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Category: travel

My Havana Trip-Part Two

About a month ago I took a mini weekend getaway to Havana with my husband (love the sound of that) and I wrote a post about the first part of our trip so here is part two 🙂

The one thing about Havana that I absolutely LOVE is the architecture. So many different styles like Colonial, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Eclectic, Modernism, Revolutionary and Contemporary can be seen at every turn. Below is a collection of some of those buildings.

Havana

Havana

Havana

havana

Havana

Very cool Signage

Havana

Havana

I LOVE this boat restaurant!

Havana

This reminds me of New Orleans

Havana

I love the sign and this place was pretty cool. NOT old but very new but I like how they are keeping with the styles around them.

Havana

Havana

The Bacardi building-a Art Deco landmark….my fav! I love Art Deco! Next time I’m in Havana I will visit this building up close.

Havana, Cuba

Havana

Havana

After a long day of sightseeing it was time for a Bucanero Beer and some music at “Café Paris” on Obispo street.

Havana Cuba

Me getting all fancy pants with my iPhone 🙂 Like that huh? lol

Havana

After drinks we wanted to relax so we headed back to our hotel to lounge by the pool under the non existent sun 🙁 BUT it was still warm so that was good at least and the pool area was very enjoyable. They had the comfiest lounge chairs…ever.

Havana, Cuba

Relaxing time done, now off to find some dinner. On our way we ran into some interesting sites. Like these guys playing a very concentrated game of Chess.

Havana

Then we passed the CREEPIEST Hotel…ever! Would you stay at a hotel with these guys greeting you every time you walked in (the other one is on the bench)? They are apparently Monks but scary monks is all I have to say.

Havana

Dinner. We found this wonderful spot which turned out to be in an old printing press building. Dinner was very good and we will back for sure.

Havana

I love that this looks like the stairs go nowhere

Havana, Cuba

After dinner it’s back to wander the street and a night cap at our favorite brewery before calling it a night.

Havana, Cuba

This little girl was super intrigued with the musicians and kept asking them all these questions about the instruments.

Havana, Cuba

I will leave you with two pictures of some cool vintage cars and one silly picture of me 🙂

Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba

I look not so great here, but this picture makes me laugh every time 🙂

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Liz

Visiting Havana Cuba – Part 2

If you read my blog then you know that I was jetting off for a romantic two day getaway to Cuba with my husband recently. Well we are now back and I wanted to share my experience and some of the pics we took.

So here we go…

We left on a Sunday evening which got us into Havana somewhat late to do anything super fun (plus it was raining cats and dogs..seriously I think I saw a dog drop from the sky lol) so we decided to hit up our hotel, have a drink and food and go to bed.

We were staying in the Hotel Sevilla and by the end of our trip we were in love with it. Wonderful views, great pool and lovely rooms. Highly recommend it.

Here is the exterior at night.

Hotel Sevilla in Havana Cuba

The hotel has been around since the late 1800s and they had all these old pics of the building thru the years all over the hotel and it really has not changed that much.

The lobby.

Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba
Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba lobby

We were staying on the 7th floor but one floor below us was the floor that the famous gangster “Al Capone” stayed in the 1920s. According to the sign below, he rented out the whole floor! Wow!

Al Capone Room Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba

My husband all excited to be standing at the door lol!

Al Capone Room Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba

After a good nights sleep we ventured up to the rooftop restaurant for our breakfast and I literally lost my mind when I saw where we were eating.

Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba top floor eating area

What??!! Seriously insanely beautiful. It was an old ballroom now converted into their fancy restaurant. I could just see all the fancy parties that were held there in my head (along with the fantastic dresses…of course!). The colours of the wall reminded me of the St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto where my wedding was held. That building was built-in the 1850s and it had a very similar feel. Here are some more pics.

Inside the Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba
Hotel Sevilla Havana Cuba
View from the Rooftop of Havana Cuba of the Hotel Sevilla

After I finished drooling over the hall we got ready to wander the city but first we realized we forgot our toothpaste..crumb. Emergency purchase done but I don’t think this is Spanish.

Colgate Toothpaste

It was while brushing my teeth that I fully realized that we had a seriously good view from our room AND the windows opened which allowed you to hear the hustle and bustle of life below (which I loved). Here is the view from our room.

Havana Cuba view from our hotel room

In the above pic of you look to the back of the pic you can see we had a view of the fort in Havana..cool!

It was raining in the am..a lot (had to make another emergency purchase of an umbrella) and so this pic is right as the weather turned and a big boat was coming in.

view of the fort in Havana Cuba from hotel room.

Now that I had an umbrella we ventured onto Obispo street which is filled with restaurants and shopping and is one of our fav places to walk around in. We were on a mission for a Mojito and a bucanero beer (our fav) from the last hotel we had stayed while on our honeymoon at “Ambos Mundos“. There was a piano player playing and he was really really good, in fact every piano player we saw was really good. So we just sat back and enjoyed the show and waited for the rain to stop.

Ambos Mundos Havana Cuba enjoying a mojito and a Bucanero.
Ambos Mundos Havana Cuba

Okay rain done, off to explore the streets of Havana, well to be truthful we were on another mission….to find our favorite brewpub we enjoyed last time (because to be honest, on this trip all I wanted to do was eat, drink and explore the city with my husband).

Bingo mission accomplished! Love this place and there was a band playing too, double yay!

Brewery in Havana Cuba with musicians playing.
Brewery in Havana Cuba

One of these tall drink things for your beer was only $12! Holy cow!

Brewery in Havana Cuba

Interesting beer cocktails avail.

Brewery in Havana Cuba

So we had a few beers and some food and this was the price of our visit…cheap!

Brewery in Havana Cuba

After we ate I needed a pic in the square with random sculptures and wooden people cut outs.

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I don’t think the cut-out solider is impressed, he is giving me the “eye” lol

Havana Cuba roaster statue in square.

Part of our plan while we were in Havana was to just wander the city and see what we see. Loved doing this because we got to enjoy life in Havana without a tour book. Here are some of the pics of what we saw and then I will end part one because I have a million more pics and this blog post is long enough already.

Havana Cuba building-Harley havana

How do I take this vintage car home?

Vintage Car in Havana Cuba
Church in Havana Cuba

The Streetart on the side of the building, we thought was beautiful.

Street Art in Havana Cuba

Happy Travels! And if you want to see some of my other Cuba posts check them out at the link below:

Liz