Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Day 7 - Havana -Cuba










Several months ago we made contact with a personal tour guide in Cuba and after Several e-mails we booked a tour with him and at 9.00 we met Radik outside the Cruise terminal and we were so happy that we chose this particular guide. First of all there was his car, a Red 1951 Lincoln Lido convertible and secondly Radek who turned out to be a super host and guide with a tremendous knowledge of Havana. 










Our first stop of the day was the home of the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway. The house stands in beautifully lush grounds with spectacular views of the Havana Skyline. The house itself is set in a time capsule and looks just like the day Hemmingway left, even his clothes can be seen hanging in the closet. We then moved on to see the impressive marble statue "Christo" that overlooks the harbour.












 Next stop was the huge fort of San phillipe with its huge walls and double moat, this fort was never attacked, just its size put off any intended raiders. We then took a break for lunch at EL Canonaz restaurant where we enjoyed a superb Fish meal and the local rum based drink, Mojito. Back on the road we headed down the famous sea drive of the Malecon and its famous old hotels. We also visited Revolution Square, the impressive main train station and stopped off at a tobacco shop to buy a few of Cuba's famous cigars. All to soon it was time to bid farewell to Radek after a six hour tour of the city and thank him for such a wonderful day in his beautiful classic car. 












We returned to the ship, went up on deck and slipped out of Havana as the sunset. We both agreed that it had been one of the most enjoyable cities we had ever visited.










 At night we went to see the hugely talented entertainer, Fogwell Flax.

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