Another certificate, Sindhu celebration and a slow Montevideo walk

We had been instructed by Janice, our delightful server in The Glass House that we must call by for a drink before we went to Sindhu, so she could see my dress. We got chatting, as we have each time we’ve seen her, and I enquired about her name. She certainly doesn’t look like a Janice. She laughed and said that when she was born, her dad had been watching a film with a Janice in it and that, as they say, is history. Feeling it wise to stick with the pop, we continued our celebrations with a lovely glass of Taittinger. 

Then, having moved our meal time at Sindhu three times, we hot-footed off for a gastronomic experience. We’ve done Sindhu a number of times before and it doesn’t disappoint. We had deliberately not visited during our holiday so far as we wanted to wait for our Anniversary for it to be extra special, though I know we’ll have another visit back there before we conclude this tour.

We were congratulated profusely and taken to a window seat just as the sun was starting to set. Perfect. It was a bit of a no-brainer on the wine front. A bottle of the Silk and Spice. It’s the law, we always have that in Sindhu. It’s nothing particularly special, it’s a Portuguese blend, but as the name suggests, it goes perfectly well with Indian cuisine. 

I went all-out fish, whereas Nick went full-on meat. Scallops and prawns for me, beef chapatis and then a duck-fest for Nick. Then some rather icky sticky sweet desserts and petits fours. It was all immaculately served, by Elvis, our lovely Indian server. It was truly special. Everything is super fresh and the detail perfect.

We returned to our room, sat out on the balcony where Nick promptly fell asleep. There you go, that’s the reality of 25 years of marriage! But hey, we are now the proud owners of our ceremony at sea, renewal of vows certificates. I’ve pondered why we have two. I guess it’s for when we split up, we won’t have to decide who gets custody of the certificate. One less thing to fight over eh!?

This morning I was rudely awoken twice. First up by a commotion and clatter as we arrived in Montevideo at 6am. I blearily surveyed the vista and decided the noise of the dock wasn’t going to subside, but would only get worse, so promptly shut our balcony door and went back to sleep. Only to be woken again at 7am by the Deputy Captain’s announcement that we had safely docked. Thankfully these announcements aren’t made in our cabins, but being bat-ears, I can still hear them being announced in the corridors. Meanwhile, Nick slept through everything.

It has to be said, it was a slow start this morning. We agreed we’d ‘got away with it’ on the alcohol front, but also agree…or at least I did, that I needed a night off tonight, just to give my liver a fighting chance to regroup after yesterday.

 

After breakfast, we took a walk into Montevideo. It’s a bit of a mish-mash of old, new, ugly 60s concrete buildings, shaded parks and more museums than you can shake a stick at. We were told that Uruguay was generally the safest of the South American countries. It certainly felt that way. The dock is very close to the town centre, so no need for a shuttle bus or taxi. We picked up a map and did the sights. We did a fair amount of sitting in parks under trees, just to keep away from the heat. Today is 29 degrees. It really is quite draining and we ambled throughout the city being proper tourists. 

On one of our rests, we were approached by Bruno Salvo, a charming guy who was trying to sell us his Spanish poetry book. He told us that it would help us learn Spanish quickly. We had a good-natured chat with him and at one point I really thought Nick was going to cave in. The poetry “book” (AKA basically a little bigger than a pamphlet) was being sold for a mere £10. “It’s cheap, I’m not trying to make money on it,” Bruno told us. He finally got the message that, even though we were smiling and having a laugh with him, we were not going to buy his Spanish poetry book. But he left insisting we check him out of Instagram.

I have to admit to being slightly baffled as to why we’re anchored in Montevideo for two days. Maybe on our full-day tour tomorrow we’ll get a greater feel of the place. Two days in Rio made perfect sense because of the vastness of the city and the volume of things to do. Here feels considerably smaller for such a lengthy stop. We’ll see. Tonight we have a Uruguayan Tango show. Should be spectacular.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all your best wishes for our big day yesterday. It has been so lovely feeling your excitement and enthusiasm for our event. It lived up to expectations, and more.