Cuba?
Q: What do you do if you like to travel but your partner doesn't?
A: You go without them.
I retired last year (reluctantly) and met a friend - whose partner doesn't like travel either. And she'd been far more pro-active than me. She wanted to visit Cuba before it changed forever (ie when Castro snuffs it) and is, as a gardener, keen to see all the tiny urban gardens which the Havanans (Havanians?) create. And the sustainability aspect is also interesting. Without wishing to gawp at the poor people.
So she asked around her friends and found 3 others who wanted to go. Then, when I expressed admiration and enthusiasm, she called my bluff and suggested I join them. And I found myself unable to come up with a comfortable reason for not accepting her generous offer.
I had never met my co-travellers so was a bit nervous. Suppose they were rabid right-wingers? Or loathed me on sight? So they came up to London, so that we could vet each other, and we spent the day together, getting our visas and seeing a pretty dire show (The Railway Children - staged at the old Eurostar station. Nice idea but. Well we are all in our 60s. I think..) And I think we all got on fairly well.
Then, enthused, I contacted a friend who happened to move there a year or so ago, and a Cuban friend, who fled to Europe after the revolution. She now lives in Miami, and when I gave her a call she informed me that all her friends and relatives in Cuba were dead. Which is a pity as I had a fantasy of slipping easily into the Cuban way of life, plus impressing my new friends. But my English friend was enthusiastic, and has offered to take us around Havana - which is great.
So we're off in a few weeks - 19th January. Can't believe it actually. It's so un-me.
There's been a lot of list-making and book buying. I'd hate to come back and meet someone who says "What! You went all the way to Cuba and you didn't see X or do X!?" on the other hand those beaches look very inviting. But not so much the sand fleas. Do you know what? I think you can do too much research. I'm tempted to chuck the guide books and say "bollocks".
A: You go without them.
I retired last year (reluctantly) and met a friend - whose partner doesn't like travel either. And she'd been far more pro-active than me. She wanted to visit Cuba before it changed forever (ie when Castro snuffs it) and is, as a gardener, keen to see all the tiny urban gardens which the Havanans (Havanians?) create. And the sustainability aspect is also interesting. Without wishing to gawp at the poor people.
So she asked around her friends and found 3 others who wanted to go. Then, when I expressed admiration and enthusiasm, she called my bluff and suggested I join them. And I found myself unable to come up with a comfortable reason for not accepting her generous offer.
I had never met my co-travellers so was a bit nervous. Suppose they were rabid right-wingers? Or loathed me on sight? So they came up to London, so that we could vet each other, and we spent the day together, getting our visas and seeing a pretty dire show (The Railway Children - staged at the old Eurostar station. Nice idea but. Well we are all in our 60s. I think..) And I think we all got on fairly well.
Then, enthused, I contacted a friend who happened to move there a year or so ago, and a Cuban friend, who fled to Europe after the revolution. She now lives in Miami, and when I gave her a call she informed me that all her friends and relatives in Cuba were dead. Which is a pity as I had a fantasy of slipping easily into the Cuban way of life, plus impressing my new friends. But my English friend was enthusiastic, and has offered to take us around Havana - which is great.
So we're off in a few weeks - 19th January. Can't believe it actually. It's so un-me.
There's been a lot of list-making and book buying. I'd hate to come back and meet someone who says "What! You went all the way to Cuba and you didn't see X or do X!?" on the other hand those beaches look very inviting. But not so much the sand fleas. Do you know what? I think you can do too much research. I'm tempted to chuck the guide books and say "bollocks".
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