Touring in Montevideo

We began our day of touring by visiting the Uruguay American School, where host Mike Schramm is director and Jean Schramm teaches.

 Then thanks to travel advice from Tony Quinn, we visited the Museo de Futbol, located in a corner of the Estadio Centenario, the stadium where the first World Cup was played in 1930 (where the US had its highest ever World Cup finish).

Paul in Estadio Centenario

Cabinet about the 1930 USMNT

The museum was an especial hit with Nancy and Jean because Uruguay's oldest professional team, Albion, carries the same name as their home town in Michigan.

Jean and Nancy with framed futbol jerseys etc

Mostly, though, the museum was a paean to Uruguay's past soccer glories: two Olympics victories in the 1920's, World Cup victories in 1930 and 1950, plus a passel of youth championships, memorialized with posters, photos, newspaper headlines and the like.

Newspaper front page commemorating Uruguay's win over Holland in the 1930 World Cup semifinal

One photo of each goal scored by Uruguay in the 1930 final

Then we drove to the Old City, where we gawked at the Palacio Salvo on the Plaza Independencia before spending a couple of hours visiting banks to try to solve a serious problem -- our ATM card was not working (we managed to get a large cash advance in the end).

Palacio Salvo behind Plaza Independencia

An old street sign

Then we went to the Mercado del Puerto, a collection of grilling restaurants.  We had some excellent fish and sweet potato -- it took sending the first beef dish back to get a tender plate, but the grilled chicken as hopelessly dry.

Entrance to the Mercado del Puerto

We drove home along La Rambla, eventually looking back to see the downtown skyline in the distance.