Cuba: Trinidad

Trinidad, the last stop on our trip, feels like a colonial snapshot back in time with cobbled streets and tiled rooftops. Like I have described many times, it is another completely different city to the places we had visited on our journey here. Exhausted from our jeep excursion through the mountains (and of course our engagement!) we had a rest in our new casa before heading out for dinner at La Cubita, with a celebratory rum cocktail or two. Over our time in Trindad was had delicious home dinners at our casa and enjoyed another ropa vieja in Restaurante El Dorado.

We had four nights in Trinidad and spent the first of our full days exploring the streets. Perhaps for the first time on our trip, we noticed the number of tourists that were arriving into the city on tour buses from Havana, but no wonder when you have a well-preserved historic town. There are souvenir shops a-plenty but if you sought them out there are beautiful artisans selling their hand-thrown pottery as well as contemporary painters. For architecture or urbanism geeks, there is a scale model of the city, Maqueta de Trinidad, where the guide gave us a great description of the development of Trinidad, and I translated from Spanish into English for Dan! For some beach time, Playa Ancon is a short drive or 40 minute cycle from the centre of Trinidad, so we spent a relaxed day down there too.

A highlight of our time in Trinidad was taking salsa dance classes, that our host organised with a colleague of her husband (as is the case in Cuba, everyone know someone). He came to the casa over two nights and up on the balcony taught us the basics of the dance. I've danced salsa before, but Dan was a complete newbie and realised soon in how the man is really in control of the dance, and has to work pretty hard! In the evening we headed up to the central square, where up the sweeping steps in the open air, the Casa de la Musica has live music and everyone is either sitting enjoying a drink, watching the performances or joining in the dancing… and with our new dancing skills, we had a go too! Music and dancing are integral to life in Cuba, and after some Dutch courage, I'm glad we joined in too.

Neues Museum

One of the highlights of our trip to Berlin was visiting the Neues Museum, which reopened five years ago following its renovation by David Chipperfield Architects. The museum had suffered substantial bomb damage during the war and had sat untouched until the 80s. The architectural intervention is possibly the most beautiful and well done I have seen, the way the old meets new has been sensitively and cleverly done and the detailing is incredible. I only hope my photos do it justice. I think we're really lucky in the UK that our museums are free for all to enter, but the entrance fee to see the building and fascinating Pre and Early-History exhibits, including the sculpture of Nefertiti, is well worth it. A must visit if you're in Berlin.

Brrrr in Berlin

It had been six years since my last trip to Berlin, and this one was to celebrate a few milestones: Dan's big 3-0, his becoming an architect, and us putting up with each other for the past 3 years! We arrived on a Thursday lunchtime to the realisation that minus temperatures had also just turned up too. Never to be put off by bitter winds we started a jam packed weekend of tourism: warming up with Gluhwein at the Christmas markets in Gendarmenmarkt and Charlottenburg Schloss, brunch in the rotating restaurant of the Fernsehturm, winding our way up the Reichstag dome, visiting the Checkpoint Charlie museum, exploring the tombs of the Holocaust Memorial, checking out the stall at the Mauerpark flea market, walking along the wall and seeing the great architecture and exhibits of the Neues Museum. It's incredible to believe that the history of this city is still so young and from what we hear it's an ambitious city where people think you can do anything.

Glimpses and Glances

On the drive back from Devon back in August, we stopped off at Stourhead. The gardens came into my consciousness not long after I started studying architecture when we did a landscape project. During the history lectures, Stourhead stuck in my mind. The landscape was designed with a lake at its centre and from pathways around the edge you can peek through the strategically planted and beautiful maintained vistas, glancing towards the follies that are spread throughout the gardens. I was gasping wow the whole time and you can imagine it is a delightful place to be at any time of year.

Delightful Dartmouth

In a day and age of low cost flights, a holiday abroad seems like a no-brainer. However on our doorsteps and only a drive away are beautiful towns and villages set in incredible countryside and along breathtaking coastlines. Back in August we jumped in the car and headed down to Dartmouth for  super relaxing week. The weather wasn't on our side the whole time - it gave us an excuse to have long lie ins and massages - but when the sun did come out it shone down on the regatta and the exciting goings on in this delightful town. One day I grabbed the camera and took a walk to Dartmouth Castle. Up high in the narrow lanes there are amazing views across the river Dart - click on the paranormal above! I've been inspired to explore more of our British Isles after this trip and our weekend away in the New Forest… where next?