strolling with the rich and famous

Oh Thursday. The last day to play tourist with these other foreigners. I did my teacherly duties in the morning, and joined the few who were still up for looking at more things for the afternoon.

The afternoon's agenda: the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, a museum, art gallery, library (which was closed :-( ), and a park. Mr. Brennand has an impressive collection and has shared them with the public, with headquarters that look like a castle. Why not, right?

With copies of things like Michelangelo's David and Rodin's The Thinker, the man has expensive tastes. He has collections of art from when the Dutch lived in the northeast of Brazil as well as many other pieces. Only some of these are protected by motion or heat sensors, so you can get pretty close to some of them. 

Wikipedia tells me that his armoury has nearly 3,000 pieces, including swords with Egyptian gold, coats of armour, an old Bible that did not have a plaque to date it, and a room of clocks, including a replica of the Big Ben.  

this sword is actually a gun

did I mention the armoury has a moat? 

One of my favourite moments was meeting an elderly gentleman who kindly welcomed us, said something nice about each of our names, and wished us a pleasant day. It wasn't until after that we realized we had met Mr. Brennand himself who was giving some guests a personal tour of his grounds. Since he owns everything, he was allowed to play the old bells that were hung in the armoury and play the pipe organ also housed there. Why not, right? He patiently posed on pictures with many eager tourists, so we didn't want to impose any further on him. However, here he is proudly showing off this old music box:

the Brennand himself

He also had what was probably an original jukebox, which one of the employees played for us. The selections were limited, but Verdi's "Le Trouvere" came out clearly.

We slowly made our way back to the car. Well, to be honest, I made my way slowly back to the car and the others had to wait for me to catch up. But who can resist the scenery?

a slightly dark view of the driveway. not too shabby…

I was particularly interested in these birds that  rested on the trees like blossoms. At first glance, I believed them to be flowers until they started moving. I couldn't get a great picture of them as I had to stand on tiptoe in order to focus my zoom lens over the hedge, so take this picture and times it by ten to get an idea of how many birds there were.

Sunsets here are spectacular, but short - none of these lingering rays of light that we have in southern Ontario. Like the demanding photo-taker I am, I asked if the car could be stopped to take a few pictures of the landscape.

A final hurrah was held in the evening as we once again clambered into the vehicles for an outing, this time for a brief one of drinks and appetizers. I remember more of the late homecoming than the actual party, unfortunately, as my sleepy state was jolted awake when I found the door locked and barred. This isn't what you want to find late at night when you just want to crawl into bed. Thankfully one of the family members heard my timid by desperate knock and let me in.

No admonitions met me in the morning, only apologies, which probably won't curb my late night gallivanting, but I'm not too keen on the late nights here when the sun pours through the windows bright and early in the morning. My newfound friends were leaving that morning, and I managed to make my tousle-headed way to say goodbye to them.

And so life has quietly returned to more of a schedule with many pleasant memories added to the collection that will come home with me.