After a good buffet breakfast which included some local German specialties, I went out to look for some water. Kim needed time to get ready as he didn’t feel rested from the night’s sleep.
Looking for water proved unbelievably hard. Despite searching for “supermercardo” on Google Maps, some were non-existent, some were cosmetic supermarkets etc. There were lots of pharmacies, dollar shops, boutiques but no supermarkets or convenience stores.
After a long walk, I had to settle for an overpriced bottle at a lunch bar that also stocked a few dry groceries like biscuits and drinks.
Kim was already waiting at the lobby for me when I returned to the hotel. He had been going up and down the lifts thinking that he might have missed me, ie. I might have gone upstairs while he came down and vice versa repeatedly!
We took Uber to Vila Germanica around 1100. It was going to be a 35 min walk or a bus ride but Uber was very cheap. Getting there, the frontage looked like a fake horrible German movie set. Once we went a little further in, it was actually quite an authentic feeling German village. There were a few restaurants and cake shops.
It wasn’t a large village but it backed on to huge warehouse-like halls for conventions and exhibitions. But their most important event here is of course the annual Oktoberfest.
At this point, it is important to dispel the popular myth that Nazis escaped to Brazil. The Germans that settled here did in the late 1800s way before WWII and were political and economic refugees. So there!
We decided that we needed to walk off our large breakfast rather than take Uber or the bus. Along the way, I stopped at a pharmacy to check out the price of some medications. Finasteride 1mg for my bald spot turned out cheaper than in Malaysia or New Zealand. But it was 3x the Indian price or the New Zealand funded price (based on cutting 5mg tablets for enlarge prostate into quarters). I bought three months supply for travel as it is a pain cutting them in advance for travel.
Back in town, we wandered around feeling like we were in Germany in summer. The latitude here is about the same as Brisbane and even in winter it is hot in the sun but pleasant in the shade. We had a late light lunch of chicken pie (German style I think with shredded chicken) and something that was perhaps a blackforest cake.
We continued to the Colonial Family Museum which was quite interesting. It was the family home of the city’s founder Herman Bruno Otto Blumenau. There was another house adjoining. The free audio guide made the visit more meaningful. The area is prone to flooding and if there’s a risk of that happening, volunteers carry the more important relics to the top floor of the house for safekeeping.
Last stop was the Beer Museum which proved of no interest to me. We returned to our hotel for a rest around 1545.
We were sick of eating unhealthy food over recent days. When dinner time came, we found just by sheer luck a place that made salads and good vege-packed sandwiches. We opted for a salad with quinoa, mango and chicken; an avocado and chicken sandwich; and a freshly blended juice. All that was only BRL55 which was about the price of a more expensive main in some places. It was a real lucky strike as there aren’t many options in Blumenau especially in the evening.
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- Around Blumenau’s historic centre.
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- Around Blumenau’s historic centre.
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- Around Blumenau’s historic centre. Some buildings look Dutch to me rather than German and remind me of colonial buildings in Indonesia.
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- Around Blumenau’s historic centre. Some buildings look Dutch to me rather than German and remind me of colonial buildings in Indonesia.
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- At Vila Germanica; site of Blumenau’s Oktoberfest.
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- At Vila Germanica; site of Blumenau’s Oktoberfest.
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- At Vila Germanica; site of Blumenau’s Oktoberfest.
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- Colonial Family Museum
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- Colonial Family Museum. The item on the left is some sort of bidet. Water was scarce in those days and it wasn’t common to wash.
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- Around Bulmenau.
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- Blumenau is located beside a river.
