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..:: Swatch Oporto Event ::.. |
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Swatch:
Oporto Event See also "Making of" ; "Presentantion" & BackPack The
Swatch Club Portugal invited their members from all over the world to
take part in an excellent event…. and here is a short summary of the
fun we had! We
met at the hotel and the first piece of information that we received was
that the Italian members would not be joining us because of the tragedy
that took place in New York and Washington on the previous day. We
went by bus to the banks of the Rio Douro (River of Gold), where we had
dinner at the Restaurante Francesinhas & Campanhia” where we ate
something that could be described as a burger, but which was actually
toast bread with various kinds of meat, salad, and so forth, served with
a typical portuguese beer-sauce. After
dinner we went on board a barge, which took us on a ride on the river,
which was great because we got to see Porto and its famous bridges by
night. After a short walk along the river we returned to the hotel, not
knowing what the next day would bring The
Serralves museum with contemporary art was our first stop on Friday
morning. The building was
designed by Alvaro Siza Vieira. We
saw exhibitions of the works of artists such as Fischli & Weiss and
Eberhard Havekost, and then took a walk in the big park surrounding the
museum, and which is full of statues and sculptures.
This was also a great opportunity for the first group picture of
the group attending the 4-day event. We
had lunch close to the Palácio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), which
housed the exhibition of countless Swatches.
If you ever go to Porto, try to visit the “Restaurante Casa do
Roseiral!” You will
experience luxury that some people know only from famous movies: We
enjoyed the starters and the aperitif on the lovely terrace of the
restaurant, which has a beautiful view of the Rio Douro and Gaia.
And the weather was superb: sunshine and the temperature was
approximately 25° C. Considering
that summer was short in some parts of Europe, it was an excellent
opportunity to get a little extra sunshine. The
restaurant welcomed us with a big table filled with vegetables, rice,
fries and so on. But the
main dish was naturally meat, which was carved by the chef himself. Let's
not forget the other side of the table, which was filled with all kinds
of desserts. Needless to
say, we tried a little (or a lot) of everything. There
is no better way of digesting all that food than by setting off on a
guided sightseeing tour of Porto. The
tour was conducted in Portuguese and English, and we learnt everything
(well, almost) about this city's rich history.
This
was followed by a relaxing bus ride to Braga, located to the north of
Porto. Braga is a historic
and religious town, but our main goal was one of the local shopping
malls, which decorated with four enormous maxi Swatches.
Really nice; but the Swatch collectors among us enjoyed the visit
to the Swatch store in the mall, where we were able to purchase the
Crazy Train Portuguese special. (Unfortunately they do not accept credit
cards in Portuguese swatch stores L).
What
next? Dinner, of course,
which took place in Braga, in a typical Portuguese Restaurant called
“Casa das Artes”. Again the meal was superb, with dishes ranging
from wild boar, rabbit, seafood, various vegetables, and so forth.
And let us not forget the great wine that everyone enjoyed. Late
in the evening the bus took us back to the hotel in Porto.
Those of us who took part in the 4-day event received a special
bottle of Port wine, limited to 50 pieces.
An excellent addition to the collection of Swatch-related
merchandise. In
Braga, as well as when we returned to Porto, we meet met with Swatchers
from Lisbon and elsewhere, but who had decided to take part only in the
one day event. Then we went out in the city and did a little bar
hopping. Some of us ended up going to bed at about 4 am. We
all met at the Palácio de Cristal, the location of the Swatch
exhibition and our meeting point with the Swatchers who came for the
one-day event. From there
we left to the “Museu do Carro Eléctrico,” a museum of trams and
electric buses that used to transport the inhabitants of Porto in the
past. We got onto two of
the "oldtimers," old electric trams, and left on a short trip
toward the downtown area. This
was followed by a walk over one of the bridges and a visit to the
headquarters “Sandeman” company, home of the famous port wine.
After a detailed tour we naturally did not have to be asked twice
to partake in Port wine tasting. When
we returned to Palácio de Cristal, which is actually a magnificent dome
shaped building overlooking the Rio Douro (excellent photo
opportunities), which houses a multi purpose event hall, and which is
located in a beautiful park, we had lunch. It was a simple self-service
lunch, but we got a lot of food so everyone was happy. Finally,
we were able to enter the exhibition area of the Palácio de Cristal:
the organizers of the event wisely left this for the end of the event,
since they knew that they would not be able to get us out.
This truly was the highlight of the event.
The exhibition included so many specials and special packagings,
not to mention standards from 1983 and Marta's excellent collection of
Maxis, that we just did not want to leave the rooms.
The exhibition
just had to leave you breathless. The
head of Tempus, the company that deals with the distribution of Swatches
in Portugal gave a speech and welcomed everybody, and finally handled
out the limited and numbered edition of the Rio Douro Cor de Prata
(GZ165) swatch to the participants of the event. Well,
you could say that this was actually a bribe in order ho have us leave
the exhibition. Actually,
we did not leave immediately, but had a small swatch trade and sale area
in one of the rooms. When
we finally left, we were taken to a Brazilian restaurant to have dinner.
It is impossible to describe the meal.
It consisted of many types of meat, from all kinds of animals,
but, as always, there was also something for the one vegetarian in the
group (you know who you are :-Þ).
The meat was served at the table, so you had to watch out not to
have your ears cut off when the waiter was cutting the meat.
Just joking. Anyway,
since it was the evening of the football match between the main football
teams from Lisbon and Porto, the restaurant had the match projected onto
one of the screens. Don’t
ask me what the outcome was: we had too many caipirinha cocktails to
remember everything. Well,
I definitely did not forget the live band that played for a while, and
of course the karaoke show that Swatchers were keen to take part in.
However, I do not think we found any new pop stars. It
was around 2 am when we went to one of the nearby discos, where we
stayed until the morning. Day 4 This was the end of an excellent event. We all really enjoyed it and said "Obrigado" to Carla and Ricardo, who were the main organizers of this event, as well as to all those in the background, without whose help they probably would not have been able to do such a great job. As the ad for the watch on Portuguese television says "I lobe it!" by |