Rio de Janeiro - 2004
In April-May 2004 we had our third around-the-world trip. In 54 days we travelled to Auckland, Tahiti, Easter Island,
Santiago, Lima, Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Sillustani, Lake Titicaca, Puno, Cusco, Sacsayhuman, Tambomachay, Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes,
Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo, Posada Amazonas, Ica, Nazca, Paracas, Ballestas Islands, Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Itaipu Dam,
Rio de Janeiro, London, St. Petersburg and Singapore.
Portuguese sailor Gaspar de Lemos entered a huge bay in January 1502.
Mistaking it for a river, he named it Rio de Janeiro (January River).
Catedral de São Sebastiaõ Do Rio de Janeiro.
It is a striking design and I put it on a par with the Blue Mosque in Istanbul as one of the most beautiful buildings that I have seen.
Completed in 1976, it is an 8-sided pyramidal building, almost conical in shape.
Outstanding 60m high stained-glass windows transform the interior, which is 80m high and 96m in diameter,
into a warm yet serious place of worship that accommodates up to 20,000 people.
Margaret says that it is the most impressive building that she has seen ... better that her previous best,
the monument to the children lost in the holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
An astonishingly beautiful and moving building inside,
Margaret found that to her it created, encompassed and engendered an amazing spirituality.
Nearby is another striking building, the headquarters of a petroleum company.
Arcos da Carioca, once an old aqueduct that connected the springs sprouting from the hills in Santa Teresa
with the Centre at Carioca Square where slaves used to collect water for houses there.
It was converted into a tram system at the beginning of the 20th century.
Maracanã Stadium
Built for the 1950 World Cup it holds 150,000 and is the largest soccer stadium in the world
(they also claimed that record at the stadium in Prague in the Czech Republic when were there).
Pelé scored his 1000th goal here.
Our loud, flamboyant guide (and transvestite?), Sergio at the Sambodromo (Samba Parade Stadium)
where the famous Mardi Gras is held each February.
In April-May 2004 we had our third around-the-world trip. In 54 days we travelled to Auckland, Tahiti, Easter Island,
Santiago, Lima, Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Sillustani, Lake Titicaca, Puno, Cusco, Sacsayhuman, Tambomachay, Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes,
Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo, Posada Amazonas, Ica, Nazca, Paracas, Ballestas Islands, Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Itaipu Dam,
Rio de Janeiro, London, St. Petersburg and Singapore.
Portuguese sailor Gaspar de Lemos entered a huge bay in January 1502.
Mistaking it for a river, he named it Rio de Janeiro (January River).
Catedral de São Sebastiaõ Do Rio de Janeiro.
It is a striking design and I put it on a par with the Blue Mosque in Istanbul as one of the most beautiful buildings that I have seen.
Completed in 1976, it is an 8-sided pyramidal building, almost conical in shape.
Outstanding 60m high stained-glass windows transform the interior, which is 80m high and 96m in diameter,
into a warm yet serious place of worship that accommodates up to 20,000 people.
It is in the central part of Rio.
The architect was Edgard da Fonseca and it took 12 years to build.
Margaret says that it is the most impressive building that she has seen ... better that her previous best,
the monument to the children lost in the holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
An astonishingly beautiful and moving building inside,
Margaret found that to her it created, encompassed and engendered an amazing spirituality.
Nearby is another striking building, the headquarters of a petroleum company.
Arcos da Carioca, once an old aqueduct that connected the springs sprouting from the hills in Santa Teresa
with the Centre at Carioca Square where slaves used to collect water for houses there.
It was converted into a tram system at the beginning of the 20th century.
Maracanã Stadium
Built for the 1950 World Cup it holds 150,000 and is the largest soccer stadium in the world
(they also claimed that record at the stadium in Prague in the Czech Republic when were there).
Pelé scored his 1000th goal here.
Our loud, flamboyant guide (and transvestite?), Sergio at the Sambodromo (Samba Parade Stadium)
where the famous Mardi Gras is held each February.
Rio was great. It came at the end of 40 fantastic days in South America.
We
flew from Rio to São Paulo (¾ hour and 2 hours on the plane on the
ground there)
and then on a 12 hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean to
Heathrow, London.
