For the most part, our stay in Cuba is really only defined by the time that we stayed in Havana. While we stayed in the resort in Varadero for more days I’m going to exclude most of my comments about Cuba from the Varadero stay as realistically, while we enjoyed ourselves here, the resort is not really indicative of Cuba in any meaningful way. While at the resort in Varadero, we really could have been at any beach resort in any Spanish-speaking country and not notice too much difference. This isn’t taking away from any of the positive aspects of our stay here at the Sandals Royal Hicacos as we’ve really enjoyed staying here. The food was quite good, the staff was really friendly and just about everything about the resort was well done. Without a doubt we would recommend this resort in Cuba for a vacation.

Barb and I were comparing notes last night about the Havana part of our Cuban trip. For the most part we seemed to have a similar perspective about it. One of the factors that defined our impression of Havana has to do with a unique factor of Cuba that does not exist in any other country that I am aware of. I’m referring to the dual currency that Cuba has in place.

The currency in Cuba is the Cuban Peso but there are two different kinds of Peso. Essentially everything that you will pay for as a tourist will be paid for in a "convertible" peso which is always labelled as CUC. Most restaurants that we went to only had prices in CUC and we only saw one store that had dual pricing for the local and tourists. In general, the local peso pricing was about 1/10th of the CUC pricing. On the surface this might imply that the locals are paying 1/10th of what we are as tourists but I suspect that local Cuban is making far less that 1/10th the average salary so the net result is that most things that we might find to be relatively affordable (even in CUC pricing) is far beyond the reach of most Cubans to purchase.

The fact that most Cubans can never afford many of the things that tourists can easily purchase lends itself to one of the most significant issues that you come across when going to restaurants or stores: you rarely see local Cubans eating or shopping at these stores and restaurants as they cannot afford to do so. Unlike any other place that we have travelled to where it is common to interact with the locals at stores and restaurants this never really happened to us in Havana. In many ways it was like being at a resort where the only locals that you are interacting with are those who work in service jobs but never as a customer.

The issue about why virtually all of the meals that we had in Havana we really bad is a bit harder to explain. In fact I don’t really understand it at all. If I were to speculate about this I would say that there doesn’t seem to be any system in place in Cuba where there are training programs for chefs or that because of the lack of available food products had diminished the standard for cooking over the years. Whatever the reason is, it’s really unfortunate as this one factor made such a big impact on our overall impression of Havana.

And finally…

The main question that we have been asking ourselves over the past few days is will we come back to Cuba again? The answer to this is not as simple yes or no. One of the motivators that drove us to come to Cuba now (and Havana in particular) was that we wanted to see the country before any changes occur to it with respect to the relationship with the U.S. Having had a chance to see a bit of the country as it is, I think that I might want to come back to Cuba again but maybe after there had been an opportunity for the country to have a large amount of money infused for upgrades and repairs to the aging infrastructure. Whether these potential changes have a positive impact on the day to day lives of regular Cubans is left to be seen but it would be truly unfortunate if economic changes were to occur to the country and no benefit were to be seen by the people.

These potential changes notwithstanding, I think that Barb and I may not return to Havana for many years, if at all. Whether we return to Cuba to a resort in Varadero is equally unclear.

As far as our next travel plans go, we have several destinations under discussion but we still have plans for a major expedition to Antarctica in the winter 2011 time frame. Of course this leaves all of 2010 unaccounted for and I’m hoping to announce what our plans will be in the next few months as they become more certain.

Until then.

Baden

While the flight to Cuba was only 6 hours, the one negative was that we were going to be landing in Cuba around 11PM and as we needed to take a 2 hour shuttle from the Varadero airport to our hotel in Havana it was going to be a late night for us. We didn’t end up getting to our hotel room until about 2:30AM and the next day we paid for it by crashing back in our hotel room asleep around 4:00 in the afternoon.

The hotel that we are staying at in Havana is called the Hotel Sevilla and is a about 100 years old but very modernly updated (the picture above is one of the outdoor terraces). Our hotel is right in the heart of Havana and we seem to be within walking distance to most things.

Before we left Vancouver, many people had mentioned about the hurricane in the Cuba region but this had passed by many days ago and we have had sunny skies (or at worst, partly cloudy) with temperatures in the mid to high 20′s. Of course, it’s the humidity that is the biggest factor and sweating constantly is unavoidable – at least when you’re not in the shade.

Drinking up the Culture in Old Habana

When we were planning our trip to Cuba, we decided that we didn’t want to spend our entire time here exclusively on a resort so we were able to arrange a split vacation where we spend half of our time in Havana and half in Varadero. We thought that this would be an amicable split where I could get my "city" vacation and Barb her beach vacation.

This morning (Tuesday) Barb and I started our first full day in Habana (Habana being the proper local spelling) just walking around the local streets. We didn’t have a particular agenda and just wandered around semi-aimlessly, going in directions that looked interesting. We are staying in what is called old Habana. In most other cities that we have ever been to, the old or historic part of town is often a charming, old world experience where you might imagine living here several centuries ago. Unfortunately, that really isn’t the case in old Havana. Havana at the best of times is in serious need of a few hundred million dollars worth of repairs. Old Havana is in really bad shape. If you’re going to enjoy any part of Havana the very first thing that you need to do is get used to the how things are pretty much falling apart.

One of the most well known aspects of Cuba are the 1950′s era American cars that are still being driven around almost 50 years after the revolution. One of the interesting things that you notice when one of them drives by is that while they look like a ’50 car, none of them sound like one as most of them have long since been converted to small diesel engines. However, the American cars, while common on the road, are nowhere near the most common type of car on the road. That distinction goes to the Russian-made Lada which is easily about 30% of all the cars on the road here. There are a few newer cars that are seen here and there – mostly Korean brands like Hyundai and Kia but occasionally you will see a Volkswagen or Peugeot as well.

The Food

One of the most pleasurable things that I enjoy about travelling is to experience the culture of a country by way of it’s local food. I find very few better ways to connect to a people that to taste what they eat. One of the most common things that I had heard about Cuban food before we left Vancouver was how bad it was. Sometimes you hear such things and they turn out to be an exaggeration or only have some small basis of truth. I can tell you that I was desperately hoping that of all the things that I had read about Cuba that this one thing was not true.

Sadly, it’s all true. Ever last word of it. The food that we have eaten in Havana so far has all been horrible. Every meal, over and over again. It’s all been bland, or poorly cooked or reheated from yesterday (or the day before). I’m honestly at quite a loss to understand what the problem is. In a large, tropical country like Cuba there should be an abundance of different food and spices but ingredients aside, there just seems to be no desire to make food that tastes good. Barb and I are really hoping that things turn around when we get to Varadero and that we experience some better food that we have had here in Havana.

So that I’m not completely negative, I should point out that although the food has not been to our liking, the Cubans know how to make a great drink. One of the local favourites is of course the mojito (pronounced: mo-hee-toe). Barb and I have had our share of great mojitos in the past few days and in fact anything with rum in it has been great as rum is one of Cuba’s local products. If it were only possible to live on mojitos and not eat the food.

Cigars, Cigarettes

If there is one thing that Cuba is most known for it has to be cigars. For generations Cubans have made their hand-made cigars which are known world wide as being the best available

Not being a smoker myself I can’t say with any personal experience that Cuban cigars are any better than others but I will say that while I can’t stand cigarette smoke I find the smell of a cigar (especially the local cigars) to be unobjectional. I’ve been debating whether I will buy any cigars for myself to take home as I know that they don’t last forever and it would make no sense to buy them and not use them.

Yesterday (which was Wednesday), we took a tour of a local cigar factory called the Fabrica de Tabaco Partagas which is right in the heart of Havana just a few blocks from our hotel. Of all the things that we have done so far in Havana this was about the most interesting and we’re both glad that we did the tour. The small building has about 5-6 floors and there are workers everywhere doing various tasks from sorting the tobacco leaves to assembling the cigars. Of course, everything at this factory was done by hand and it was all very fascinating to watch. If you come to Havana, I highly recommend taking this tour.

On to Varadero

Today is Thursday and we will be leaving Havana and moving on to our next destination which is in Varadero. We have another two hour shuttle ride ahead of us today to get there but we’re hoping to get some rest and relaxation over the next few days. Being at an all-inclusive resort, I may not have much to report but I will post one last time to wrap up my overall thoughts of Cuba.

Baden

Our trip down to Cuba is a fairly significant milestone for us as it has been almost 9 years since Barb and I have gone anywhere together for a tropical, beach type vacation. The last time that this type of trip took place was back in 2000 when we went to Cancun, Mexico. Of course, the reason for there being a 9 year gap between these types of trips is no big mystery. It’s me.

Very early on in our vacationing life, I remember that I made a big declaration to Barb that I hated the heat. To put this in perspective, you have to understand that virtually all of Barb’s previous vacation history before she met me were resorts, hot weather, laying by the beach in the sun type of getaways. So me stating that I didn’t like really hot weather led us to mostly going to more temperate climates and mostly travelling in the cooler times of the year like the spring and fall. Us going to Africa was the closest that we came to a hot weather vacation and truth be known it wasn’t really that hot for most of the three weeks that we spent in South Africa and Tanzania.

But going to Cuba is quite different than going to Africa. For most people who go to Cuba they are planning to go to an all-inclusive resort where sitting by the pool is the highlight of the day. Barb and I have talked about going to Cuba for several years now and the last time that we had nearly made plans to go there was in May of 2008 but those plans changed when we went down to Las Vegas for my father’s birthday. Going to Cuba was something that seriously interested me as I feel that it a unique place in all of the Caribbean – not somewhere where you would see McDonalds and Starbucks on every corner. At least not yet. It’s the not yet part that has always been in the back of my mind as I felt that it was only a matter of time before the situation with the restrictions on U.S. citizens travelling to Cuba was lifted and I could foresee that Cuba would be very different after that happens. Being able to see Cuba at least once while it currently is was important to experience.

Of course, going to Cuba to only see beaches and swimming pools at a resort was not going to get us to experience the culture and history of Cuba. Going to a resort was fine buy I wanted to stay in Havana.

For a long time we had talked about going to Cuba and staying only in Havana vs. staying only at a resort. Neither option seemed to be satisfactory for both of us but we were eventually able to find a compromise that I feel will be good for both of us: a split vacation where we stay part of the time in Havana and partly on a resort. Most people who I know who have gone to Cuba go to a resort but had I known that this type of split vacation was possible I think that we would have gone to Cuba a long time ago.

As it’s been almost six months since we have returned home from Germany it will be good to get back into the travel frame of mind again. Preparing to travel always brings back the excitement of going somewhere interesting that we get no matter how many times we have been to a destination.

As I normally do when I travel, I will be attempting to stay online and post a few updates here on my blog once we are there. The one thing that I am not certain about is if I will be able to get reliable Internet connectivity in Cuba. As a result there is the possibility that I will be writing blog updates but I may not post them immediately. Regardless, you’ll find out about our Excellent Cuban Adventure soon enough.

Baden

This is all quite normal and as it has been for the past few years us waking up in the middle of the night will continue on for about a week. As you might imagine it makes going back to work a bit inconvenient because not only are we waking up about 3 hours earlier than we normally should but around the late afternoon we will start falling asleep as it will be around midnight according to our bodies.

What we’ve noticed is that the amount of recovery time that we need to get over the jet lag has gotten much worse over the past 10 years. I seem to recall that we could come home and within 2 days be back to normal. I really hope that this trend doesn’t get worse and worse over the years to come.

Today is Tuesday and I normally take the day after we come home off work to recover but in Barb’s case she did not do this so for her it will be a working day. The last time I attempted going back to work the very next day after coming home was when we went to Italy in 2006 and I swore never to make that mistake again.

Our return flight back home from Berlin was uneventful. The only point of interest is that when we got back to the Vancouver airport and went through immigration we were directed into this special lineup where we used a self-serve kiosk to scan our passports and declaration form. The woman said that they had just installed these about a month ago and were trying them out. About half of the people who were in front of us put their declaration form in the slot and it got completely mangled so there was a guy running around fixing the machines so it was much slower than they probably wanted it to be.

Normal Food

One of the biggest things that we both look forward to after eating in restaurants for almost three weeks is eating normal food again. By that I mean eating home cooked food but also not constantly having to wait at the end of the meal to get the bill and pay. All of that was quite interesting and fun for the first few weeks but this one issue is where I really get the most tired of when we are on vacation. Barb and I have always talked about one day going to a place for a longer time – say a month or more and stay in an apartment instead of a hotel. I think that doing this where you could really live as a local and shop for groceries in the markets and cook at home could be really a great way to experience the local culture in ways that we never could by just staying in hotels.

Thanks to everyone who sent emails to us while we were in Germany. I’ll sign off until our next trip. It’s 3:00 and I’m sure that there’s something on TV.

Baden

As of today we have been in Berlin for 4 days and looking back on it all, if we had only come to Berlin I could have still been very happy. Berlin, Paris, Madrid, London, I could stay in any of them and be content. It’s the excitement of the city that I like and each of the above European cities offer so many things to see and do that I could never get tired. Of course I have to say that Paris is still my favourite city of any country but having spent the 4 days so far here I’ve got to say that Berlin has to be a close second.

The one thing that I’m missing in Berlin is the architecture. There is just so much new construction that has taken place over the past few decades that the look of Berlin doesn’t have the same historic grandeur that most other large cities in Europe have.

When we were staying with my friend Frank at the start of this trip, we were reminiscing how we would have liked to have spent more time in Berlin when I came to Germany by myself in 2006. If you recall from my blog stories from that trip (See: Baden’s Excellent German Adventure – Final ), we had decided to spend a few days in Dresden and on the train ride from Hamburg to Dresden we stopped in Berlin for a few hours. In hind sight staying in Berlin instead of Dresden would have been a more preferable choice. Nonetheless, we are here in Berlin now and will have 7 days here to get our fill of this unique city.

One of the most unique things about Berlin is that so much reconstruction was done on it after the Berlin wall came down in 1989 and subsequently East and West Germany reunified into a single Germany in 1990. Not only did massive reconstruction begin in the former east Berlin but in all of the former east Germany. As a result of all of this construction, Berlin has a look and feel all of it’s own and in many ways is not like any other European city because of its newness.

In addition to the reconstruction that started after Germany reunified, most of Berlin was rebuilt after World War 2 so subsequently there is virtually none of the buildings that are 100′s of years old that we have regularly seen in other German towns that we have visited so far.

Well Located

We are staying in a hotel just off of one of the most famous shopping streets in Europe called Kfurstendamm. For a minute I was going to say that it is like the Champs-Élysées in Paris but while attractive, the shopping on the Champs-Élysées is really horrible. Paris’s Boul. Haussmann would be a better comparison for the city’s premium shopping street.

Speaking of shopping, the must-see high end department store in Berlin is obviously KaDeWe (pronounced: ka-dey-vey). This huge department store (apparently second in size only to Harrod’s in London) is the place to go if you intend on doing any shopping in this city. Fortunately for us KaDeWe is just a few blocks from our hotel and I can attest that next to our hotel room Barb and Ruth have spent more time in this building than anywhere else.

Sadly, the large department store chain Karstadt , which is the 128-year old parent company of KaDeWe, declared bankruptcy this week while we are in Berlin. While it’s future is uncertain, the global recession seems to be affecting Germany quite hard. Compared to every other trip to Germany that we have been here, I have not seen as many "sale" signs in stores with deep discounts being offered.

Getting Around

In comparison to our last stay here in 2001, we were then on the outskirts of the city where we had to take transit to get to any kind of stores. Our present hotel location is ideally suited to walk to just about everything. Of course, Berlin is so big that you could never walk to everything, but as Berlin has one of the best transit systems in the world as long as you are near an subway station known as an U-bahn (pronounced: oo-bahn) then you’re set. As Barb and I normally do we have purchased a a 1 week unlimited transit pass. After this we can ride the U-bahn or S-bahn (the commuter train extension of the U-bahn) whenever we want at no extra cost. This is a big consideration as we have often had a spur of the moment idea to go somewhere and if we had to pay each time we would likely end up not seeing many parts of the city.

Favouring Spring Time

Most of you who know us know that we have almost always travelled in the fall – mostly in September or October. We decided a long time ago that this time of year was perfect for us as most people who had children were not travelling as they were back in school and in most parts of the world the weather is usually still pretty good.

However after this trip we may have turned all of this upside down.

With us deciding to break with tradition and take our "big" vacation in the spring time we have had a chance to see some real advantages with travelling in May/June. By far the biggest plus is that the evenings are far more usable this time of year since it’s daylight much later. By late September it starts getting dark earlier and earlier (at least in the northern hemisphere). In Berlin this week we have been walking home after dinner and it’s still light outside. We may need to completely reassess if a spring vacation is the way to go from now on.

Separate Ways

It’s Friday now and it’s our 5th day in Berlin but the number of days before we return home to Vancouver are getting closer. We have the full weekend to ourselves but on early Monday morning we will be heading for the airport.

On of the things that being in Berlin has changed for us is that we are no longer all together for the whole day. Today Barb and I were together for part of the day and then we went our own direction. We only saw Ruth for breakfast and won’t see her again until dinner.

All of this is quite normal and not unexpected so don’t read too much into this. Ruth has been running out of energy to keep up with Barb and I as we will typically spend most of the day walking around. As a result she has been staying closer to the hotel each day and only going out shopping here and there. Luckily our hotel proximity lends itself to that.

For Barb and I, we no longer spend the whole day together as I am usually off scouring the city for places to photograph and Barb finds other things that are of more interest. I’m sure that most of those places involve stores that sell shoes. So it’s a win-win situation.

The Food

It is impossible for me to visit any place in Europe and not talk about the food. If there is any bad that has come out of our travels is that we have become so spoiled for all of the good food that we have had in Europe. In particular, pastries, breads and cakes are so much better than what we normally have at home that it’s difficult to describe how much of a difference there is.

The most noticeable difference in the variety of foods here is when we were in a small towns. Fresh public markets appear at least once or twice a week in the public areas (or platzes) where the sheer variety of different foods like produce and seafood exceeds our local supermarkets in Vancouver by a wide margin. And it’s not like all of the food sold here is grown in Germany – much of it is imported from countries like France, Spain and Italy but the taste of the imported food seems so much better.

Comparing restaurant food on the other hand is a different story. By and large, much of the German food that we have eaten in restaurants is heavy on the meat and potatoes and gravy is served in quantities about twice what I would normally like. Vegetables served with the main dish are often cooked a lot more than I normally like them but virtually all restaurants that we went to offer side salads that in most cases were more than just boring lettuce and tomatoes.

Barb was commenting to me last night that she has not seen any sidewalk vendors or in the pedestrian zones here in Berlin that sell the brötchen und würstes (buns and sausages). The last time that we had one of these was just before leaving München so maybe they’re not such a Berlin thing.

In Germany, Everything’s Good

Today is Sunday which means that it’s our last day in Berlin (and Germany) and we will be flying home to Vancouver tomorrow. I can honestly say that if we had only come to visit Berlin as we had originally talked about I would be quite happy as I really do like this city. As we have done for Paris, I can definitely see us coming back to Germany in the future to only visit Berlin. I could easily stay here for 8 or 10 days on another trip.

Over the past few days I have gone to many different parts of Berlin and keep finding something new just around the corner. With my rudimentary German speaking skills I have found that I am comfortable enough in most situations by myself as when I am with Barb or Ruth I almost always let them do most of the speaking.

I will be sad to leave Germany tomorrow. I feel that there is a lot of the German culture that I can identify with – perhaps more so than any other country that we have visited. At some point in the future I can easily see Barb and I staying in some part of Germany for a long time, months, perhaps when we are retired.

I think that our Excellent Return to Germany can be summed up with the following thought: I was by myself this morning walking through an area of Berlin called Charlottenburg. I went there primarily to see the Schloss Charlottenburg (the palace) but afterwards was walking through the surrounding neighborhood just taking in the sights. It was one of those nice sunny afternoons where most everyone was just relaxing in the parks or just sitting at an outdoor restaurant having a drink. I happen to sit down on a bench in a park and next to me on the bench was an old man. The after a few minutes the man turns to me and asked "Alles gut" (is everything good)? And it was.

Barb and Baden’s Excellent Adventures will return on our next trip that we have not planned at this point. No doubt that during the summer time this will become more clear.

Take care.

Baden

We’ve been really lucky that since we’ve stepped off the plane in Frankfurt about a week ago we have seen about 1 hour of rain – the rest non-stop sunshine, mostly in the mid 20′s. I was thinking that this great weather seems to make being here in the Bodensee area all the better as we were taking on a short ferry ride across the lake over to the small town of Meersburg this morning. The warm sunshine made the spectacular views of the town from the ferry that much more spectacular (see the picture below of Meersburg).

Meersburg is one of those old medieval towns that has a small, walled inner town with a castle and the new part of the town that subsequently grew outside of the original walls as the town prospered. Of course "new" still means about 500 years old so don’t get the impression that it was built last year. One of the most impressive parts of Meersburg is the view from the water as it has a colourful row of buildings along a single street along the water and up above can be seen the old castle and a newer winery that was built later on.

Zeppelin Town

The name of the hotel we are staying in here in Konstanz is called the Graf Zeppelin Hotel. We happened to just stumble across it when we arrived in town on Thursday but the name immediately struck me as the name of the company that made the well known zeppelin the Hindenburg. As it turns out, the founder of that company, Count von Zeppelin was born in Konstanz, hence the affiliation. While I’m not an expert on zeppelins, I’m pretty sure that the Zeppelin company made at least one other zeppelin that didn’t blow up like the Hindenburg. Unfortunately, zeppelins, the Hindenburg and blowing up all seem to be connected in most people’s minds.

Bavaria Bound

I must have spoken too soon about all of that good weather. On Saturday when we were planning on leaving Konstanz it started to rain and didn’t let up until the next day. We we thinking about staying another day in Konstanz or maybe even moving to Lindau which is at the other end of the Bodensee but with all of the rain we decided to keep driving towards München (Munich) which was only another couple of hours drive.

Not only had the weather turned wet but it dropped about 10 degrees as it was about 12-13 degrees from the previous sunny, mid-20′s the day before. We had to attempt to extend the booking on our hotel in München and this turned out to be fairly easy since we had the cell phone that we had purchased in Mainz on our first day. We had come to use the cell phone several times since we bought it and in many cases it made the hours driving in the car useful time to make or change bookings. One of the problems that we had using the phone was that some of the phone numbers are not always dialed as they are published. The best analogy is that if you dial a number in Canada, sometimes you have to add a "1" in front and sometimes not. Everyone just knows when to use the 1 and when not to. Similarly, there are things that everyone here seems to know like having to put a "0" in front of the number. Before we figured this out we would go to a shop and ask the clerk "how do you dial this phone number"? like we had just come from another planet or something.

The Bells

One of the things that Barb and I always associate with being in Europe are the church bells. There’s something about waking up in a hotel room (especially on a Sunday morning) and hearing the church bells – especially if we’re located near a huge cathedral as we often seem to be. Now I realize that we have church bells in Vancouver but the thing is that we don’t hear them from our house so it’s not something that we identify with home. One of our best memories is being in Germany in 2001 on New Year’s eve (called Sylvester in Germany) just after midnight and opening the doors to hear the church bells ringing in the local town. We were told that church bells would be ringing all over Germany at that moment.

As I write this section it is Sunday and our second day in München as we arrived yesterday in the pouring rain. Of course with it being Sunday pretty much everything is closed today so we walked around exploring the city at a leisurely pace. When we woke up this morning we were relived to see that the weather had changed for the better and we had our sunshine back again although it was a bit cooler that we had seen in the Bodensee area (it was now in the mid-high teens).

My final chapter of Barb and Baden’s Excellent Return to Germany will conclude with our move to our final and perhaps most anticipated destination of this trip: Berlin.

Baden