A Stadium With History

The forecast for 7am was 60% chance of rain, instead it was 25 degrees, humid and the sun already felt like it was beating down. The only saving grace was a slight breeze on the sea front as I trudged up and down for 5 miles. I thought I'd cool off in the hotel's indoor pool but that turned out to be nearly the same temperature as the jacuzzi.

After the included breakfast we walked up to the Estadio Centenario, the stadium that hosted the first world cup final in 1930, that Uruguay won. It was built in 1929 and it doesn't look as though too much has been spent on it in the last 96 years. The national team still play there and have a good record playing at home. The museum had some interesting artifacts from the 1930 and 1950 world cup wins, shirts, boots, medals and a copy of the Jules Rimet trophy.

We walked there and picked up the washing on the way back, only around 3.5 miles but it was an effort in the heat. In the afternoon we took an Uber to the old town and had a walk around.

The receptionist in our hotel said the old town was a very interesting place to visit but we should leave before 5pm as it then becomes much quieter and less safe. Well, dangerous in her words, but I put that down to translation. You could see what she meant though, it was a lot grittier than where we are staying. Lots of graffiti, iron bars on windows, beggars and homelessness. One bloke even tried a pharmacy scam on me that I'd previously read about. You did get that sense that once people were off the streets it would have an uncomfortable feel about it.

We were told that for every person in Uruguay there are 4 cows, so in the evening we thought we would try a steak restaurant, to help them out. The food was lovely but the portions were huge, 350g of meat, that's three quarters of a pound! We took our time and got there eventually, as I also did with my litre of beer.Читать далее