Macau Part 2: Sunday

We woke late on Sunday morning, to a cloudy and muggy (but NOT rainy!) day. Because it was clearer, I took a few pictures from our balcony. The one of the flags is the floor above our room, or the main hotel patio. We had heard that the hotel had a monstrous Portuguese brunch on Sundays, so we readied ourselves and headed up to the restaurant. While we waited for breakfast, I took these on the main patio. The covered walkway on the left is the way into reception (which we couldn't use upon initial torrential rain arrival). The other shows the detailed mosaic work on the driveway into the hotel- with tables and umbrellas in the background.

This is perhaps 25% of the brunch spread on the far tables with the yellow tablecloth. There was SO much to choose from. Brett seems very happy with his brunch. (As an aside- I felt like I was snapping pictures left and right the whole weekend. "This would be great for the blog" "Ooh, I have to take this one..." Poor Brett, what a good sport for putting up with me!)

After brunch, we decided to tackle a walking tour of Macau and also decided on visiting the Macau Wine Museum. So we taxied out of Coloane and into Macau for a day on the town! We were dropped at the Cultural Tourist Center which houses the museum. We read a lot of specifics about Portuguese and Chinese wines. Ever heard of Vinho Verte? I hadn't either. And some about Maderia, too. There were some real machines used for corking, painting and labeling bottles. There was a stenciling device used to cut and shape pieces of cork right from the bark of a tree! Also very cool. One interesting thing was a video about a winery somewhere in Portugal which showed the people enjoying their wine. Because they wanted a snack to go with their wine, they roasted chestnuts on the stones outside their homes. They did this by layering hay and chestnuts in a small stack and lighting the hay on fire. They jostle the flames for a while and when the hay burns out they gather the hot chestnuts to eat with their wine. Not exactly reminiscent of "The Christmas Song" but very cool to see! At the end of the museum was a tasting! FUN. Brett tried a Port and I sampled their sparkling wine.

The walking tour took a while to find. Some of the maps are confusing and by the time we started we were already hot and tired. Pictures of the Grand Lisboa (which hardly does it justice) is below. This building is massive and houses 4 floors of Casino. We didn't go inside until Monday, but I will share pictures when I talk about our casino-hopping then. There is also a picture of the Wynn.

This is one of the side streets we found on the walking tour. Perhaps it was because I was hot and tired I was on the look out for a rest spot with cold drinks. And I spied an angelic looking sign down a stairway... "The Singing Bean." The perfect respite for the weary. We had cold, caffeinated sugar and couldn't have been happier. This is my homemade coffee ice cream float (on iced house blend coffee). Man, was this ever the most delicious coffee concoction of all time. And it wasn't too sweet which was the best part. hah.

Back on the road with new found energy, we found a small shop with really cool men's clothing. Brett picked out two tee shirts to bring home. They are very swank-tastic. Sorry, no pictures of those yet- but perhaps when they make appearances in Hong Kong I'll get them on the blog.

Next we came to the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. Literally just the face of the building is left. As you can see, there are lots of people around. So there are street vendors and shops left and right. Everywhere you look people are taking pictures. It made me wonder not only "how many people have visited this site" but also "how many pictures of this exist" AMAZING.

There are these neat spiral bushes and lush vegetation all over the place, too. We seemed to be starting to think about our evening plan- would we stay in Macau for dinner? But, I was a tired sweaty mess. I had other plans for the evening- so I suggested we go back to the hotel and change clothes- maybe grab a drink and head for the restaurant I'd been researching for about a week...

By the way- I am acutely aware that it seems like all we did was eat and drink, but there was a lot of walking in warm weather in there, too! PS-enjoy this photo of Brett with the Canon by the ruins. "Steven Colbert-style" for those of you who get the joke.

To be continued with the best dinner of all time...