An Imperial Weekend Getaway!

Remember the evenings when you could linger over a meal for hours, starting with a cocktail, and then moving on to a few appetizers, then onto another course and another, a few more cocktails or perhaps a few glasses of wine, some conversation that loops and winds its way between mouthfuls? Bites slowly savored, tastes lingering in the mouth with your eyes closed, a coffee, a playful effort to make space for dessert, and all the while the conversation continues to twists itself between the plates and the glasses without interruption except for the polite questions of a waiter?

No "bags of toys", no crayons, no kid's meals, no child on your lap or asleep in a crooked position on two chairs pulled together to make a bed, no kid singing the alphabet, no blowing  of hot noodles or scraping of green things off a pizza and no spilling of juice.

That was my Mother's Day present; an adult getaway to Petropolis with my husband and two of my favorite friends, Meg and Dhavide visiting from Toronto. And it was wonderful! Only a few hours out of Rio by car, Petropolis, nicknamed the Imperial City because the Emperor Don Pedro II built his summer palace there to escape the sweltering summer heat of Rio, is a mountain town worth visiting for a weekend. Especially without the kids. We rented a room at the "Monte Imperial b&b" which turned out to feel exactly like staying in a damp Westcoast cabin back home; old, damp wavy paged romance novels, a wood burning fireplace and itchy blankets provided. It was great! Do beware that almost everything in Petropolis is named "imperial" and don't expect it all to feel or look "imperial".

On the Saturday, we visited several of the tourist attractions including the Emperor's Palace, the Cathedral, and the Bohemia brewery in between heavy showers. We ended up at the Solar de Imperio, a b&b which actually was a bit imperial for lunch where the terrible service resulted in our lingering 4 hour lunch which turned out to be quite delicious and enjoyable! The raw cod salad with arugula and a poached egg was my favorite.

Don Pedro II' s palace

 Sao Pedro de Alcantara Cathedral

The next day we walked through the municipal park where we got gawked by so many monkeys, it started to feel uncomfortable but delighted my friends. We visited Santos Dumont's charming chalet and had lunch at the "house of 7 mistakes" which we couldn't figure out by the looks of it.

Meg with a giant fern.

The house of 7 mistakes

Meg looks freakishly small in this shot, but it's an optical illusion I swear!

Mother's Day lunch- look no high chair!

I felt guilty for about 2 minutes to spend Mother's Day lunch without the kid, but it passed. It was just so wonderful to spend time with my husband and my friends wandering, talking, drinking, eating and enjoying adult time. Nothing tops off a weekend getaway without your typical Rio traffic jam which we passed with silly car games. It truly was an Imperial Weekend Getaway!