to our favorite spot--Gramado--a city in the mountains founded by German immigrants, and according to our friend, Matt who has been to Germany, looks just like Germany. After missing my husband for a whole month (and he, me) Mr. D took off on a trip on Monday morning, while I was still suffering from jet lag having arrived late Saturday afternoon. So, he promised we would "get away" when he returned the following Wednesday. My daughter, Patricia,and her daughter, Julia offered to stay with me those days to help me settle in and that was so special since they would have to return home by bus with all the paraphernalia, ie. a walker, car seat, huge suitcase, huge bag of merchandise for store, baby bag, two panetonnes (Italian fruit cake) ...and the baby! It was quite the process for these two women to get all those things from the parking lot to the bus station in Porto Alegre!!!!) Well, on Wednesday morning Mr. D. arrived well rested after riding the bus all night, and we proceeded to our get-a-way at noon. This time of year the city of Gramado hosts a big Christmas production that brings in tourists from all over Brazil. In fact, on the last leg of my journey back to Brazil, I sat next to two families who were flying from northeastern Brazil just to see the spectacle called "Natal Luz" or Christmas Light. Our first night we attended a show of sound and light on a lake featuring lyric tenors and a soprano singing from little stages built on the lake. That was accompanied by laser lights, fireworks and beautiful, beautiful Christmas music. The show started out with the reading of Gen. 1:1 and the explanation of how man sinned and needed a Savior followed by a rendition of "Amazing Grace" in English. It was 40 minutes of beauty. The second night we attended the traditional Christmas parade at 9:30 p.m. that rivaled Broadway! (Well, okay, maybe I exaggerated a little, but it was close!)
A lot of rich people live in this town or come here to shop (as one quickly discovers by the price tags on merchandise) so we mainly looked. The chandeliers in this photo are made from plastic two-liter pop bottles as are a lot of the fancy decorations. 
Left behind--Santa forgot this reindeer and he ended up crying behind a shed until I found him.
This street was a curtain of light with the strangest-looking collection of reindeer.
This is the entrance to "Reindeer Row" ( my catchy name for this street.)
Our get-away took us to far away places like Europe. It is astounding how fast and far one can travel these days.
On the banks of a famous river, whose name I've forgotten, but I think it is in Venice.
And to think we got caught in a snowstorm. Fortunately I had my leather jacket with me.
1 comment:
Thanks, Kate. It's nice to have you along...
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