Number 16 - Palácio Guanabara

Next out in the series "how to prepare for a Royal visit" is Palácio Guanabara. This beautiful palace situated in the neighborhood of Laranjeiras is the headquarter of the Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

The palace was built in 1853, and from 1865 it was the residence of Princess Isabel and her husband Conde d'Eu, and became known as Palácio Isabel. At the time you arrived to the palace through Rua Paissandu, and for this reason the street was lined with imperial palm trees. The princess and her family lived there until 1889, when the palace was confiscated by the military government. The heirs of the royal family in Brazil are still trying to receive a compensation for this - the lawsuit is still in progress, one of the oldest lawsuits in Brazil.

The palace is now open for visits the last Saturday of every month, but one has to send an e-mail and set up a visit. Since I have never gotten around to to this, I was happy to once again get a private tour. The palace has recently been restored and is absolutely marvelous.

I was there for work, so of course without my camera, but even the pictures from my cellphone give an idea of the splendor.

During the restoration work they discovered part of the original pavement in an area thought to have been the slave quarters of the palace during the time when Princess Isabel lived there. Interesting, because Princess Isabel is known and remembered because she actively promoted and ultimately signed a law, named Lei Áurea or the Golden Law, emancipating all slaves in Brazil.  

The floor has been covered with resistant glass and is lighted, but it sure is a strange feeling to walk on the glass!

As I write the State of Rio de Janeiro is going through times of hardship. The State Government relied heavily on royalties from the extraction of petroleum and gas, but with the price of oil having been drastically reduced, and Brazil going through a corruption scandal in the state owned company Petrobras, revenues have fallen dramatically. The State Government is having difficulties paying all its bills, and the Governor has announced that even his salary will be reduced.

Here is hoping that 2016 will be a better year for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil!

And I finish off with a view of The Palace from Rua Paissandu, it is truly a Palace worthy of a Royal visit!

Number 15 - Palácio do Itamaraty

First out in the series: "how to prepare for a royal visit" is the Itamaraty Palace.
Itamaraty is one of these words that has been adopted into Brazilian Portuguese and has gained a whole new meaning. It has become so familiar to the Brazilians that most of them never think about the fact that this word was originally an indigenous word meaning the river of small stones - according to Wickipedia that is! There are several translations, but the fact is that the title Baron of Itamaraty was given to a Brazilian who got very rich trading coffee and precious gemstones, and his son built the Itamaraty Palace in Rio de Janeiro between 1851-1855.

In 1889 the palace was bought by the Brazilian Government and became the first presidential residence. From 1899 to 1970 the building was the headquarter of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the word Itamaraty in Brazilian Portuguese ended up becoming a synonym for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1970 when the Ministry was moved to Brasilia, they moved into a completely new building, originally called Palácio dos Arcos.

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated on 20 April 1970, the name meaning Palace of Arches did not stick! People kept calling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs simply Itamaraty and eventually the government gave up and the palace was renamed Palácio Itamaraty or Itamaraty Palace!
And Itamaraty Palace was the first place visited as we prepared for the Royal visit, it was a rather grey day in Brasilia, but the Palace was nevertheless impressive.

Since the Royal visit also included Rio de Janeiro, we also got to visit the original Palácio do Itamaraty, and those who know me a little will understand that I really enjoyed that. The Palace is open for the public a few times a week, but we were lucky enough to get a private tour.

In the middle of downtown Rio de Janeiro it was a big surprise to enter the old pink building and come through to a back patio, complete with palm trees and a garden lake, a calm oasis surrounded by old buildings.

The buildings around the lake were added at a later time, between 1927 and 1930, to house the library and the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We entered the original Itamaraty Palace by the office building on the left, going up one floor and so the tour we got was of the second floor of the palace.

As we crossed from one building to the next, we were in good company:

The statues of Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson guide the staircase. And the palace itself is well guided.

The palace is in need of a little care, part of it is suffering from water infiltration and is closed to the public, but a project of restoration is in the making. Here is hoping it will be carried out soon! Even so the palace is an impressive and pompous sight:

From the dining room.

From the hallway.

The ballroom.

The main staircase and the dome above it.

The audience room.

As we walked out in the daylight I kept thinking of how much of Brazilian history these old rooms had witnessed, and of how they should be preserved in a dignified manner. I also marveled at my luck; to get to see these things is a wonderful part of my job.

Number 14 - A Crown Prince in my life

When you are going on fifty you are not exactly still waiting for a prince to show up in your life, but then when you least expect it a real Crown Prince shows up and demands your full attention for several months!There has been no time to blog, but no lack of new experiences. So even if time is running out the project is still on!
The Disney movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is probably the first movie I remember having seen at a movie theater as a child. It scared me so much, I have never been able to forget the scenes of Snow White running through the woods...but I also loved the dwarfs! And something deep inside every little girl connects to Snow White singing "Someday my prince will come"...Barbra Streisand has a beautiful version of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mURZzBpnE

It is of course a very different experience when you know what day the prince will come...and when you are responsible for the logistics of the visit, and absolutely not the reason why the prince is coming. And so the last few months have been filled with meetings, e-mails, telephone calls, field trips and all that is generally known as planning. It has taken me around Rio in a completely new way, and I will take you along, I just have to retrace my steps a bit, because there was not really much time to take notes nor pictures.

As for the Prince, he actually came one day earlier than planned! His arrival coincided with the terrible terror attacks in Paris, and it happened one week after the worst environmental disaster in Brazil, when a dam burst in Minas Gerais and caused a toxic mudslide, killing people, contaminating rivers and now the ocean.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/13/brazils-slow-motion-environmental-catastrophe-unfolds
But, for those of us working hard to make the visit a success - the terrible events were somehow left to deal with later -we had a show to put on the road!

The first day was spent in Brasilia, and the Crown Prince remembered the Paris Attacks in his speech:
http://www.seher.no/royal/kronprinsen-hedret-paris-ofrene-83024

The next day was spent in Rio de Janeiro, and as the Crown Prince went to a supermarket to promote Norwegian cod fish he made headlines all over the world.
In Brazil: http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2015/11/principe-noruegues-prova-churrasco-de-bacalhau-na-zona-sul-do-rio.html
In Norway: http://www.seher.no/royal/kong-bacalao-83038
And in the USA:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-18/world-s-worst-currency-rout-turns-norway-prince-into-fishmonger

The day went on with a visit to CENPES where he promoted Brazilian- Norwegian cooperation in research: http://siu.no/For-media/Nyheter-fra-SIU/Kronprins-Haakon-markerte-videre-Brasil-satsning
And later he opened a factory in Itaboraí, quite distant from Rio de Janeiro:http://www.vestviken24.no/vv24naringsliv/kronprinsen-apnet-jotuns-nye-anlegg-i-brasil/s/5-83-21780

It was a crazy day - a logistical nightmare! We only made it because of the police motorcycle squad opening a path for the motorcade. They did such a great job that the Crown Prince agreed to take a picture with them. That gesture made me very happy!



The Crown Prince also found time to greet the Consulate staff, and so I got to shake the hand of a real prince. Will I remember it for the rest of my life? Absolutely, but I will also remember all the work and all the worrying about all the details...
After Rio de Janeiro the Crown Prince Haakon of Norway went on to Belem, and even if our job was only done after he finally left Brazil, we could relax and enjoy the pictures of the Crown Prince in the green:

And as we say in Norwegian: Snipp, snapp snute og så var eventyret ute! The prince has left my life and now life must go on, and the project going on fifty as well!

Number 13 - Museu Internacional de Arte Naif

Another beautiful winter Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, and time to head out for number 13!
This time I decided to stay closer to home and went to Cosme Velho. Just a few meters up the street from  the Corcovado train station there is a charming little museum called MIAN - Museu Internacional de Arte Naif do Brasil.

The Mian, created by the Lucien Finkelstein Foundation opened in 1994. Lucien Finkelstein arrived in Brazil a teenager, only 16 years old, he said himself that it was love at first sight and he never left. Creating the foundation to show his beautiful collection of  naive art he said was his way of paying back a little for everything he received from the marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro. There is more on the website of the museum: http://www.museunaif.com/en/institucional/sobre/

Since this is the year Rio de Janeiro celebrates 450 years, there is a beautiful exhibition dedicated to Rio called: Rio em 450 cores - Rio in 450 colors.

Gloria Barbosa's pictures show a colorful, magic Rio de Janeiro, All of them filled with incredible richness of detail, showing her memories of Rio, the faith of the people, the celebrations, the habits, the characters.

But there was more, much more to see!

This picture by Beth Queiroz called "The park of my dreams" gives an idea of how many details there are in each picture.

This one is by Isabel de Jesus - it is called "My dreams".

The beautiful old building provides a good setting for the art works.

And Rio de Janeiro is, as always, the most beautiful and incredible city in the world - how could it not look great in the picture?

Upstairs there was another exhibit called: Brasil 5 Seculos: Um Olhar Naif - Brazil 5 Centuries - a Naïf Perspective. With a large panel made by Aparecida  Azedo telling the history of Brazil creating a timeline with historic facts and economic cycles, it is also completed with interactive devices that make visitors  think of the Brazil they want for the future.

The final and last exhibition was "Os Animais e o Imaginario naif"- "The Animals and the Imaginary Naif". This exhibition has art work from all over the world, and in many kinds of material, painting on wood, embroidery, weaving and sculptures. Fascinating to see how the animals inhabit the imagination of all people, as well as unicorns, angels and mermaids...

I kept thinking, as I walked around, about how we define art. I rather liked the definition that I found on one of the walls of the museum:

It was time to head home, but before I left I checked out the little bistro in the backyard where they serve breakfast, it looked delicious - maybe next time!

This cat found me quite suspicious, but what to say about the witch behind it? worthy of my number 13!

I finish off with a painting of MIAN - a lovely little museum that made my Sunday morning absolutely wonderful!