Hemingway Adventure

Havana, Cuba (ninth day)

Cathedral Square, like a theatre set.

Heavy rain in the night and, as I push open the windows of my room next to Hemingway's, the roofs are steaming, and Hurricane George is creeping slowly towards us. With a bit of luck we'll be out in time. George is moving out of Puerto Rico and heading for Dominica. Tomorrow we leave Cuba for the States to cover the last few Hemingway destinations.

Take a last walk around some of my favourite places. Like the Plaza de Armas, surrounded by fine colonial edifices, the most impressive of which is the grandly named Palace of The Captains General, now the City Museum. A tremendous colonnade of grey limestone walls and pillars, as massive and serious as anything in classical Europe.

The communists have been surprisingly generous with the monuments of imperialism, and the rooms of the museum are an eloquent evocation of the days when the colonialists lived well in Havana. The rooms are unbearably hot, and yet the be-wigged and overcoated grandees in the portraits appear to be dressed for a funeral in Greenland. Is this yet more evidence of global warming or did people still dress up for their portraits in those days?

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Series: Hemingway Adventure
Chapter: Havana, Cuba (ninth day)
Country/sea: Cuba
Place: Havana
Book page no: 227

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Havana, Cuba