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Willkommen in der Wwwelt von NCK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Thanks to V. P. for the Original English version.)

 

 

The owners of the Swatch stores and kiosks in Amoreiras, Olivais, Oeiras, Colombo, Vasco Da Gama, Almada, Via Catarina, and Watch Boavista invited their best clients to the Portuguese town of Tomar to celebrate "Festa das Bruxas" (or Halloween to you and me).

 

We met at the four star "Hotel Dos Templarios", where we received our event badges and checked into our rooms. The first part of the event took place in a 16th century castle located about 150km from Lisbon and about 240km from Porto. A small tourist train took us up to the castle/monastary (Convento do Christo), which is also a very impressive sight from down in the valley. We were welcomed by knights in the first courtyard, which is also where we got our instructions and costumes.

 

In the second courtyard we were again welcomed, had our pictures taken, and had the opportunity to photograph the magnificent window (see pic). The mist that covered the mountain added to the atmosphere and made it very easy for us to imagine that we were being transferred into another time and place. We then received the menus for the feast and moved into the main dining hall – a huge long hall, decorated with old banners and standards. We sat at the tables set with plates made of wood and ceramic glasses. The dinner began with wine, water, beans, and bread, and it had the making of a rustic candlelight dinner – did I forget to mention that since we were in the 16th century, there was no electricity and therefore NO lights except for candlelight (ok, so we all wore Swatch watches and used digital cameras, so what :-)? The main course included rabbit, wild boar, and meat balls, and the vegetarians had to make do with the beans, lettuce, and bread. Monks and a women's choir sang medieval songs during dinner, and as dinner came towards an end, a witch, a lord, a jester, and other medieval characters entertained us.

 

The funniest was the man with his circus flea – an invisible flea, of course, but I am sure that after the wine and in the candlelight some of the people might have even seen it! The highlight of the entertainment was a medieval dance. First the performers danced together, and then we were invited to join in – which we did, of course!

 

But considering that this was a Swatch event, the real highlight of the evening was the special watch. A total of 64 people were invited to the event, but some naturally came with guests. As they were not entitled to get a special Swatch, the organizers decided to auction off two of the specials (number 1 and number 2), in order to give everyone the opportunity to have one! Number 2 was auctioned off for 430 euros, and number 1 went for a breathtaking 700 euros! Unfortunately, number 1 was purchased by a non-Portuguese, so it left the country. Then came what I was waiting for: the 64 watches were handed out, in a black velvet bag and numbered with Roman numerals. I received number 21. A staff member took photos while the shop owners handed the swatches to us and we were also given a nice little certificate – in Portuguese, of course. Enthusiastic about our latest addition to our collections, we got on to the train and returned to the hotel after midnight. Like at most events, we all got together at the hotel bar, where we also found some time to trade Swatches and information related to – you guessed it – Swatch. Rumor has it that the hard core fans stayed up until 3 or 4 am.

 

After a late breakfast at about 10:30 am, we all checked out and put our stuff into the cars, and drove off to the Lago Azul (Blue Lake), where we all boarded a ship (no, it did not sink – we did have a lifeboat, a white rubber dinghy that made us feel VERY safe. Just a joke: the ship was great and the cruise was very smooth. Those of us who attended the London event noticed that the ship had no Swatch pirate flag... or maybe someone beat me to it! This being the land of good food, we naturally had lunch, which included a variety of local specialties. After lunch most of us went onto the deck to enjoy the picturesque landscape and to take pictures. At about 4 pm we returned to our starting point, where we had our group picture taken. As is always the case with all Swatch events, it all ended too soon and we spent at least 30 minutes saying goodbye to one another, in anticipation of meeting again at the next event......

 

Thank you to the Organisation !

 

WATCH OUT FOR THE PORTUGUESE VERSION WHICH WILL FOLLOW !!!

 

 

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