Boxing Day and the next

Our dinner Christmas Day was the best food we have had to date in Argentina! Lisa had a mouth watering steak while Christos once more had the salmon (gout stay away!). Both were excellent. For Boxing Day we were picked up around 10am for a day of bike riding but unforeseen opportunities changed our plans. Before we left Posada Salentein, the local old dog (Mitre), whom we had befriended, decided to take us for a walk around the grounds!

It was really quite touching. After breakfast, we visited the art gallery on the grounds of Posada Salentein which was pretty cool; a mixture of 19th century Dutch paintings, 20th century Argentinian paintings and Argentinian sculpture.

Our guides then suggested we go on the Salentein winery tour and it was worth it. The founder of the Salentein estates is a rich Dutchman and he spared no expense at the winery. Tasting was in an underground room with a huge marble table (perhaps four metres long, a metre wide and half a metre thick). The winery produces some 2m bottles per year, much more than other places we have visited on the trip. We finally got back on the road around 1pm so we were decidedly late for the biking. In any case, Lisa decided to stick with her strengths and passed on biking for the day. We arrived at our next stop, Posada Borravino, around 3pm and our guides started making a yummy lunch of sandwiches and toasted wraps for us. It took some time for lunch or get to our table but by 4:30pm lunch was done and we were stuffed. Christos went out for a short ride, Lisa lounged by the pool and our guides took off with plans to meet us the day after the next for more wine and bike fun. After relaxing for a few hours, it was off to dinner at a restaurant called "Hand of God" which is owned by the same people who own the first winery we visited on the trip. It was a half hour walk to the restaurant so we worked up a good hunger by the time we sat down. Dinner was an interesting experience .... The food was good (really yummy bruschetta and salad) but the service was literally the worst we have ever experienced. It was so bad we had to just roll with it and appreciate the experience for what it was! Our server was a cute dark haired girl who Christos was convinced was a "blonde" in spirit if not in appearance! She took forever with our water, messed up our order, took forever with our wine (which she opened and then plonked down on the table without pouring) and generally made a mess of the whole affair. The crazy thing was we were one of only two tables she had! The other table was a Canadian family so we bonded over the mutual experience ... They had some upside though as the husband ordered the five 2oz glass wine tasting menu but each glass was a free pour and was a full glass at least. We suspect he slept well! We finished dinner after 11pm and wandered back to our hotel where we polished off a half bottle of Sauvignon Blanc while listening to a live band play golden oldies next door until 1am for a local's birthday party!