Company's coming !

My sister-in-law  "N" and her son "D" ,  will be visiting Buenos Aires ( and us) for 10 days, arriving this Friday morning. 
I have tried to be very organized and made my own little calendar of days with big squares with plenty of room to pencil in all the activities, times and locations of fun that I can think of for each day.
I have a section just for ideas for Where to Go ... Where to Eat ... Things l know my Sis-in-law will like .  One of them is easy. A book store. 
My sister in law is a bookworm. Of course, I, the child of a bookworm, married to a bookworm, mother of bookworms, would have a sister in law who is a bookworm. 


When I was pregnant with my son, we used to visit on Sundays and on the way out the door at the end of the day, she would hand me a shopping bag full of  books to read. 
That woman kept me sane through winters with a wild 4 year old and a newborn... and on through the years, she has been my Book source and we always still have plenty to say about authors of this and that book.

So of course, I will take her to El Ateneo. 
The building was designed for Max Glucksman, by Pero and Torres Armengol. It opened as a theatre in 1919. Late in the 1920's it was a cinema, then in 2000, it became a book store.. And what a book store!
 I especially like sitting in the Art Book section and looking through design books or books on Picasso and Monet. 
                                                                  

I want to take them to all the museums but since Buenos Aires has over 100 museums, I will settle for some that we especially like. The Fine Arts Museum, 

The Eva Peron Museum.. the music is worth going back again and then after the museum we will have a lovely lunch in the museum cafe. Brie quiche and Sidre ( alcoholic cider that is perfect with quiche in the afternoon).

The Museum of Decorative Arts , in a palacial home of the daughter of one of the founding fathers of Buenos Aires. When she died, her husband gave the home to the city as a museum. 
Room after room of marble and crystal chandeliers and gold leaf and always an interesting visiting Art show . 
My favorites have been collections. How about the collection of snuff boxes. Or Chinese porcelains.. that one gave me ideas, I'll tell you!
And you can wander throughout the museum ( mansion) and see the rooms they lived in, some of the furniture and then have lunch in the cafe out where the gate house used to be.


And then there is the Recoleta Cemetery. 

If you have seen Pere LaChaise in Paris, this is similar but not. This is walled in, paved walks and completely cared for and kept up. Some of the most beautiful Art Nouveau and Art Deco and just amazing works of art, all crypts and mausoleums.
Some famous people that most people know the names of ( Eva Duarte -Peron) as well as those many of us don't know but seeing the memorial to them is quite affecting and makes you want to know more about them.
And then there are the cats. I have no idea how many but many little cats live in Recoleta Cemetery. They are cared for by the people who live in the area and they are quite a sight, sitting placidly in the sun, in front of a massive marble mausoleum ..


There is so much more on my list but you get the idea. She will probably have to go straight to bed when she goes back home, to recuperate from her overly enthusiastic tour guide sister -in-law.


It is going to be so much fun !


Because of this, you might find that I am not posting every day or very short posts. Who knows, I might wear myself out and need a vacation too .