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Published: June 26th 2017
The Mercure Hotel is part of the Accor Hotel group. The same chain that own IBIS. The hotel has 23 floors of which our room was on the 7
th.
Our room although sparsely decorated would be classed as a mini suite in most parts of the world with a work station and settee together with a kitchenette in the living area and separate bedroom with en suite facilities. All rooms seem to be equipped with a balcony. This hotel is ingeniously designed. Most hotels have a front and back with the front balconies offering a sea view and the back balconies offering a view of the alley below or a brick wall of the adjoining hotel!. The Mercure seems to have been built on its side so that the angle of the balconies front and back offer a sea view. Pure genius!
From our balcony, there is a clear view of the so called rooftop swimming pool. Not quite in the same category as the Palace Hotel in the Spanish resort of Elsbels from
Carry on Abroad but this facility wasn't at all like its picture in the brochure. However, our fears were short lived as we learned that
this is the 'old' pool with the new one being situated 16 floors above on the ‘actual' roof top!
As Frank Sinatra once sang: They've got an awful lot of coffee there (and he didn't mean Tesco or Asda) Brazil is also known for its nuts; the kernel kind not the psychopath kind (although I wouldn't venture in to a favela after dark (or in broad daylight for that matter!!)
Despite the 6,000 mile distance between London and Santos, Brazil is only 3 hours behind the UK. Santos is one of Brazil's oldest cities founded in 1546. It is partially located on the island of São Vicente which harbours both the city of Santos and the city of São Vicente, and partially on the mainland. Its population is just under 500,000. Its beach's garden, 5.335 Km length, figures in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest beach front garden. What the hell's a beach front garden? Does that mean there is also something called a beach back garden? On exploring this phenomenon we still couldn't wok it out. Does a few scattered palm trees in among the sand constitute a garden?!
We started our day by
walking towards the historical centre, a few miles north of our hotel It wasn't long before we realised not the best idea I'd had. It's another humid day. We decided to experience the joys of the local bus service on bus. Fares cost B$3 (75p) per person for 1 journey. Sneaking past the driver without paying (not that I tried!!) is impossible as all public buses are fitted with turnstiles. Now I know what happened to all the manual turnstiles from English football stadiums as we turned to the digital age – we sold them to the Brazilian Transport Executive!!! We alighted at the cathedral and headed toward the funicular that would take us to the top on a hill known as Monte Serrat.Santos cathedral is built in neo-gothic style. In 1907, the original church, a ruin at the time, was demolished and a square, Praça da República, was built in its place. The new Cathedral was begun in 1909, inaugurated in 1924 but not finished until 1951. I bet some false promises were made during that project:‘
When do you expect to have the roof on?' ‘A few weeks' time should do it!' ‘Are you sure about that? It seems an awfully big roof?'
‘OK then maybe a year or two!! ‘Can you be a bit more precise?' ‘OK, how does 1951 grab you??! Well you did ask! I was trying to let you down gently!!!' Monte Serrat, 157m high, is in the heart of the city, and It is accessed by trolley, which operates on a rather steep (as we now know!) funicular system. I asked Roisin if she preferred to walk the 415 steps to the summit. Her reply was unprintable so the funicular it was then!! The ride only took 4 minutes. On our way up we shared a compartment with a lady who wasted no time in introducing herself as the official tour guide of Monte Serrat. Her English was very passible as she started to relate a few facts and figures of Monte Serrat above the clatter of the cables and mechanisms as it winched our trolley to the top. The summit provides a 360 degree view of the city and a partial view of neighbouring São Vicente. There is a church known as Our Lady of Mount Serrat Sanctuary, a small church with a well preserved alter
and pews for about 100 congregation. We bumped in to our new best friend several times who still had plenty to tell us. We stayed atop for about 40 minutes. When our guide asked us if we had any questions, the only one that came to mind was
‘When is the next trolley back down!?' I managed to restrain myself from asking this as I didn't want her to think we weren't grateful. In a city where not much English is spoken (even our hotel doesn't have many English speaking employees) we were grateful that someone was taking the time to talk ‘at' us in our mother tongue! We did ask the guide about a tram that circles the historic centre of Santos. The guide took me to the edge of the viewing platform and pointed towards a square only a few blocks away. We thanked the guide and headed for the funicular which we had learned departed every 20 minutes!
We made our way to
Praça Visconde de Mauá without any problem immediately spotting the tram along with the army of would be passengers awaiting to ride this novel mode of sightseeing transport. There are 10 universities and
hundreds of colleges in Santos. It looked like the whole of the education sector were on a field trip at the same time. With kids being kids it was difficult to see where the queue ended. We decided to return later but for now we headed the ½ mile or so toward the Pele Museum.
En route we passed an attraction simply called T
he Tiled façade. It must be an attraction because it has its own brown sign! To give it its proper name, the
Casa da Frontaria Azulejada was built in 1865 as a residence and storehouse. The two-story building became famous for its neo-classical façade. Over the years, the building has apparently been used as an office, a hotel, a cargo warehouse, and a storage facility. There are 7,000 separate tiles on this façade giving it its, albeit not very imaginative, nickname
The tiled façade!! Across from The ‘tiled façade' stands
Cats music. We couldn't work out if this was a club solely paying tribute to the hits of Andrew Lloyd Weber or something more
neo! Not wanting to state the bleedin' obvious,
Pele (or to give him his Sunday name E
dson Arantes do Nascimento)
was a bloody good footballer and a top bloke!! He is in the Guinness Book of Records for the only player to have won three world cups. In 1999 he was voted World Player of the Century! He did not get the nickname Pele until later in life. During his school days, he used to pronounce the name of the local Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bile as Pile. Hence, a classmate of his gave him the nickname Pele. He played in the days before South American's jumped on the gravy train that is European football spending the majority of his career at Santos FC so much so that there is now a museum dedicated to their most famous son.
The museum cost B$9 (£2) each. I was surprised at this amount but didn't argue and it was only when I checked on the entrance fee later I realised that we had both been charged senior citizen rates!! The museum catalogues the life and career of without doubt the best football player the world has ever seen from his father Dondinho (I honestly thought he was named after a character from Cinderella!!) who was a notable forward for Brazilian side
Fluminense; of growing up in poverty in Bauru, São Paulo; of his parents who couldn't afford to buy Edson a soccer ball, so his father took an old sock and stuffed it with rags, and little Pele would run shoeless through the streets and kick the sock; to his first trial for Santos; of his first professional contract; to documenting his illustrious career both on and off the pitch. As a role model, many of today's prima donna footballers could learn a lot from such an appealing player whose name became so synonymous with the game, he became a global ambassador of the sport, bringing increased attention to soccer in many less privileged countries.
The museum explained all this through a mix of photos with narrative, items such as medals, footballs, trophies and news reel footage with text in English. I managed to strike a few poses next to a life size cut out of the great man with his arm raised in a striking stance although I have to admit, it looks as if I'm partaking in some bizarre line dancing move!!!
After lunch it was back to the tram. The tram was still there but thankfully
the hoards of people weren't. There must have been no more than a dozen people in front of us and within 5 minutes we were sat on the trolley waiting for the tour to begin.
The city is really milking this Pele thing. Even the tram was number 10, destination: Pele!! The open vehicle is from the 1920s. After decades of a 'tramless' society, this mode of transport stated to run in 2000 after a complete restoration programme.
The guide approached us with the ticket collector and after realising we weren't local said in reasonable English ‘
Do you have more than 60 años?' Well at least she was polite enough to ask this time. When we said a resounding and in unison
‘NO!' the guide sounded a little sheepish in saying
‘Well you must pay 6 Real each!!' This equates to £1.50!! It makes me wonder how much we would have paid WITH the concession!
The tour lasted 40 minutes and took us around a rather tired looking historical centre. Most of the facades were in need of a lick of paint, some could have done with a complete re-rendering while one or two should have had
the condemned sign posted out front! The tram was powered by a long rod stretching from the top of the trolley to power cables suspended above the road. At every junction where the tram lines split, an operative would alight from the tram and using the rope suspended from the rod, manoeuvre it on to the correct cable.
We were taken down some uninspiring roads while the guide, a member of the
"Grandma Knows All" program happily gabbed away in Portuguese occasionally changing to English and saying, for example:
‘On left, a church…' and then continue with more narrative in Portuguese before remembering there were a few English under 60's sat at the back so a quick switch back to English:
‘On right, the coffee museum…' I'm sure we were getting the abridged version but as it was difficult to hear the guide (despite the aide of a microphone) over the din of the rattling as the tram progressed through the cobbled streets, we were happy to sit and enjoy the, somewhat bumpy, ride!
By now it was mid-afternoon so we decided that was enough sightseeing for one day and headed back to the hotel via the number
155 bus. 20 minutes later we were walking along the garden beach toward the Mercure. It was Saturday afternoon and the beach was quite busy with groups playing beach volleyball or beach tennis whilst others watched on. Smaller groups (mainly elderly men) were pre occupied gathered around purpose built chequers or dominoes tables. Some were just enjoying the late afternoon sea air with fresh coconut milk or an ice cream sitting watching the world go by. Roisin and I thought the latter would probably benefit us most although I chose to have fresh coconut milk AND ice cream.
Santos doesn't strike me as a ‘dressy up' kind of place so shorts and t-shirt it was to go out for dinner. There were plenty of cheap but pleasant pubs and bars that served decent food within a five minute walk from the hotel. Both days we have been here it has thundered and rained at the same time each evening – about 5:15. Yesterday it only lasted about 20 minutes but tonight the down pour was much heavier. The temperature is still warm and the precipitation doesn't seem to bother most of the locals who still insist in braving the
weather in flip flops and no umbrella! You can spot the foreigners a mile off. They're the people who are using an umbrella for something other than a sunshade and are skipping to avoid the puddles. We should know…we were those foreigners!!!
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Eustace Tuttle
non-member comment
I was interested to see a reference to one of my favourite Carry On's (Abroad) and I guess with all your travelling it's one of your favourites too. It's also famous for being Charles Hawtry's( who I think we can all agree is everyone's fav
ourite CarryOnner) last one. Carry on Blogging, Regards Eustace