Spring 2009 in Portugal
Posted by Maurizio Ghiotto on Friday May 1, 2009
We were lucky enough to be able to take a trip to Portugal in the spring to approve some material for a very important job. A few of us from American Stone, the contractor and the most important person the architect, all took our job seriously.
Our job included: viewing the quarries, scrutinizing the stone selection, rejecting those pieces that were out of the architect's acceptable range, eating the genuine cuisine and tasting every local wine bottled. We arrived at various times came together at the hotel and started planning our time in Portugal. If any of you know me food is very important and wine even more so. During our work and sightseeing travels we filled in with rich feasts.
Our trip to the quarries was very impressive. Portugal is not very mountainous as you typically see in Italy when viewing quarries. The stone is excavated into the ground using cranes to lift it up and out, so surprisingly when you come upon a quarry and look into it you could be looking down into an eighty story building, a little dizzying to say the least. Check out the photo and you will get that feeling of vertigo.
Right after our quarry visit we went into the small town Almeirim that lays their claim to fame as the "Stone Soup" creator. You remember the story when you were a kid don't you? I will add it as an entry. Somehow we drank massive amounts of wine at every meal and never experienced any downside to it, I guess the lack of sulfites makes it all so much more pleasant.....
The actual stone approval took a few visits to the factory; upon the final viewing we took a few photos. Some inclusions and spotting were unacceptable to the architect though the majority was acceptable, it is very important that the most of the variations in the material are acceptable as that is what typically makes the beauty of the natural stone once installed on the building. Overall the trip was a major success and we have since had a reunion dinner at my home in Houston to recount the friendships made and the humorous stories.
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