Hi All,
Don’t be alarmed. You did not miss one of the blogs. We left Amsterdam for Oslo, Norway, but we will be returning to Amsterdam at which time I will write the exciting conclusion of the Amsterdam portion of our journey. But now, Oslo:
We flew to Oslo from Amsterdam allowing us to get our first look at the Oslofjord from above.
It was among the most beautiful fjords I have ever seen. Truth be told, however, my favorite and the most attractive Fjord was the 1955 Thunderbird convertible.
Hi All:
As I was trying to think of a clever alliterative title for this first blog from Amsterdam, I realized that it’s difficult to use this particular literary device with a city name that begins with “A” or any vowel for that matter. “Alluring or Attractive or Appealing Amsterdam” doesn’t really roll off the tongue like the “Privies of Prague” or “Back to Barcelona.” I only wished I would have considered fact this prior to arranging our trip to Amsterdam and Oslo.
Before I get into the “meat and potatoes” of our visit to Amsterdam or as they say in Dutch, the “vlees en aardappelen” (which, by the way, is probably the reason that no one orders meat and potatoes in Holland), I want to share an Amsterdam-related story which occurred prior to our trip.
I’m a little embarrassed about this, but this is what happened…
Hi All,
A couple of years ago there were several news articles about possible “acoustic attacks” targeting the U. S. Embassy staff in Havana.
Hi All,
No visit to Havana would be complete without a visit to Fusterlandia, or so we were told by our guide. Fusterlandia is a neighborhood in Havana in which Jose Fuster began using scraps of tiles to make Gaudi-like designs on his house.
This apparently appealed to the people living next door and across the street and the next thing you know the whole neighborhood was doing it.
Hi All,
As we boarded the bus on DAY 4 of our Cuban Excursion, the excitement was palpable. We were going to Havana. Not without the requisite stops along the way, but tonight we were going to eat and sleep in Havana. So it was with an almost electrifying anticipation that we packed, ate and once again boarded the cursed bus.
And after riding for almost 2 hours, we made our first stop at the highest bridge in Cuba, The Bridge of Bacunayagua (try saying that three times quickly).
FACT: The Bridge of Bacunayagua was inaugurated in September 1959. Cubans consider it one of the seven wonders of Cuban civil engineering.
Hi All,
As mentioned in my last communication, each day started in the same way: breakfast and a bus ride. On DAY 2, which was only 36 hours after we arrived in Cuba, things were a bit different. We added another activity. Prior to breakfast and the bus ride, we packed our bags, then had breakfast and boarded the bus. We left our Sancti Spiritus hotel bound for a new hotel in the resort town of Varadero (a mere 5 hour bus ride away). But at least we were finally “On The Road to Havana.”
To help break up the very, very long bus ride, we made a few stops along the way. Our first was in Santa Clara which may sound familiar because it is where the plane landed when we arrived in Cuba from Miami.
Hi All,
After we finished our first dinner in Cuba and walked back to our hotel, we walked down a walking street, passed the bell tower, and saw other diners in a restaurant (l to r below)
At the hotel the group was again warned (for the umpteenth time) not to drink water from the tap in our hotel. Only use bottled water, several bottles of which were provided to each of us daily by the tour company.
Hi All,
In July of last year we decided to visit Cuba.
The only way that US citizens can visit Cuba is on a government sanctioned tour; and although people from other countries can tour Cuba on their own, not citizens of the USA…”Thank you, Donald.” Thus, Jill and I joined two friends, Steve and Nancy (who we met on a previous trip) for a “comprehensive educational exchange program” of Cuba offered by a company called “Friendly Planet.” The name of the tour: “Captivating Cuba.”
Continue reading THE ROAD TO HAVANA: Miami to Sancti Spiritus
Hi All,
This was my very first time in Miami Beach, our first stop on “The Road to Havana.
I was excited to visit the Art Deco Historic District in South Beach and stay at the celebrated Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. As I began to make reservations at the Fontainebleau, I discovered that the famous hotel was not the small boutique hotel that I imagined. Rather it was a giant 1500+ room hotel with 12 restaurants and one of the largest hotels in the United States outside of Las Vegas. So we opted to stay at a much smaller, quieter and more intimate hotel. We chose The Ritz-Carleton in Key Biscayne, only 25 minutes from Miami. It seemed fitting that we would prepare ourselves for visiting socialist Cuba by staying at a capitalistic luxury resort in Florida.
Hi All,
As promised this is the final installment of our Scottish road trip, or as Jill eloquently expressed it: “We reached the end of the road (trip).”
The morning following “The Incident,” we left for our ferry crossing to the Isle of Mull. The one hour voyage was like the photo I took a few days earlier on one of the lochs.
Peregrinations with Richard and Jill 