one's photo!

bob, you and karen have a great and safe trip.

ahhh, the good life! :-) :-)

Have a great trip Bob & Karen.
And the dollar goes 3 times as far in Argentina!!

We were there just over a year ago.

Great steaks and wine, especially in the Mendoza region. Experience the pastoral life of the South American gaucho.

BA is wonderful...San Telmo and the barrios with the tango dancing traditions.

"set gpanda up as the new evita--can't you just see him on the balcony in his speedo, singing"....that's funny. You'll see...Evita actually does live in a community with her own house and balcony...only the city is a cemetery that looks like a planned city with houses, boulevards, and city hall!!

Bon voyage...and look forward to your reports.

Have a fab time, can't wait to read all....

13 hour lux bus ride is an oxymoron. Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Not everyone can make stirring speeches from the balcony while clad in a speedo. Most would be overly self-conscious. Not I.

I hope Karen has a wonderful trip.

Hope both your trips go well! Enjoy Argentina -- I also enjoyed Bs.As. very much -- so much I returned for a 2nd trip. Didn't get to Mendoza, so I will be interested to hear what you think of that region. Looking forward to your trip reports!

Have a great trip. Looks like we're going to Buenos Aires and Rio in August so I'm looking forward to your reports.

Bon Voyage, Bob! However, I should point out, when traveling abroad, the point is to act as a good will ambassador to the country you're visiting; sending Panda in a Speedo is an act of open hostility and will probably cause another nation to invoke their version of the War Powers Act!

Wishing you & Karen delightful & safe travels,
BC

Lucky you! This sounds so appealing. We loved BA in 2003 and hope to go back. The cafes are great -- La Biela and Tortoni were my favorites. We started out dining modestly but soon realized how affordable meals were so we moved up to Galani at the Four Seasons and the Alvear Palace. At the latter, both tea at L'Orangerie and dinner at La Bourgogne were memorable. The opera, the markets, the tango, Recoleta cemetery, so much more.

We couldn't afford the add-on to Iguazu Falls at the time -- something I badly want to see -- so I am dying to hear your report about that as well as the Mendoza segment of the trip. (I wonder if they still counsel staying on the Brazilian side to see the Falls.)

For what it is worth, we took the daytrip to Colonia. The town was charming but what was added to the itinerary to make a day of it was ...well...earnestly presented but thin on substance: the world's largest pencil museum (yes) and some ruins of some ruins (yes) were the main features. The boat trip over and rambling around the town were a delight though so just check out any proposed itineraries with particular care.

You sound as though you have all the support you need in BA but here's a back-up: Cintia and Matias of WowArgentina are a dynamic and very engaging young couple who provide support services to visitors. You and Karen would like them.

Buen viaje and a happy return to Paraguay for Karen.

Have a great time! What a luxury to have all that time to travel!

We had the pleasure of meeting and dining with AVRooster and his lovely wife in January 2007; you will love your evening with them.

In Mendoza we loved our meals at 1884 (Francis Mallman's place) and La Bourgogne.

Iguazu Falls is unbelievably beautiful. The way the walkways are constructed, hovering over the water, is perfect.

Have a great trip!

Aloha Oe you two! Bob, let us know how it is traveling light ;)

Aloha!

Bob & Karen,
Have a great time. You will love it down there. Remember: empanadas and chimichurri sauce everywhere. Malbec with all meals, media lunas for beakfast and no real jet lag. You can't go wrong.

Let us know how the trip goes. We will be one country over, in Brazil, at the same time. So, if anything goes wrong --- just email Andy.

Have lots of fun. Tengo

It just occurred to me that maybe we could have the authorities do to Bob what they did to Charlie Chaplin when he left the country! Modern Times, indeed.

Buenos Aires has wonderful restaurants..We especially liked El Sanjuanino, Fervor, Sottovoce, La Cabrera, El Establo.. No matter where we ate, the food and wine were terrific. Enjoy your trip to BA.

Bob & Karen - It was go great meeting you at the LA GTG.
Have a wonderful safe trip and can't wait to hear all about it.
:)

so some follow up on the first part of these trips.....

we arrived home last nite about 10:30....being that it was easter almost everything was closed but we managed to find one chinese place open in needham.....i'm sure all restaurants are open in cambridge on easter and every other religious holiday and non-sectarian holiday as well, but we wanted to go home....

we flew on air canada through montreal---yes, i know a bit of back tracking, but when i bought the tickets in january, it was the cheapest....now even the direct flights are all the same price...

we were pleased with air canada....the small jet to montreal was a bit cramped but comfortable for the 40 minute flight---bins were very small and no carry-ons would fit....it took off about 5 minutes late but arrived early... canada makes you go through immigration even when you are in transit, which i found odd....it moved fairly quickly even thought there must have been 200+ people in line...

the airbus 330 on the london route was very comfortable and left right on time... the service was excellent and the plane seemed new....food was average, but the staff quite accomodating.... we arrived at heathrow right on time....i managed some sleep as did karen with our sleeping aides---halcion....

our suitcases came out just as we approached the turnstile....right through customs and out to the alamo bus (europcar, alamo, national) and off to the car rental depot...our rental was in order---reserved through www.carrentals.com, which i like very much for good service and great prices...

they allow you to choose any car in two rows....i selected a skoda diesel (VW family).... mid-size car with only 345 miles on it...great car that used almost no fuel in 4 days...

drove south east on the M-25 to Oxted in surrey where we were to stay the nite with some friends. had a lovely day with them....we went out to a Kew gardens facility where they are attempting to store seeds from all the plants of the earth....very interesting and beautiful gardens.....we returned to our friend's home and had some tea which perked us up a bit....the hostess cooked a fantastic dinner: home made chicken liver pate, with home made toast crisps, were served with a delicious red onion/orange marmalade and washed down with a very delicious french rose from var, the location of thier french country house....
this was followed by a delicious casserolette of chicken pieces slowly cooked in a tarragon/sour cream/onion sauce, which i thought was sort of indian without the curry.... a couple of veggies, large fingerling like pots, and more wine, this time a medium dry french white... a cheese course followed---they always have cheese which makes every meal extra special i think....this was followed by fresh rasberries with or without cream, and a rubbarb cobbler, also with our without cream....WOW.....and this is one of her simpler meals....

some of you may remember this couple as the people we met all so many years ago on the marriott boat in bkk....we are now great friends....

after that we rolled into bed early...tired puppies...

we rose somewhat late the next AM....the host always has "porridge" for breakfast so i joined him....nothing like old fashioned long cook oatmeal with reg. milk and brown sugar to get you started!!!!

we had a date with smeagol for lunch nearby in westerham....this is the town of churchill's chartwell country house... its a lovely village and we knew a nice french bistro there....nicky had sent me an e mail a few days earlier saying they were going for the long weekend near to where we would be and was there any chance we could meet for coffee, etc.....of course we could....

so the six of us met at the rendezvous cafe brasserie, market square, westerham, kent at noon....we had a delicious fixed prix lunch. the two courses were all we could handle, so there was no dessert for any of us....we did manage two bottles of the house french however, which at about 14 pounds was excellent....nicky and muffin mixed well with our friends...we had a great time and plenty of laughs....we did refrain from giving muffin any ribbing however....

choices i remember were: butternut squash soup, frisse salad, pate or ______.....slow cooked pork stomach roulet--an english special, braised beef french style, a white fish poached and ____...
it all was delcious and tasted ever so good with the cold wine...

we plan to see them in october on our way back from south africa....i have a few pictures which i will post the link to shortly...

after lunch we headed to bexleyheath for the marriott where we would spend the next two nites....the whole reason for this trip was to celebrate the 65th birthdays of karen's 50 year pen pal and her husband... it was a surpise and of the 100 invited, 70 showed up and everyone kept the secret....karen opened the door when the birthday kids arrived and they were so surprised!!! we had a nice time visiting with people whom we have heard of over the years and a few whom we had met previously....

saturday we got up a bit late again and returned to the daughter's house for some picking of the foods left from the party....

that nite we visited a local indian restaurant in bexleyheath called balti house on long lane....its always excellent and very reasonable.....the birthday friends had another engagement that evening so i took one of the daughter's and her boyfriend and his daughter along with us.....we were not disappointed....

sunday we got up and ate the marriott breakfast brunch which was only so so....maybe even a bit worse than that....about 11 we headed for heathrow and boarded our 3PM flight for home...all went just fine on this flight, but montreal is a mess for transit in this direction....i would avoid it on future trips!! its too boring to go into...

SO NOW WE ARE ALL READY FOR HEDLEY TO PICK US UP AT 8:45 TOMORROW MORNING FOR THE FLIGHT TO ARGENTINA, VIA NEWARK AND HOUSTON.....

to be continued from buenos aires in a couple of days...

Bob, sounds like a great European jaunt...cannot wait to hear about BA, though! We've been trying to get there for quite awhile. It'll have to wait until my Asia addiction is satiated.

But, man, your travel schedule! No rest for the weary! I hope you're giving Karen a shopping spree or spa day for all this running around. :)