Cumprimentos de Portugal, dia 2

Hope you enjoyed our Twitter-based tales of our first day in Portugal getting acquainted with the stone which will become the granite sculpture in Parker’s Piece. Day 2 in Portugal started off with media commitments! After appearing in Cambridge News and BBC Online, Neville spoke to Dotty McLeod on BBC Cambridgeshire’s breakfast show about the trip, the stone, and the football stories we’ve already discovered. We’re on about 2hrs 25 mins in…

Then it was off to the quarry. There was only one word for this incredible place. So we used it.

We then watched as our piece of stone was drilled through so it can be split.

The point of splitting the stone is at the heart of the Cambridge Rules 1848 concept: we break the stone into nine parts, four remaining on Parker’s Piece and five travelling across the globe to places where football has become embedded in life and culture.

The stone was split by Helder, an FC Porto fan.

And whenever Helder takes a break, he’s able to shoot the breeze about all things FC Porto with fellow fan Manuel, who oversees the whole operation.

 

Later, back in the relative calm of the factory office, Elena and Belarmino read the original Cambridge Rules and translate them into Spanish and Portuguese. The glory of football, however, is that it’s the same whatever language you speak.