Classic Cars

Marcel recommended a restaurant for lunch - rice and prawns for me.. spaghetti for Mitch and Alex and chicken for Charley. Amazing how boring the flavours are without the herbs and spices you would expect in such a vibrant place.

We briefly returned to the hotel to change out of our sweaty cycling clothes and get ready for our next adventure - a tour of Havana in a classic car.

Mitch was so excited to find out what kind of car we would be allocated - and thrilled to discover it was a yellow and white Ford.

We basically covered the same footprint as our morning ride, but everything looked so different from the road - and we had plenty of time to take photos with the car.

The tour ended at sunset with a drink at the historic Hotel National - another place I visited with Ben 18 years ago. I remember at that time talking about bringing our kids back here one day and I sensed his pleasure at my fulfilling the promise.

We all had a mojito (mine with rum, the kids’ virgins) on the verandah and it all felt very special.

The car dropped us back at the hotel, and although only Mitch was hungry, after a brief rest we headed out for dinner.

Our plan was to return to a nice looking restaurant we had passed the night before, but as we walked a cook from a neighboring hotel asked where we were going and recommended another place 3 blocks away - 3 flights up. We thanked her with. I intention of taking her advice. A few steps further on another local stopped and asked where we were from and recommended we try the same place. Obviously there’s some kind of scheme here, but we couldn’t work it out and felt we didn’t have anything to lose.

La Familia couldn’t be seen by the street- only accessed by a winding narrow staircase and we were suddenly nervous to commit to what we couldn’t see. But once we were up - on the rooftop of a very simple but authentic place, listening to a live Cuban guitar duo- we were thrilled we took the advice.

The food was simple but fine. The music really good. During a break from playing, one of the guitarists came over to say hello and I made him understand Mitch also plays. He invited Mitch up to play with them and it was a wonderful experience - Mitch improvising on a Cuban guitar (very different to a normal
acoustic). The players began singing and accompanying Mitch, obviously impressed with how well he was playing. It was all very special and he loved every minute.Read more