The hotel is next to the Amoreiras
shopping center. This huge shopping center also contains a Swatch
store (who actually had released a .beat
special in 2000).
another nice billboard next to the hotel
On friday, the weather was great and as
the official event began in the late afternoon, we had some time on our
own to explore the city. We enjoyed the great view from the Miradouro de São Pedro de
Alcântara:
xmas time, sitting in a street café
We walked down to the river Tejo, to the Praça do Comércio:
Ponte 25 de Abril
A fantastic day which blew away some of my mid winter (3 deg.C, grey clouds, ...) depression :-)
At 5pm, the event officially
started with a welcome speech by Skander. All the usual suspects
had come together...
xmas decoration at the main shopping street in Baixa
Finally, we arrived near the castle and
again, we had a fantastic view of the city:
some short explanations by a local tourist guide
We walked up to the Castelo de São Jorge and
suddenly, we were greeted by an african dance group and fire eaters:
Matthias had a lot of fun entering the
restaurant as you can see on these pictures :-) A nice menu
awaited us in the restaurant Casa
do Leão, located directly in the castle. Actually, we
had eaten there 10 years ago as well!
A first surprise was the arrival Skander,
dressed up as a portuguese sailor:
Even bigger was our surprise when the Xmas
event special was distributed during the first evening of the event,
together with a medal and a compass to honour the completion of our
first mission:
Every participant of the event received a
unique special Irony Chrono Time Of
Exploration (YCS525G):
Only 222 pcs of this special
watch were produced! It is a variant of the Irony Chrono Light Of Senses (YCS509G)
which is part of the Seasons 2008 collection. The difference is
the color of the date field (green instead of white) and the color of
the ring in the upper left of the dial (green instead of black).
The metal strap is also engraved "Time Of Exploration 2008":
So, this watch is very rare as only 222
pcs exist. The watch
comes packaged in a very nice wooden
box with a number xxx/222 on
the bottom:
The watch itself is not numbered.
More pictures of the opened
box and other goodies from the event:
Back to Stay tuned to Swatch.