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BRASILIA, a CAPITAL that should not be missed
Entry 22 of 26 | show all | print this entry |
BRASILIA
This city is something really special, it is just over 50 years old and even now it is so futuristic that every city and town planner should be made to see just what wonders can be achieved. I realize that the Brazilians started from scratch but the result is truly outstanding. Somehow in my imagination Brasilia was built in an area of the Amazon and surrounded by jungle type landscape, how wrong I was. It sits in the heart of in semi tropical farmed land, it is gloriously green at this time of the year, (April), it is extremely clean, quite wealthy, welcoming, modern of course and not really difficult to get to!
The first impression is of space, the second is of the wonderful architecture of the vast majority of the buildings and the third is of how peaceful it is considering it is the heart and capital of Brazil where all the functions of government take part for this vast country. The city was built in the shape of a drawn bow and arrow, the arrow head being the presidential palace, the shaft is where the Congress is together with the Courts of Justice and all the departments of government are situated either side of an extremely wide roadway. Next are the museums and the magnificent cathedral followed by the top class hotels where the visitors, delegates and foreign dignitaries stay. Beyond these are the apartments of the people who live in the center of the city.
When I say it is a wide roadway it is because it defies the normal concept of a road. In fact it consists of a double and a 6 lane roadway divided by a wide island, (all one way traffic), then a very broad park like area about 5 or 7 hundred yards wide where you can wander on the lush green grass, then another 6 and 2 lanes in the opposite direction. The traffic right in the middle of this capital flows smoothly and quickly in and out of the city. Wonderful!
The museums and the cathedral are magnificent, the designs by the now 99 year old architect Oscar Neimeyer have to be seen to be believed, there are his original sketches on display and you can see just how his minimalistic lines based on the female form have been translated into such beautiful buildings.
Brasilia is expensive BUT with so many 4 and 5 star hotels empty of government visitors at weekends you can get a full suite with all the luxuries for a third or even a quarter of the listed prices. We splashed out 40 pounds a night and saw everything we wanted to in three days. The buildings, the parks and even the shops, you could´`t do that in Paris or London.
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I am well behind with my blogging at the moment mainly because we are always on the move, even when relaxing.
Today one of the joys of travel was the news from home
There are numerous reasons to travel, new sights, meeting people, discovering how others live and cope with their differing ways of life, experiencing different cultures an even different climates and of course meeting similar minded people.
Here on the clean silver sandy beach, in the shade of the palms with the warm sea inviting me back into it´s gentle lapping waves there is a beer by my side. A cooling soft breeze blows in from the brilliant blue ocean and the coral reef is only a hundred yards away. A text from the UK informs me that today in Brighton the snow this morning is ankle deep.
YES TODAY I KNOW OF ONE GOOD REASON WHY I TRAVEL!
Take care of yourselves whatever you have chosen to do. Love to family and friends,(XXX), best regards to everyone else, Peter Tyler
Where I stayed:
Pousada Aconchege
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