Rio - Saturday

Thank you all for the kind comments regarding my sad news yesterday! 
Much appreciated xx

This morning I was awake at 6 am. Sunshine and time difference helping here. It was odd being in Rio - so far away!
I phoned Christina at 7 am in order to find out what needs to be arranged.
She is planning the service for my father on the 24th.
I phoned KLM in order to change our flights. They were very kind and waived the fees for the change due to the circumstances.
We are now flying home  4 days earlier, stop in AMS and I booked flights to FRA from there. All very strange and I think I still struggle to fully understand what has happened.
After all was re-booked and arranged we had breakfast and then went for a stroll.
There is no kettle in the room and the hotel had none for us, so one plan was to buy a kettle for the morning coffee. Alternatively we can go down and get water from the hotel restaurant. A bit uncomfortable before having had coffee, but Neil did it this morning. What a star!
The streets just off the Copacabana are bustling with life and tons of shops. It is a residential area, not just touristy. We browsed several shops and supermarkets without success! Water kettles seem to be something exotic here! Then Neil took me to the speciality café he found last time! It's probably the best and almost only place where you can get really good coffee in Rio. The coffee culture has not yet jumped the hipster train yet.
We had some really wonderful coffee and chatted with the barista.
Then back into the busy streets and shops.
We finally found a shop that had 2 kettles for sale, but they were expensive. In the end we did not buy one and Neil offered to continue fetching hot water in the mornings.
We visited the Glison Martins shop (check out here) and I was browsing their lovely and reduced bags. Produced in many cases by recycled materials and hand crafted partly in the favelas. 
I fancied a lovely green bag, but in the end did not feel like buying anything like that today.
We moved on and when we were in another shop I realised that I still had this bag over my shoulder!!! I just walked out of the shop with it, by chatting to the vendors!!!! No one apparently noticed, including myself or Neil!!!
Oh my god!! I was panicking! I had stolen a bag!!!!!
We ran back to the shop and I returned the bag, I was so embarassed, but the staff was only laughing and said it was ok!!!
I promised to come back, as the bag obviously wants to stay with me, but was too upset to buy it right away.
We went back to the Hotel for a shower and a rest before heading out again later.
The weather was quite windy and the beach had the "no swimming" flags out. But we did not feel like beach anyways.
I did phone Christina again. Both my cousins drove to her right away, so she was not alone. I am glad they did. So they will be organising over the weekend. It is so terrible for Christina. I feel so much for her. They loved each other very much and now she will wake up in the mornings on her own!
I am still in the bubble .... I guess it will fully hit me when I am arriving in Germany - so far I mainly feel numb .... ! It does not feel real yet, that my dad is gone!
For dinner we went to a posh Churrascaria  and had far too much food.
We were in bed early.

The photo was taken this morning from our hotel room. I liked this single palm tree on the roof. 
We are in the 15th floor and have a corner balcony. 
We can see the Sugar Loaf Mountain  as well and we are literally about 200 m away from the beach. I will keep the other directions for a different day  :)