Monday 16 May 2011

Vedado

Today was a rest day, one of the great things about chess in Cuba. Whereas in the west we have moved to double rounds which neccessarily include the almost universally hated morning rounds here in Cuba the games start at the civilized time of 3pm, one round a day and a rest day. Only in Holland, for example Leiden, do you still see the same respect for the royal Game. Today I took a walk around our neighbourhood in Vedado and this is what I saw.


The ground floor has one of the many 24 hour bakeries I have seen in Cuba


A beautiful Fortification next to the Colonial Club 1830 housing a cafe and restaurant


The mouth of the River


A fisherman throwing his line in the water






Some kind of Temple?


The Colonial Club or 1800 as it's known locally (despite the 1830 sign) has great music on Thursdays and Sundays.


Inside you have a rock garden made of sea fossils that reminds me of the Gaudi garden in Pobla de Lillet in Catalunya, Spain


a closer view


and a stairway to heaven.


and a final one from the top. I did want to show you a few more but these took nearly 2 hours to upload. The wi-fi here at the Cohiba Melia hotel is usually quite good but today is extraordinarily slow.

That's all folks, wish me luck for tomorrow, I am playing my fourth female competitor, a Cuban WGM so I'll need all the luck I can get :-) 




2 comments:

  1. i would LOVE a 24 hour bakery!!
    great pics man. good luck - and most of all enjoy!

    ciao,

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  2. You may not like what they sell though Jeff. Cuba has a lot of great food, fish fruit lobster etc but they suck at bread and pastries.

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