Day 02 - Buenos Aires

Day 02 - Buenos Aires

On the drive from the airport to our hotel we passed the Obelisco de Buenos Aires which is a monument built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first foundation of the city.  It stands on the spot where the Argentine flag was officially raised for the first time in 1812.  The monument was built in 31 days (yup, that fast) at a cost of 200,000 pesos.

If you are amazed by this picture don't get too impressed with me.  I didn't take it.  I don't even know who did, but if you want the original you can find it on Google!

While we're enjoying pictures I didn't take, here's another one for you.  This one came off the Sheraton web site but it gives you a pretty good mental image of where Mandy and I stayed (because it is a physical image of where Mandy and I stayed).

I did, however, take the picture below from the window of our hotel.  This clock tower, called Torre Monumental (renamed in 1982 from "Torre de los Ingleses").  The tower was a gift from the local British community to commemorate the centennial of the May Revolution of 1810.

So now I suppose some of you are thinking history of a clock tower.  Ya, ya, ya.  Blah, blah, blah.

If you are, however, you are missing the two fun facts.

The first fun fact was that we could see it out our hotel window because my little daughter got us a fancy suite in the hotel (yes, that's right...she's fancy).

The second fun fact was probably obvious to you history buffs.  Torre de los Ingleses means "Tower of the English".  Obviously this means that back in 1909 the Argentinians must have been fond of the British. Why then, would they rename the tower to "Monument Tower" in 1982?

Obviously they still want to remember SOMETHING when they look at the tower, and that something will be revealed on the Day 14 Blog.  Stay Tuned!!