I was excited by the thought of the ferry across the Platte. I had visions of Titanic poses on the bow but this was all thwarted as the boat was totally sealed with no access outside. We landed at the town of Colonia some 2 hours drive from Montevideo and finally arrived at the bus terminal at 4. The weather was sunny (that soon changed) but the wind has an icy chill to it. Our apartment was booked through Airbnb and the owner lives on ground floor and gave us an enthusiastic welcome.

Montevideo, capital of Uruguay lies on the north shore River Platte. It was founded in 1726 by a chap called Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, governor of Buenos Aires, to halt the Portuguese advance into the area from Brazil. From 1807 to 1830 the city was alternately occupied by British, Spanish, Argentine, Portuguese, and Brazilian forces but finally got its independence in 1830. After this its history is a bit foggy as lot of interference from Argentina and Brazil culminating in a 9 year siege of Montevideo by an Argentine and Uruguayan army from 1843 to 1851. Montevideo defended itself with help from the French and English forces that blockaded Buenos Aires. Confused? Us too.

Sunday we went into the city centre on a local bus for 60p each. It was quiet; very quiet. Later we went to the local shopping mall and at 7 in the evening it was heaving. So that's where everyone goes. In the supermarket you can buy guns and machetes. Useful to know in case of Zombie apocalypse! Fuller’s beers are on sale, IPA, ESP and Pride tempted Peter until he saw they were £8a bottle. The weather has got bad with gales and rain. From our apartment the sea looks quite wild. Bad news came with our visit to the shipping agent. Arthur has been delayed visiting extra ports in West Africa so we are stuck here for an extra 10 days. What to do? We have booked some trips and will be visiting the local cinema on several occasions.

The apartment is a bit chilly at times. The owner lives downstairs and has emphasized the high cost of heating and likes the Brits as we are not likely to need the heating on! That’s what she thinks. When she called to say she needed to pop up we quickly turned off the heating and put the warm air blowers away.

The city centre once had a fortified wall (torn down in 1829) and the area inside was very affluent with many beautiful mansions. We visited Palacio Tarranto built in 1908, on the site of a 1793 theatre. The mansion was designed by a French architect (he also did the Arc de Triomphe) for the Tarranto family. Its rooms are very posh. In the basement is a small museum that was holding a Greco -Roman exhibition. It felt weird seeing such artefacts so far from Europe. I wondered how it got here so al looking person who introduced us to a man who had spent lot of time in Cambridge- small world. We found out that some of the exhibits came from the collection of an Italian Engineer who lived in Uruguay and a Uruguay lady who lived in Paris for a time. There was some amazing iridescent glass from the 2nd century. I remember reading that Tiffany was very taken with the iridescence of old glass and copied it. It’s all about the metal impurities in the silica mix.

We visited the 145 year old Port Market (Mercado Del Puerto). Once home to a fruit, veg and meat market, it is now filled with restaurants with giant grills covered with big chunks of meat. Not a single Uruguayan participated in the building of the market, which was commissioned by Spanish merchants, designed by an Englishman, forged in Liverpool, then shipped to Montevideo and assembled by a team of British engineers and workers. Makes you feel proud to be British.

An interesting museum is that telling the story of the plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972 with a group of Uruguayan high school rugby players, their friends and relatives, on their way to Chile. 12 of the 45 people died in the crash. 13 died a few days later following an avalanche (that’s what I call bad luck). On a small radio they finally heard that the search had been called off. I expect you know the story. They had to resort to eating their dead friends. So watch out if I ever look hungry. After several unsuccessful attempts to walk for help two of them set out and made it across the huge mountains to reach Chile. So after 72 days 16 survivors were rescued. That could put you of flying without a good supply of food and thermal underwear.

Fighting the gale force wind we made our way to the Naval museum to see the story of the Graf Spree and the Battle of the River Plate. This was the first naval battle of the 2nd WW. The state of the art German pocket battleship Graf Spree had been a bit of a pain sinking our merchant ships (he did get the crews of first). Finally we had located it near Uruguay. 3 Royal Navy cruisers had a bit of a battle in the Plate. One was severely damaged. The damage to Graf Spree was critical; her fuel system was crippled so she entered the port of Montevideo, the capital of neutral Uruguay, to effect repairs. The ship couldn’t leave as a very clever British Ambassador arranged for Merchant ships to leave every 24 hours. A little known rule of warfare is that a military ship cannot leave a neutral port until 24 hours after a merchant ship. The idea was that it would give us time to get other RN destroyers in the Plate. But none were near enough. Graf Spree’s captain was told that his stay could not be extended beyond 72 hours. He left but not wanting us to get hold of all the new technology he scuttled his ship rather than face the overwhelmingly superior force that the British had led him to believe was awaiting his departure. He was not popular with Hitler and later committed suicide in Buenos Aires. Divers have retrieved a few bits including a 500kg bronze Nazi eagle and swastika from the stern of the boat. It’s stored hidden away in a warehouse because the Uruguay government is worried about offending the German government.

To fill some time whilst waiting for Arthur we went on some trips. Our first was to a winery or Bodega. After my experience in NZ I swore no more such visits. This time I just had small sips of each wine (some 15% alcohol content) and Peter finished them off. He was quite happy by the time we left. The winery was owned by a very wealthy Uruguayan who had a small car and bike collection on the site. Did peter know this before we booked the trip?

One day we had to make a tour of health food shops which took us to some less salubrious parts of town. We eventually stopped at a very old bar, full of locals, for a cup of tea and got talking to a couple of old boys enjoying whiskies. They seemed in good spirits!

Castillo Pittamiglio is a very odd house In fact I think you can safely say its architectural style is unclassifiable, a weird mix of sculptures and symbols. On the rear facade is a rather large Victory of Samothrace, mounted on the bow of a ship, pointing toward the sea. The house was created by the architect Humberto Pittamiglioin in the early 1900’s. Apparently he was into alchemy. Not the bit that wants to turn everything to gold but the bit that wants to achieve spiritual ennoblement. He was certainly into or on something as the house is a labyrinth of rooms, odd open spaces, doors that don’t lead anywhere staircases decorated with symbols of alchemist, the Brotherhood of RC and masonry, among others. Rosicrucianism is a philosophical secret society founded in late medieval Germany. Its beliefs are said to hold insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm. Some believe he was trying to build a symbolic ship for the journey of his spirit. Peter just thinks he was drinking too much spirit.