And now...
Here we are at the Hotel Montevideo, perfectly comfortable and very pleasant. Just not home.
This morning, we’ve been for about an hour’s walk, during which we picked up a few bits and pieces; toiletries from the Farmacia, nuts and chocolate (!) and a couple of bottles of fruit juice from the local equivalent of a 7-11.
As we approached the shop’s entrance, we noticed a woman (waiting for a bus) sitting on a wall eating an ice cream.
Well, of course we did! We joined her sitting on the wall and enjoyed this “excess of saturated fat, excess of sugar and excess of fat” because my word, it tasted good!
The streets around here are quite busy, mostly one way, which turns them into what we’d call “rat runs”; short cuts to avoid traffic lights and to get there quicker (it doesn’t usually work!) I think the traffic lights must have been on red when I took the picture, for that junction is really busy.
The pavements around here are uneven and not very well maintained, so I watched my step very carefully indeed. No way did I want to fall and break something now!
The fresh air and sunshine felt good and even after an hour of walking, mostly uphill on the way back, I felt fine. No hint of breathlessness or anything. Great!
When I was thinking of this post this morning, I took a few photos at breakfast. Quite a change from those hospital trays, isn’t it?
So, where are we now? I’ll offer an update interspersed with one or two hotel pictures, some from a book which is in our room. It seems the hotel was a huge design project in 2016 and it’s fascinating to see how nothing - not even the flowerpot arrangements - has changed since then. It still looks beautiful…
I particularly love the tiled walls and bar front in the dining room.
I returned to the dining room when breakfast had finished to take a few more photos of the lovely design details in there.
The decorative details are beautiful.
It’s Friday today and our cancelled flight home departed about half an hour ago. Communication is not our insurers strongest point - I think you’ve probably got that far from the conversation about needing a Doctor to fly with me, which came so late in the day in terms of my hospital stay. Yesterday, they called to say a Doctor would visit me in our hotel to check how I was doing. We asked for an idea of when that might be - it was late afternoon when this conversation took place. “Oh, probably this evening” came the reply.
The rooftop bar has a great view of the city and is popular with locals.
We were planning to go and have dinner up at the Rooftop bar, so left a message at Reception to say that, should a Doctor arrive looking for us, that was where we’d likely be.
The hotel reception area is stylish and beautifully designed, with murals on both the walls. The other two sides are floor to ceiling glass.
We enjoyed our dinner and returned to our room around 8pm. No Doctor so far.
Our room is comfortable and in keeping with the design of the hotel, to the very last detail.
We wondered just how late to expect this Doctor’s arrival? My medication schedule needs me to take the last pills of the day at 11pm and we decided that, if they hadn’t arrived by then, well hard luck.
The corridor ouside our room has a distinctive carpet!
Well, of course, it came as no surprise to us that no Doctor turned up at all. Did I say that communication isn’t our insurer’s strongest asset?
This picture hangs by the lifts and though distinctive, it lacks the punch of those Sofitel gauchos!!
This morning, whilst sitting in the lobby because our room was being cleaned, the insurers rang again. Yet again came the questionnaire I have answered so many times, with a couple of additions. Did I need crutches to walk? Errrm…no. And then there came the observation that I was speaking in full sentences, which was good. What? When I said that I hadn’t realised that was a condition of being allowed home, there came the explanation that sometimes, people can’t complete a sentence without gasping for breath. OK…I see the relevance of that question now.
Artwork in our room is a movie poster. Just how young is Harrison Ford there!?
The jaw-dropping moment came towards the end of that conversation, when I was advised that I sounded so well, I’d probably not need to be accompanied on the flight by a doctor at all.
I’ll leave you to imagine my expression.
The rooftop bar has both indoor and an outdoor seating (this picture from the book)
This afternoon, just before the end of play in British offices, my Hero received an email. They had discussed my case with their senior medical adviser, had spoken to the doctor who had cared for me at the hospital and confirmed, no doctor was needed to fly with us. The manager of that department had now contacted a travel agent to see what options they could offer. Oh, and he confirmed that they had extended our hotel stay until Sunday 25th.
The image of the tiled dining room bar in the book is so very much better than mine!!
So here we are. Still. No idea of when we might fly home, again we await further instructions. Frustrating? Indeed it is. Can we do anything? Sadly not.
The book from which a couple of the photos were taken. No ISBN reference or anything, but a great reference to the designer, his work and, in particular, the design of this hotel.
Who knew we had such patience? Not I. But then in a situation such as this, we are simply relieved that I am feeling good, seem to be fully recovered and we have a comfortable place to stay. It’s certainly not home, where we’d dearly love to be right now, but once we get that instruction to fly, whatever route they offer, we’ll be on it.
What’s more, there’s a bar of chocolate and a bag of peanut M&Ms over there on the table - and we now know where we can get more!! Just consider it my exercise for the day 😉
