LEIA'S BIRTHDAY

FRIDAY8th JULY

  It is Leia's fourth birthday today - goodness me the grandchildren are all getting older!

  I set the alarm for 8.00am which got me down for breakfast about 8.30am and out on the road by about 9.00am.  Yesterday temperature was about 15 degrees, today it was 29!  I sure as hell picked the wrong day to go for a tour of the city yesterday!  I walked down to Copacabana beach and had a stroll along the sands. The Sugarloaf was in full view and you could see the cablecars going up to it, albeit not on this photo.

As the day progressed so the skies got bluer and the clouds thinned.  I set off in the direction of Ipanema, and walked to the very end of Copacabana beach, enroute encountering some sand sculptures and a statue of a famous Brazilian writer.

  I then proceeded around the the landhead round to Ipanema beach.  It could be said that I became "The Boy From Ipanema" or to be more strictly accurate "The Old Man From Ipanema".

The beach at Ipanema is much smaller than the one at Copacabana but nonetheless set in spectacular surroundings.

This expedition took me some three hours, and I made my way back to the hotel.  I tried to ring Leia on Skype but didn't get through.  I set off on another trek walking down Copacabana beach in the opposite direction as far as the statue of Princess Isabella.

Just up the road from this is a giant guitar advertising what I believe is the 4th Rock Festival in Rio de Janiero.

  I then made my way back to the hotel where I spoke with Peter in Warsaw.  He had the good tidings that the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising had managed to acquire my father's armband from the Uprising put up for auction in England by the son of the man my father had given it to in 1962.  I have been invited to Poland in September to help commemorate this acquisition by the Museum.

  I also managed to contact Leia and Karen and had a good chat with both as well as managing to sing "Happy Birthday" to my four year-old grand-daughter!  I also managed to contact Alan and had a brief chat with him and was updated on developments back home.  A busy day, a lot of walking, but along the flat roads of Copacabana, a doddle for a Machu Pichu veteran like myself!