Beagá day two – Mercado & Mineirão

I began today in Beagá (pronounced ‘bay-ah-gah’, Portuguese for BH) trying to relax, but my new friend Onofre the cat wanted to play:

At lunchtime Jane and I walked to the Mercado Central for a stroll through its maze of ‘streets’ with stalls selling pretty much everything, but especially cheese and booze! So we bought some cheese and drank some booze.

Then we headed back to the apartment so that I could change into cycling kit and grab my bike ready to be driven to the Estadio Mineirao again, but this time for my official visit along with Alex Ellis, the British Ambassador to Brazil. I arrived early so had time to be shown around pitchside, the home changing room and the posh seats before the more important guests arrived:

Upstairs I met Oliver Ballhatchet from the British Consulate in Rio and Tiago Lacerda who’s Extraordinary Secretary of Minas Gerais for the FIFA World Cup (and son of the Mayor of Belo Horizonte) before Alex Ellis also arrived, and it was really nice chatting with them all. Next we went back to pitchside where the press were waiting to photo/film/interview us all, which was pretty surreal for me even after all the previous media interest that I’ve had, but again a great experience!

See the mg.gov.br report here