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05-03 am. How come I can be so exact about the time? And what's so special about that particular time anyway? Well, that's the time that our alarm clock light beeped and switched on! Our clock has a touch pad on top and whenever you press it the light comes on and the clock beeps. Except I hadn't touched the clock and we certainly hadn't set the alarm for that time. So what's going on?
Well it's April Fools day but I didn't think that had anything to do with it as I turned to look at the clock, still half asleep. That's when I saw two things - first, the time 05-03 and second the long tail of what could only be a mouse as it scampered off the clock, making it beep again! The tail (presumably still attached to the mouse) disappeared under the shelf above the heater and all I could think was "Oh S***! No more sleep for us!"
It was going to be really difficult to find a mouse in Winnietwo - there are just too many places it could hide. But how did it get in in the first place? Well we know from experience that mice can squeeze through holes that are far smaller than their own bodies.
First thing, I got up and moved anything edible into a drawer under our bed. At least the mouse can't get to that anymore. I got back into bed but it wasn't long before we heard it scampering again, somewhere above our heater - is that where it got in? This time Kirsten got up and used plastic bags to block the places that a mouse might get in from behind the heater. She missed a spot but I got up and put more plastic bags there. If the mouse was behind the heater it wouldn't be able to get back inside.
We managed to get back to sleep and got up around 9am. We hadn't heard the mouse again but we checked everywhere for signs of mouse activity - e.g. things chewed or mouse droppings. Nothing. Maybe the alarm clock light and beeping noise had frightened it off because we haven't seen or heard it since.
By 9am we weren't going to get get any more sleep because it wasn't just April Fools day it was also Easter Sunday and we were parked at a Cloister. One car after another raced past us to get there for the service. At least Kirsten could get inside for a quick photo.
On our way to Pomerode we stopped at a fruit and veg store - lots of customers because it's the only place open today. When we drove off we had problems getting onto the right road. Our GPS gave us a real run around and we ended up back at the same place! We'd gone around in circles!
I saw a sign saying we should turn left but our GPS said to go right. So we turned down the sound on the GPS and tried again. This time we followed the signs - it was a really complicated route but we finally got onto the right road. Later we went on another trip around the houses so it was a good job there wasn't much traffic on the road!
Pomerode is a small German town in Brazil! It was founded in 1863 by people from Pommern in Germany so a lot of people here speak German. And of course there's lots of German food so Kirsten was really happy!
We drove past a bakery and I pulled over straight away. I went out to find us something to go with our coffee - coffee and cake is a German tradition after all! People here might speak German but some of it isn't easy to understand. I tried asking for something with apple. The woman behind the counter said something unintelligible then fetched something out from behind the counter - apple strudel!! Is that what she said?? It certainly didn't sound like it!! It was also expensive but it's German so I bought it for Kirsten. (Okay, so I like it too!!)
There was a lot of traffic driving through the town - there seems to be a big festival on here for Easter. Normally the Latin American countries celebrate Semana Santa with processions and build beautiful carpets out of flowers. But here in Pomerode they celebrate in the German style - trees full of Easter eggs! And hundreds of them!!
We would need to walk back into town to see everything but first we needed to get to the fairgrounds where iOverlander says we can park with electricity, water, showers and wifi and all for free!! When we arrived we spoke to the security guard Livio but he couldn't speak English or German so we got out our smartphone and used a translation app. Kirsten spoke into it in English and a voice translated it into Portuguese and at the same time, the Portuguese was also written on the screen. Then Livio spoke and we got the English translation. Livio thought it was so good he wanted the app for his own phone!
Livio told us that a heavy, monsoon type storm had just come through yesterday and caused a few problems. The place where motor homes normally park had been underwater and a lot of mud and sand had been swept into the area. He suggested a different spot that was on higher ground next to a sports hall and some outdoor sinks, one of which had hot water. He also showed us where the toilets and showers were.
We parked up around 3-30pm, plugged in and hung out a washing line so we could dry all our wet clothes from the waterfalls yesterday and sat and had our expensive but really nice apple strudel with coffee!
Later we walked back into the town for a few hours to see the rest of the Easter fair. Virtually every house has it's own Easter egg tree. At the main festival area we saw a huge tree with thousands of Easter eggs on it. They are in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most Easter eggs on one tree in 2017 - 82,404!! There were also plenty of "curry sausage and chips" stands - a German favourite. Today was the last day of the month long festival so we had only just got here in time!
Over the next few days we did a lot of hand washing - I checked out two launderettes in town but one looked totally chaotic and the other charged per piece. It would have cost $15 just to wash bed sheets! It's cheaper to buy a washing machine!! Fortunately we had space to hang out a washing line and managed to do quite a bit.
We also spent a lot of time writing our website and finally got an update sent out at 1am in the morning! We worked on our fitness level by using the outdoor sport track where Kirsten could jog and I walked between 6 and 11 km every evening. We virtually had the place to ourselves although there were constantly volleyball matches or indoor football matches being played in the sports hall.
On one afternoon we even had German dance music for the oldies being played! A lot of people turned up to dance so they are obviously the German Brazilians! I escaped by walking into town to get some shopping! On the next afternoon we could watch Champions League matches and somehow the time was going by really fast.
We had only planned on staying here for a few nights but then we found out that there would be a large antique car show on at the weekend. I'd spoken (in German!) to some people who were cleaning and preparing the food stands next to where we had parked and they told me that 15,000 visitors came last year!! Wow, that's big.
The following day a large Marquis tent was erected next to us. Hmm! If we want to see the antique cars we might need to move! So Kirsten went to ask Livio if there was a different place we could park using the smartphone translator again. Livio phoned his boss and we got permission to park next to the sport track where we wouldn't be in the way and where there was also a plug for us to get electricity. Unfortunately we couldn't get WiFi from there but at least we got to see all the antique cars and trucks.
On Friday the first old timers started arriving and our former parking spot got filled up with stands selling all kinds of things including antique car parts. There seems to be a real family atmosphere amongst all the antique car owners who come from all around Brazil and meet up at every car show.
The oldest car is a Ford T from 1917 and is on a stand inside the hall and by Saturday there were over 200 different vehicles including a number of trucks. I'm not sure if there were 15,000 visitors this year but there were certainly a great deal of people milling around. Great atmosphere!
In between we had to move Winnietwo closer to our former parking spot so we could get WiFi to watch HSV. We managed to win our first match in almost 5 months!!! Kirsten had tears in her eyes. Will we go down or is there still a chance??
We both kept going out for a wander around the show as more and more cars arrived and Kirsten took a huge amount of photos. On Sunday she realised that she hadn't taken photos of the models and years of all the cars! So she had to go around and get even more shots! I think the final number was well over 500!
Antique Cars in Pomerode
On Monday we moved back to our old spot and, by the evening, we were the only ones left. We decided to stay for a couple of extra nights for my birthday.
