Thursday February 6th, 2025 Petropolis, Brazil
Updated: Feb 15
Today we are traveling outside of Rio and up into the mountains to visit the old imperial city of Petropolis, it’s a 90 minute bus ride.
Since this is a bit of an historical visit I’ll try to provide a little bit of context… Portugal “discovered” Brazil in 1500 and spent the next 200 years basically stripping Brazil of its resources, with no desire to establish any kind of society or infrastructure. This all changed in 1808 when king João VI was chased out of Portugal by the threat of a French invasion – he moved the entire court to Brazil, aided by the British and began to invest in the country. Once Napoleon was packed off to St. Helena in 1815, João VI moved the court back to Portugal and left his eldest son Pedro behind as governor. But Pedro had his own ideas and must have really pissed off his dad; he declared Brazil independent of Portugal in 1822 and calling himself Emperor Pedro I. Nine years later, following a period of internal unrest and costly foreign wars, the emperor stepped aside in favor of his five-year-old son, Pedro II. A series of regents ruled until 1840, when the second Pedro was 14 and Parliament decreed him "of age." Pedro II, who reigned for 58 years, founded Petropolis, the location of our visit today.
For some reason I had imagined Petropolis to be a quiet little town with a big grand palace. But following our nice drive through some magnificent scenery, with breathtaking steep slopes right by the side of the road, we arrived at a large city of about 250 thousand people. We hit traffic on the outskirts of the city as the single lane road, following the course of a small stream channeled through a concrete spillway, became clogged with tourist busses and locals going about their business – car dealerships, small shops, office buildings lined the road. Presently we reached the more historical center of the city with a nice park and central square.
St Peter’s Cathedral was built between 1884 and 1925, it’s a nice small church located beside a stream and surrounded by beautiful gardens. The main attraction was the last resting place of Pedro II, but the stained glass windows and alter are definitely worth a mention. I also noticed the strange confessionals where the priest sits in a private booth, but the penitents sit outside the booth, speaking to the priest through a small, screened window as usual.
The Imperial Museum of Brazil is located in the former imperial palace built by Pedro II in 1845 as his summer home – his father had previously bought the estate and left it to him in his will. The neoclassical building was constructed mainly by German immigrant under the direction of a German engineer. The palace has been beautifully well maintained and is located in a park like setting; the walk from the road up to the palace through many different species of trees and tropical plants was very pleasant – the climate up here in the mountains is significantly cooler than down in Rio.
Sadly photography of any kind was not allowed inside the palace, this was strictly enforced – those carrying cameras were instructed to deposit them in lockers, they did not attempt to confiscate our cell phones. As far as I could tell everyone went along with the edict. I was able to find a few Google images from inside the palace to include with this entry.
On entry to the building we were instructed to don over-sized “slippers” to protect the beautiful, wide-boarded, wooden floors; the slippers were more akin to cloth snowshoes with just a single, very loose, strap across the top of the foot – it took a bit of technique to keep the slippers on your feet. The resultant sliding gait not only protected the floors but also provided a free cleaning for the owners.
Much of the contents from inside the palace was apparently “looted” following the military coup of 1889 that ended the monarchy in Brazil. However many original items were on display in the museum along with other pieces that were donated and represent the period. The palace only has two floors; downstairs there is a central corridor with reception and other function rooms off to each side and upstairs we could see all of the bedrooms, along with Pedro II’s study.
A separate building housed a collection of carriages and a train, quite impressive. Fortunately photography was allowed in this building. I was particularly interested in the sedan chairs (sometimes called a litter); these are a kind of seat-in-a-box thing where the rich guy sits in the box and gets carried around by two poor guys – the kind of thing that incites a revolution.
We spent some time in the central square; the guide was offering to take a group up to the top of a hill to see the tiny house of a Brazilian aviation pioneer. "Praça da Liberdade" or "Liberty Square" takes its name from a time when ex-slaves would gather to collect money in order to free friends and family members still under slavery rules. The weather was warming up, so we decided to explore the square and find a cold drink. Getting across the road and into the center of the square provided a bit problematic as cars raced around the square like they were in a Grand Prix, and we didn’t want to make any assumptions about the “rules” regarding the pedestrian crossings. Eventually a gap in the traffic emerged and we made a dash for it. A large central fountain dominates the square, with gravel paths and kiosks scattered in the park-like space. Looking along the river, again contained with a concrete spillway, almost canal-like, we could see the beautiful cathedral off in the distance. Back across the Formula 1 racetrack and up a side street we found a small market area and managed to get a soft drink and some wonderful chocolate: small cone shaped chocolate with a gooey pistachio filling – a bit like a Walnut Whip but with no nut on top and no sweet cream filling, so really nothing like a Walnut Whip except in shape.
South of Petropolis we stopped for lunch at an amazing location. Lago Sud is a churrascaria or Brazilian steakhouse situated beside a small lake in beautiful gardens with a huge German style palace also in the grounds; a large hump of a mountain adds to the alpine feel of the place. The Quitandinha Palace is actually a cultural center that has been undergoing a lot of renovation, we did not get to see inside. The steakhouse was brilliant, very large with amazing views out over the lake, and set up to cater for regular and large group guests. As is the tradition in these restaurants the food arrives continuously until you indicate that you are full by flipping over a small card on the table at your spot. Waiters floated by with long swords of barbequed meat of every possible kind (including chicken hearts!), enormous bowls of salad, breads, French fries and on it went. The food quality was very high and service really good, considering they were catering for two full coach loads of people.
After lunch we rolled around the gardens admiring the lake and the views of the palace, a funny little lighthouse stuck out on a small point at the far side of the lake and made for great pictures. If a troupe of young men had come by all decked out in lederhosen it would not have looked out of place – hard to believe this was Brazil, but I guess it reflects the historical ethnic makeup of the area.
So today we saw a different side of Brazil; Petropolis is a mix of the old, organized imperial beauty and a bit of the chaos of Rio. We really enjoyed it.
On returning to the ship we made our way to our new, and hopefully final, cabin on this trip: 8036 - you may recall we had a problem with noise in our original 8011 cabin and since it could not be fixed we've been sleeping down the corridor and "living" in 8011; as compensation for this non-ideal situation we were offered an upgrade to a Club Balcony Cabin and use of the Club restaurant once we got to Rio. We spent a little time yesterday packing up “loose” things, leaving all of our clothes hanging in the closets and when we returned today it had all been successfully moved from 8011 to 8036. Our first dinner in the Club dining room did not start well, we were turned away at the door and told that our table was in the regular dining room. Heated discussion followed and we stomped off to the purser’s desk to straighten things out, but the very polite kid at the desk could not fix it and suggested we just eat in the regular dining room as the managers had all gone off duty for the night. I had to demand that the manager who had set up our whole move and upgrade be located and come down and sort things out. Presently the lady showed up and was very apologetic, she escorted us back to the Club dining room and we were seated and swarmed on by a small crowd of over-apologetic managers, a free bottle of wine arrived. We did eventually enjoy a nice dinner and agreed that the small Club dining room with enhanced menu and higher service level was very good.
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