A dream comes true – On the way from Munich to Montevideo

A dream becomes reality. The idea of going to Antarctica one day has already excited me for years. I had once read that you cannot image Antarctica if you have not been there and that you cannot describe it if you’ve been there. So I was really curious to see it with my own eyes.

A dream comes true

It all started with a Hurtigruten newsletter in August 2016 with an incredibly good offer for a journey to Antarctica (arrival package for free :-)) – such a good offer that we didn’t need to think long about it. The journey could only be booked via the hotline, which turned out to be quite easy and uncomplicated and the staff was great in supporting us to make the best possible cabin choice. We just needed a cabin with a limited view, however what we didn’t want was a lifeboat hanging in front of the window on full length. We finally decided for cabin 717 which turned out to be the perfect choice for us as you could still have a pretty good view out of the window. After everything was booked we still needed to wait over a year until the journey started.

In October 2017 we finally got on the plane to Montevideo, going from Munich via Frankfurt to Sao Paulo with Lufthansa and then to Montevideo with LATAM. Overall, also thanks to the quite convenient arrival and departure times, it was not as exhausting as we thought and we were full of energy (ok, not thaaat full of energy but also not too exhausted considering more than 20 hours of travelling in economy class) when we arrived in Montevideo in the morning.

Arrival in Montevideo

After dropping off our luggage in the Dazzler hotel, we couldn’t wait to start with sightseeing. In Hurtigruten’s arrival package there was a sightseeing tour through Montevideo included in the morning, ending in the port and thus being at the same time the port transfer. However, as we learned from the Hurtigruten staff in the hotel (there were tour guides assigned by Hurtigruten to answer questions of the guests and give tips for sightseeing) that this tour is not going to the Ciudad Vieja, the old city of Montevideo, we decided to go there on our own. We had of course done some research on the security situation in the South American countries we were going to, but after the hotel staff told us that it is not so bad and taking into consideration that Montevideo is supposed to be one of the safest cities in South America, we decided to try it out. It turned out to be a bit adventurous after all…

Taking the bus

From the shopping center Punta Carretas around the corner (where we could easily change money, I have unfortunately not been able to find a bank in Germany which exchanged me money for the trip) we went by public bus towards the city center. I have to say that neither Daniel nor I speak any Spanish and you really don’t get too far with speaking English in Montevideo. Thus, the possibility to ask other passengers for the right stop was limited – apart from the fact that we still do not know for sure how they requested a stop, since there were no stop buttons in the bus as in Germany. So we had no other choice than trying to keep track on the street map where we were and guess how far we were still away from the old city. When we noticed that we were the last persons left on the bus, we finally decided to ask the driver where we need to get off as our worries that we missed the right stop where quite big at this point in time. I mean, usually people want to go to the city center, so the bus should have been getting fuller in theory.

Historic city center

The bus driver couldn’t speak any English and it is really amazing how one can communicate somehow, although no one speaks the language of the other one. We had not missed our stop yet, but the bus driver suddenly became quite nervous when he heard where we wanted to go and then made in really clear to us that there are exactly two streets (Calle Perez Castellano and Calle Sarandi) we should use and the other ones please “No!”.

After a short stop at the Mercardo del Puerto we took exactly this way through the old town to Plaza Independencia and from there along the Rambla back to the hotel. Since it was Sunday, the old town was almost deserted in contrast to the Mercado del Puerto, a rustic market hall where there are (grill) restaurants everywhere. But I have to say that I liked exactly that, because we could admire the many colorful houses and beautiful balconies without being disturbed by other people. Although they are in need of renovation, they create a really special atmosphere.

The two roads we took didn’t feel insecure at all, although I have to admit that the side roads indeed didn’t look too convincing. After passing the old city gate, we arrived at the Plaza Independencia, which is really something worth seeing in Montevideo with the Salvo Palace and the other buildings around it.

From there we continued our way on the Rambla, a 22 km long coastal path that leads to the suburbs of Montevideo. It was only an about 6 km way to our hotel and since the weather was good we decided to walk along the Rambla instead of taking a taxi, something I can really recommend because it is really nice going for a walk there.

Delta of Rio de la Plata

What surprised us a bit was that the water was really brown and not blue as you would expect on the coast. As we learned from our tour guide the next day, this is because Montevideo is not located at the sea coast but at a (however extremely wide) river delta, more precisely the delta of Rio de la Plata.

 
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I have to confess that I didn’t fully believe that until I looked it up on the map, because you could see nowhere near or far some land on the other side.

The city tour the next day then showed us a few more areas of Montevideo so that we overall got a quite good overview of the city. Our first stop was at the famous Montevideo logo before we continued to some other really nice photo stops overlooking the city and then to the soccer stadium (where the first soccer world cup was held in 1930, after the Uruguay team had won the gold medal in the last two Olympic games – and then also became world champion in 1930) and the government building.

We are finally boarding the MS Midnatsol

Our bus was the first one to arrive in the port at around 11 a.m. and after a really quick check-in we were already standing right in the middle of our cabin. The cabin is quite small but sufficient (and the closet space is really minimalistic – luckily our suitcases fit under the folding bed so that we had additional storage space there). A strike at the refinery delayed the refueling and thus our departure from 2 p.m. to 6.15 p.m., which allowed us to enjoy the nice weather and relax on deck in the sun.

 

 

The good thing of the delay was that we left the port just when the sun was going down and we celebrated the moment with a glass of champagne (by the way, not at Norwegian prices, but for a quite moderate price). Now the journey which we have been waiting for such a long time finally started!
 
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For all of you who now also want to explore South America and Antarctica you can find some offers here: Region Antarctica at
 

This was the first article of our series “Southern Hemisphere Adventure to Antarctica”.
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