Rio De Janeiro - March 15th
Our first full day in Rio starts with a walk along
Copacabana beach. This is a lovely walk
and as it is a nice day the beach is fairly busy even though it is a
Thursday. There are people playing beach
volleyball, futvolley, and jogging, and it all looks pretty great, especially
with all the tall buildings in the background and the mountains at the end of
the beach. Still there is a thought in
the back of the mind are these people here on a Thursday because they are
tourists, rich, retired, or because they don’t have a job. There is a police presence along the beach
front and life guard posts at fixed intervals, so it does feel safe
enough. Add to that all the kiosks and
very cleverly disguised toilet/locker rooms and it is one of the best serviced
beaches I have seen.
We walk as far as the tourist office, get some advice, which
didn’t tell us much we didn’t know, and then we head off by metro to the centre
of town. Apparently this can only be
visited on weekdays (and definitely not after dark) so we want to get it out of
the way. We are mostly going to follow
the Lonely Planet walking tour in our guide book, but we will add a couple of
diversions for other sights. It all begins
well enough; we start in Praca Floriana which I guess is an equivalent of Trafalgar
Square. It is quite a nice square with
old buildings on half of it, and big new office buildings on the other half, an
interesting contrast.
After that it is into the pedestrianized shopping streets,
where Dorota gets a little shopping in at the same time. There is an old convent up on the hill which
contains the oldest church in town but it is being renovated, presumably for
the World Cup and Olympics, so we continue on our way without visiting it. Lonely Planet recommends taking a coffee break
in a café called Café Colombo, and it is well worth doing because this is one
of the most amazing locations we have eaten in on this trip, with old mirrors
and gold all around. The cakes are
pretty good too.
Immediately after this we detour for some more shopping and
in one of those amazing coincidences we pass by a bar named Costello. Right on the main shopping street. It has to be visited, but it isn’t yet
lunchtime, so we go off and visit a number of colonial locations ourselves
first. Interestingly these are not on
the Lonely Planet walking tour. For some
reason they do not have you visit the best church, the old imperial palace, or
the main cultural centre. However we do
and this brings us neatly to lunch time where we go back to Costello’s and I
have a pint and a steak which were very good.
After lunch we complete the Lonely Planet tour. For some reason it brings us to a square,
Praca Tiradentes, which isn’t very nice, an area of town called Saara which is
just full of junk sellers, and a park, Campo de Santana, which is just plain
scary. It then continues down Rua do
Lavradio which it says is a great shopping street. Dorota was convinced we were on the wrong
street because it was bad. Our guide
book is 4 years old, and things do change, but I do have to wonder at who wrote
this tour, and what they were thinking of when they wrote it.
However the best was saved for last. We reach the cathedral which is an amazing
modern building, looking like an upturned dustbin. Inside are some amazing stained glass windows,
and even better, all around are modern buildings with reflective glass so you
get good pictures of the building in reflection. After this we go under an intriguing
aqueduct turned tram line, and up a beautifully decorated tiled flight of
stairs. This work of art is constantly
being added to and has tiles from all over the world, so we have some fun
seeking out the relevant ones for us.
Having said that this attraction is in Lapa, the Samba capital of Rio,
and it looks pretty dodgy. It is getting
dark so we aren’t hanging around, and we get the metro home. The metro isn’t as efficient as the one in
Sao Paulo, but it is pretty safe.
Because we have a big lunch, and because we can self-cater, we go
shopping in a local supermarket and decide to eat in this evening.
Our first full day in Rio starts with a walk along
Copacabana beach. This is a lovely walk
and as it is a nice day the beach is fairly busy even though it is a
Thursday. There are people playing beach
volleyball, futvolley, and jogging, and it all looks pretty great, especially
with all the tall buildings in the background and the mountains at the end of
the beach. Still there is a thought in
the back of the mind are these people here on a Thursday because they are
tourists, rich, retired, or because they don’t have a job. There is a police presence along the beach
front and life guard posts at fixed intervals, so it does feel safe
enough. Add to that all the kiosks and
very cleverly disguised toilet/locker rooms and it is one of the best serviced
beaches I have seen.
We walk as far as the tourist office, get some advice, which
didn’t tell us much we didn’t know, and then we head off by metro to the centre
of town. Apparently this can only be
visited on weekdays (and definitely not after dark) so we want to get it out of
the way. We are mostly going to follow
the Lonely Planet walking tour in our guide book, but we will add a couple of
diversions for other sights. It all begins
well enough; we start in Praca Floriana which I guess is an equivalent of Trafalgar
Square. It is quite a nice square with
old buildings on half of it, and big new office buildings on the other half, an
interesting contrast.
After that it is into the pedestrianized shopping streets,
where Dorota gets a little shopping in at the same time. There is an old convent up on the hill which
contains the oldest church in town but it is being renovated, presumably for
the World Cup and Olympics, so we continue on our way without visiting it. Lonely Planet recommends taking a coffee break
in a café called Café Colombo, and it is well worth doing because this is one
of the most amazing locations we have eaten in on this trip, with old mirrors
and gold all around. The cakes are
pretty good too.
Immediately after this we detour for some more shopping and
in one of those amazing coincidences we pass by a bar named Costello. Right on the main shopping street. It has to be visited, but it isn’t yet
lunchtime, so we go off and visit a number of colonial locations ourselves
first. Interestingly these are not on
the Lonely Planet walking tour. For some
reason they do not have you visit the best church, the old imperial palace, or
the main cultural centre. However we do
and this brings us neatly to lunch time where we go back to Costello’s and I
have a pint and a steak which were very good.
After lunch we complete the Lonely Planet tour. For some reason it brings us to a square,
Praca Tiradentes, which isn’t very nice, an area of town called Saara which is
just full of junk sellers, and a park, Campo de Santana, which is just plain
scary. It then continues down Rua do
Lavradio which it says is a great shopping street. Dorota was convinced we were on the wrong
street because it was bad. Our guide
book is 4 years old, and things do change, but I do have to wonder at who wrote
this tour, and what they were thinking of when they wrote it.
However the best was saved for last. We reach the cathedral which is an amazing
modern building, looking like an upturned dustbin. Inside are some amazing stained glass windows,
and even better, all around are modern buildings with reflective glass so you
get good pictures of the building in reflection. After this we go under an intriguing
aqueduct turned tram line, and up a beautifully decorated tiled flight of
stairs. This work of art is constantly
being added to and has tiles from all over the world, so we have some fun
seeking out the relevant ones for us.
Having said that this attraction is in Lapa, the Samba capital of Rio,
and it looks pretty dodgy. It is getting
dark so we aren’t hanging around, and we get the metro home. The metro isn’t as efficient as the one in
Sao Paulo, but it is pretty safe.
Because we have a big lunch, and because we can self-cater, we go
shopping in a local supermarket and decide to eat in this evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment