Free Day in BH: Museums and the Market

A big room in a small museum. And the walls are peach.
As in the color that has nothing to do with the fruit of the same name.

Two museums then one market.

The first museum is Ms. Mineiro. The Museu Mineiro. "Ms." being a strange way to abbreviate the Portuguese word "museu."

Google maps describes this place as a "museum in a[n] historic building displaying paintings, religious art & relics related to local history."  Not sure the relationship of the above to local history, but let's continue.

This is the big room with the one chair.

The chair is described only as the chair of a senator of the State of Minas Gerais.

But that raises more questions than it answers. Who is the senator?  Was this a personal chair, used in his leisure, or was this his chair in the legislature?  Why so tall?  And why is it here, in this big room, with no table and no other chairs?  So many "why's," so few "because."

This was a painting depicting a war scene.

The war must've been relevant to local history.  Sometimes even far-away wars have local consequences.

And here is one of my items in Ms. Mineiro:

The painting itself would be cool enough. But right below it, off the charts on the cool scale, is a collection of commemorative plates depicting landmarks in Belo Horizonte.  Let's peer in for a closer look:

Have any favorites? I know I do!

Praça da Liberdade! Which we've already visited many times. And:

Santuário São José, which I tried to visit but they locked me out. See the vibrant colors which are not so vibrant on an overcast day. These commemorative plates, thankfully, depict sunny days.

We next move into the religious art section, so I must tone down the sarcasm.

Well, just one more. I love that one because Jesus looks like he leaping off the cross ready to attack the saint depicted in the painting. Heads up, padre, at 10 o'clock. He's coming for you.

OK. No more sarcasm in the religious art section.

This is St. Michael the Archangel, wearing warrior garb and carrying the scales of justice with which to weigh the value of your existence. Can you measure up?

This one was cool, I thought. As was this crucifix:

Christ looks in genuine pain, which of course he would have been. His hands and feet were nailed to some wood and then he was left hanging to die. It would hurt more than any of us could imagine. The crucifixes that depict Christ with a peaceful, serene look on his face do not strike me as plausible.

Naked girl out in the rain.

While naked boy gets to stay warm and dry inside. Sexism, anyone?

This is a sculptor chiseling himself out of a block of stone.

Ms. Mineiro is a small museum. Painted orange!

Actually this is more of a salmon. But not farm-raised salmon, which can be a bit weak in the color department. No, if I were naming paints in the paint department, I would call this color "Wild Salmon."

And what color would you call the exterior of the Gerdau Museum of Mines and Metal:

Dusty rose?

The second of the day's museums is the MM Gerdau Museu das Minas e do Metal. We come here to learn about mining in the Brazilian state whose name translates to "General Mines."

But first, let's look at the blue light.

Those are big tubular microscopes to look at the shapes of crystals in the floor.

The most interesting part of the collection are the minerals, only some of which were mined in Minas Gerais state.

This one also has some turquoise from Arizona.

Molybdenum! Tungsten! Vanadium! Oh my!

This is silver:

These crystals and ores are really cool, at least in the way I consider things to be cool.

And a giant cone of amethyst dominates this section:

In this area, crystal were holographically projected up the surface.

Not sure why, but if you can do, why not?

And this is the super-lightweight Niobium metal bicycle.

Earlier displays in the museum featured the metal niobium, Nb. Atomic number 41. In the same family as vanadium and tantalum.

The final stop of the day was Belo Horizonte's Mercado Central:

I'm not a shopper. And I'm not going to take fresh food home with me to Las Vegas.

But the market was interesting. 

It would have been a good place to buy boozy souvenirs.

There were a lot of cheese shops in the market:

All well-stocked with local cheeses. This is not a place to make the Monty Python cheese shop joke, by any means.

And meat, too.

Places to eat, too, but I was not yet hungry.

Later in the night, I was hungry, but not too hungry. So I chose between two burger joints. I chose "Ferris." What I did not know was that the place was "Ferris Bueller" themed.

I'm not saying that "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is the worst movie of all time. But it's among the candidates. Spoiled rich brat skates through life, getting away with everything, even during the one time he actually tries to accept some responsibility. Awful, awful movie.

But my burger was good!

The burgers were named for characters in the movie. I had the "Ed Rooney," who I guess was a character. Not sure who that was. I did recognize the "Sloane Peterson" and the "Cameron Frye," both the names of burgers at this restaurant, as being movie characters, so I'm guessing the "Ed Rooney" was, too. It has cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce, and carmelized onions, which makes it a Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Only with carmelized onions and not raw ones. Apparently, carmelized onions are a "thing" at burger joints in Brazil. Brazilians would no more think of putting raw onion on a burger than they would serving the burger on a raw hamburger roll.

I will conclude the rainy day in BH with another look at the Edifício Niemeyer in all its curvaceous glory.

Free Day in BH Means Churches and Museums: Churches First

Don't jump, Santa! I promise the kids will be good this year and not have an unearned sense of entitlement.

I had an unexpected free (and very rainy) day in Belo Horizonte. I was supposed to take a tour to Ouro Preto, a beautiful old colonial town a few hours south of Belo Horizonte, but the tour company (after repeated attempts by me to contact them) finally let me know the night before that they no longer run that tour to Ouro Preto. Well, thank you for the advance notice! It was too late to find an alternative way of getting there, so I decided I would take a free day and explore more of BH.

Churches first!

This beautiful church is relatively close to my hotel, so it is the first stop on the trek. This is the Basilica of Out Lady of Lourdes, or Basílica Nossa Senhora de Lourdes.

It's a basilica, which we all know means it is not a parish church. It is quite ornate, however. Let's have a look inside, shall we?

The exterior colors and design pattern are brought into the interior to positive effect, don't you think?

And there was a nativity scene off to the side.

The manger has no baby in it. Why's that? Because the Christ Child has not yet been born. We have to wait a little less than three weeks.

I continue walking the area searching for various churches that are photogenic and I happen on this little tiny church.

This is not actually a full-fledged church. It's listed as just a chapel: Capela Nossa Senhora do Rosário. Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary.

I saw on the way to this landmark church: Santuário São José.

Sanctuary of St. Joseph, which google maps describes as a "Catholic church dating to 1902, with a striped facade, colorfully patterned nave & biblical murals."

Which sounds all kinds of awesome. Except that it was locked tight as a drum. It closes at 11:40 in the morning most days, which means you have to get up early in the morning to see those Biblical murals and colorful nave.

And as I wind my way to the next church, I pass a large Christmas tree on the street.

This is next to Belo Horizonte City Hall, a building decorated with columns being held up by put-upon, over-taxed members of the general public.

A block down was yet another colorful building whose colors, unfortunately, are muted by the extremely overcast skies on this very rainy day.

This is the UFMG Conservatory of Music, or Conservatório UFMG. The worst thing about trying to photograph a beautiful city on a rainy day -- or any overcast day -- is that the sun makes the colors come alive. Here, the beautiful peach color of the building has not come alive. It's laying in a hospital bed. In a coma. On the verge of flatlining.

And why do we call this color "peach" anyway? Peaches aren't this color. Bite into a peach and it's orange or orange-yellow, to be more precise. And the skin is white with giant red blotches that frequently overwhelm the white. So where is the peach color in a peach? It is a nice color, however. Too bad it has nothing to do with peaches the fruit.

We then reach the final church of the day's churches tour. This is Igreja Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, Church of Our Lady of Boa Viagem. 

"Boa Viagem" means "good travel," but I don't think this is the Church of Our Lady of Fun Vacations. Boa Viagem is the name of the local neighborhood in this part of Belo Horizonte. I think that's the reference. Although I am having "good travels" notwithstanding the tour cancellation of the downpour. These things happen.

And let's happen to have a look inside, since the church is one of the open ones.

This was off to the side as you enter the church.

There was no sign banning photography, but there were people inside using this as a church, so I was being discrete with my photography.

And the church grounds doubled as a park.

That's a whole lot of ornate churches packed into a relatively small area of the city. But the day wasn't all about churches. There were museums. And a market visit. Up next on the vacation blog.