Belo Horizonte

We got up and booked a tour of the city. Within 1/2 an hour we had at our disposal: a guide, an interpreter and a driver. We then did a whistle stop tour of Belo Horizonte, including such sights as Oscar Neimeyer buildings ...

 

Building by Oscar

The second biggest covered football stadium in the world (after the Maracana in Rio)

 

Large

We saw the dressing rooms, the warm-up areas and the chapel. It was great. We then went to see the church by the lake (another Niemeyer creation).

 

Symbolism

We liked our tour so much that we booked the same trio for a day trip the next day to Ouro Preto.

Lunch was in our first Kilo restaurant. These are common in Brazil and are basically a buffet of all sorts of things that you pay for by weight. The food was fresh and very tasty. We had to share a table ... very un-British.

We decided to see when we could catch the train to Vitoria. Everyone seems to say it is an amazing journey. 12 hours by train or 45 mins by plane. In the end we had no choice ... the train was fully booked until the end of the year. With that plan scuppered, we headed back to the hotel for a swim. In the rain.


Swimming in the rain

After chatting to our new friend for a while, we went to the other side of town for a yummy dinner. Back late for an unsettled night's sleep, after negotiating a late check-out that let us have a quick break between our tour and leaving for the airport.