December 20th
Today was all about the markets. First we wanted to visit the area in Palermo Hollywood and see the market there. We took the metro and walked from the nearest one taking a look at the interesting boutiques and shops along the way. In general this was a nice area for boutique shopping. We arrived at the Plaza Serrano and took a quick walk around the fair. This is a very small market and can be seen in a short period of time.
We stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants and cafes in the area before catching a taxi to the Malba museum. The Malba is a beautiful building with modern Argentinean art, definitely worth a visit. There is also a nice café inside which is a perfect place to take a break.
Malba Foyer
After visiting the museum we walked to the Plaza Francia stopping to see the giant robotic flower “Floralis Generica” monument along the way. The flower is stunningly beautiful and opens and closes daily.
By the time we reached the Plaza Francia we were already hot and tired but this is by far the best market in the city (in my opinion anyway). The booths in the main circle are all manned (according to their rules anyway) artisans who handcraft their goods. The quality and selection of the crafts here are fantastic. I would not suggest a visit to Buenos Aires without visiting this market. I would also suggest that you take at least a couple of hours to visit. Since the market backs up on the design mall you may even consider taking a break in one of the many restaurants in the design mall while visiting the market.
We were completely exhausted after walking around the market and decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up and relax for awhile.
Since we had spent a long day seeing the sights we decided to have dinner at the nearby Puerto Madero even though we had felt it was a bit touristy when we had walked there the previous night. It was nearby and we had read that there was a good value Parrilla there called La Bistecca. We decided that we would take a taxi to save our legs.
If you love buffets here in North America, you’ll love La Bistecca. For us this is really not our thing. I’d rather have a small amount of high quality food than a huge amount of average food. Overall it was a fine experience we have fun being together and the food was fine just not great. Again we found that the vegetables are not particularly well prepared. There is a lot of meat choice and also you can have pizza and pasta made to order as part of the all inclusive buffet. Our bill including wine was 171 pesos.
Read Other Posts In This Series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part XI
Part XII
Part XIII
Part XIV
Part XV
Part XVI
Part XVII
Tags: buenos aires travel
