The Tour of Brasilia

The tour started late because Luis had a to queue to vote compulsorily at the general election for the President, Senators, Governors, and Deputies at the both the Federal, State and District Level. The road to the Presidential Palace and around the Praca doe Tres Poderes were closed in case of trouble.
We went by car to all the zones in the city, including the embassy zone which, similar to the hotels, banks, commercial, and sport clubs, is divided into North and South either side of the Eixo Monumental. We stopped by the radio tower at the top of the Eixo Monumental but couldn't go up it to get an overview because the lift was broken. Other sites were closed on Sundays such as the JK Memorial.
We walked around some market stalls, some of them selling coloured rocks and stones.
We stopped in the Army zone where the roof of the review platform acts like a sounding- board. The theatre is next door. The avenue in front is wide enough to act as an emergency runway.
In the new residential zones, the apartment blocks are not permitted to be higher than six storeys. Some of them are also horizontally linear and also on stilts, mirroring other themes of Niemeyer's and Costa's.
After the Sunday morning masses, we went inside the spectacular Cathedral.
The buffet lunch was in a restaurant beside Lake Paranoa where there were lots of restaurants and moorings for boats. Many banks, companies, and the military have private clubs along the shoreline.
Afterwards, we visited more zones, crossed the JK Bridge, and stopped outside the Banco do Brasil Cultural Centre.
Finally, we went inside the 400-bed 5-star Royal Tulip Hotel which has photos of all the world leaders who have stayed there. The 4-star Tulip Hotel is next door. Their owner also owns the Brasilia Palace Hotel.
In the evening, there was a victory celebration in the hotel for Andre Kubitschek, the great grandson of the former President, who had become a Deputado Distrital for the Partido Liberal of Flavio Bolsonaro, the Presidential candidate. Flavio's stepmother, Michelle, the wife of the former President, was a candidate to be a Senator for the Federal District.
Brazilian elections have a system of proportional representation using party lists. Andre's number was 22022, Michelle's was 222, and Flavio's was 22. The voting is computerised with polling stations closing at 5pm with the results known during the evening. I watched the results on the TV channels with the percentages for Flavio and Lula da Silva changing every few minutes.Read more