Centro

Well, sorry I've been quiet for a couple of days but I'm sure you'll
agree Gareth has held the reigns more than adequately (in fact you may
prefer that he was writing - but hey-ho). It's just we've packed so
much into every day that when we arrive home, we're utterly exausted
(or zorstid as we O'Neill's like to say - actually it's just me,
zorstid isn't catching on as I'd hoped...).
So as G will have told you, our third day took us on our first experience
of the metro (where a crazy person told to 'avoid crazy people' in Centro) and
our destination was Centro which is the old centre of Rio and has
some impressive stately buildings. The side streets are also
interesting as you can see the Portuguese heritage in all of the
architecture.
We stopped off for sustenance at an amazing restaurant with ornately
high ceilings, mirrors adorning every wall and more Portuguese
architecture. Even the Brazilians took photos. But soon we were
absorbed by plates of toasted bread, jams, fabulous cakes and tea from
china cups.
Our walking tour of the city took us through a market selling
everything you could wish for but the girls and I were only interested
in the shops selling Havianas! Flip-flops purchased we visited a
Charlie Chaplin exhibition that we all enjoyed then repented our
consumer avarice in a gorgeous old church.
With aching feet and cold from the heavy rain that had commenced, we
re-embarked the metro back to Ipanema to eat a strange but satisfying
home made meal of scrambled egg, cheese, olives and bread.