No Business Like……

That’s me on TV. When the stage manager waves his stick, you’re supposed to stand and cheer. Everyone else was a bit slow

🎶 Clap-clap-clap-clap 🎶

Times Square – the brightest place on Earth

“And I, for one, welcome our new candy overlords“

Hallelujah! And, they gave us Soul Food for brunch at the Cotton Club

It’s a real Firehouse!

Drunk Shakespeare. The players were pretty toasted by this point – shoes were stolen from the audience to use as props.

I stole this one from Google as the Blue Men were hard to photograph – I didn’t want to take my camera in the splash zone.

The City That Never Sleeps

The view from the Top of the Rock….
…erfeller building

A shot from the Staten Island Ferry. And it’s free!

Most of NY looks like this

A lot of steam comes out the sidewalk

They turned this old rail line into a Skyway

Parking solution, only $10 for half an hour

I stayed here for a night. All the free fruit you can eat!

James goes to Washington

The lawn sprayers rotate outside of the fence, so the crowd gets a shock. Mr President is in Korea.

It’s ice cream vans all the way down

The WWII Memorial

The Eternal City

The Pons Fabricius – This bridge was built in 62 BCE. It’s still in use.

The Trevi Fountain. Guarded 24/7 as people throw about 3000 Euros a day into it

Gladiator School – swords are really heavy

Rome has a bin collection problem

I took a few days in the countryside to do some studying

The Vatican

From the top of the Basilica

The Tomb of St Peter

He’s a rock star, he doesn’t have to much more than just stand there and people love him.

The Hall of Maps, in the Vatican Museum

This is the Popemobile that Jean-Paul II was shot in

Pompeii & Vesuvius in Pictures

Naples is a bit grim – still the Mafia capital

I hiked up Mt Vesuvius…….

… but needed a ticket to see the crater This is the best shot I could get.

Pompeii is vast, and well preserved. The streets still have their wheel ruts.

Sorrento, Limoncello country

Bikepacking – Swimming in Varadero

In Cuba, you can’t reserve bus tickets, you just have to show up an hour early at the station and “hope”. Thanks to a pair of Norwegians who saved my space, I got a seat to Varadero.

There is no way to bring the bike home, so on my way back through Havana, I donated it to the family who ran my casa. So long, Frankenstein, you saw me across Austria, Hungary and Morocco. We will remember you.

Varadero is a 18 km peninsula, and narrow enough that if you climb a tree, you can see the ocean on both sides. It’s the Cuban Algarve – the food here is much better, and the supermarkets are well stocked (for Cuba, anyway).

My Mastercard was declined on the first evening, which pushed me into the old traveller’s conundrum:

• I need money to get a SIM card

• I need a SIM card to get internet

• I need internet to get money

• I wish I had learned more Spanish

Fortunately the family in my casa helped out, so I’m back online. They also cooked me this feast of prawns.

I took a tour of the peninsula (watch out for low branches on the open-topped bus). I found that most of the coast has been fenced off by all-inclusive package hotels (which are mostly empty, for some reason). If you aren’t wearing a wristband, you aren’t getting to the beach.

I did find a couple of dolphins and a couple of camels. The beach in town is closer and less crowded. Fifty meters offshore the sea is about four feet deep, so swimming isn’t really needed.

The glue does not like salt water

The economy here is strange, the government sets the prices on everything. Half a litre of ice cream is a buck thirty. If you buy in bulk, in a supermarket? A buck thirty. If you buy it from a remote cafe up a mountain? A buck thirty.

Off brand Pringles? Five dollars.

You also need a permit to do anything. The family running my casa have to get another lady in to make me breakfast, as they only have a permit for making dinner.

Final thoughts? With little ambient noise, Cuba is very quiet. It’s strange to listen to conversations fifty meters away.

Every Cuban has a bed, food and healthcare, but there is no competition here. If you have an idea for a better way to do things, the government will shut you down with endless bureaucracy because it won’t be “fair”. On the other hand, everyone is very friendly and there are a lot less touts than I expected.

I have a flight out this evening, via Toronto. Apparently it’s still very cold in Canada. I have a seven hour stopover and no coat 🥶.

Horsepacking – Riding in Viñales

I’m in Viñales, a tobacco town in the western mountains. It’s a garden of red earth and plenty of smiles (and Canadians)

I’ve traded in my bike for a horse while I’m here. I’ve named him Tailwind, as he always has to be the horse in front. I can’t stop him overtaking strangers on the road, which is embarrassing. He’s a good sport though, and he slows down so I can take photos.

A good old fashioned riding cow

It’s a bit windy here. I was lining up a photo of some people kite flying, and had to dodge a runaway cow. You’ll have to take my word for it as I didn’t hit the shutter on either.

I’ve been sleeping in Cuban home-stays, or “Casas particulars”. It’s a good system, the rooms are cheap and clean, and the family you are staying with are happy to help book your adventures.

They grow the best tobacco in the world here. The government takes 90% of the crop, and the farmers can sell the rest. These cigars were fermented with honey and rum.

Queuing early at the communist supermarket.

The very dark caves

In 1960 Castro said “Great view. Build a hotel here”.

Bikepacking – Havana In Pictures

Cuban Congress

The Rum Factory

The Old Quarter

Hotel National

1950’s cars

Lady with a fork riding a chicken

Castro loved ice cream, this was his idea

Havana West

Bikepacking – On the Road in Cuba

Only kidding, that’s Toronto airport on the cover. We were delayed while they plowed the runway and de-iced the fuselage. It’s so cold in Canada you can throw a coffee in the air and it won’t hit the ground.

For this trip I will be powered by rum

It’s 28 degrees here in Cuba and not a cloud in the sky. The Cubans are a happy bunch, especially the sniffer dogs in baggage claim.

It’s my first communist county, so things are a bit different. Everyone has job, but not all jobs are equal. I grabbed some ice cream from a cafe today; it was 2pm and they hadn’t bothered to set out the tables yet. I think I was their first customer for weeks.

Not much ice cream around, but rum is almost free.

This was the view for about eight hours

I biked from Matansas to Havana today, I’m glad I wore sunscreen. Not much to see except jungle and the sea, and the only shade was coming from the coal plants. The cars here are seventy years old and still use sulphur heavy diesel. So in the wake of every car is the smell of eggs.

Pollution so thick it blots out the sun

It’s a tunnel into Havana, and no bikes or mopeds are allowed under the bay. So I used the handy “cyclo bus”.

I’m not sure this would catch on in the UK