Horse & Hound

For the weekend of my birthday I decided to go and see something very British (for me at least) - the Badminton Horse Trials. Held on the estates of the Duke of Beaufort in the village of Badminton, it is frequently called the greatest 3-day equestrian event in the world.

We took the tent and headed down from London on Friday night, missing the dressage but ahead of the cross-country on Day 2. An entire tent village is set up in neighbouring fields each year and, although a bit chilly, it was a very short walk along the road to the event, together with hundreds of family dogs, thousands of girls in horse riding boots and a very large tweed contingent. Although Shaun tried on a tweed walking cap at one of the outlets on the course, sadly I couldn't convince him it would beat the trusty fishing hat which accompanies him on most outdoor adventures.

Out on the course we saw Zara Phillips competing as well as several Kiwis, with some very inventive fences and a number of spills occurring around the course - some directly in front of us.

In the end only half the 110 horses originally entered made it through to Day 3 - showjumping. On the Sunday we had prime seats in the sun to watch the survivors and saw 2 Kiwis complete clean rounds before Oliver Townend - a 26 year old English rider - took the title. It was great to get out of London for the weekend and spend some time in the country - maybe we'll be back next year.

M

Bulls eye

In Madrid for the weekend we went to the Las Ventas bullring to make our own minds up about bullfighting, called cruel by some and lauded by others as a majestic traditional display of man against beast.

There's no doubt that the matadors need considerable skill to avoid the bull but it's hardly a fair fight with the bull taking various hits with spears and swords before finally receiving a sword to the neck. Then again I don't think it's supposed to be.

At least the bull's carcass gets a swift exit ...

I can't yet say which camp I fall into, but I'm not ready to deride an old tradition without understanding further the history behind it.

S

April Sun in Cuba

We flew into Havana on the eve of Easter for 11 days cruising around Cuba with Sarah and Victoria from NZ. I was primed for all the stereotypes - faded buildings, vintage American cars, mojitos and old men playing son music on the streets (admittedly for me at least, all the research I had done was to watch a cigar-making DVD and rent out Buena Vista Social Club again).

However beyond the faded buildings and colonial Spanish architecture lurks an uneasy double economy - the Cuban convertible peso (official tourist currency) v moneta nationale (national currency) - at a ratio of 25:1. Federico, the host of our casa particulare (guesthouse) in Havana used to be a lawyer - the reason he now rents out rooms in his house is that he earns more from us for one night's board than he earned in one month as a lawyer. While this issue was to dog us all the way around the island, we did manage to obtain some local currency and tried to use it where we could. Shaun also decided to practice acting like a local whenever possible.

After 3 days in Havana we hired one of the smallest cars available and set out for a long road trip around the western half of Cuba. Almost every 5km on the roads are amazing graphic art billboards extolling the virtues of the revolution. We all took photos of so many - these are some of the more successful examples of the 'hang out the window on a driveby' photo series.

One of the highlights of the week on the road was Vinales, tobacco growing central and home of Esther and Domingo - the hosts of our casa, mean chefs and the makers of the best mojitos in Cuba (the secret is apparently a drop or two of Angostura bitters). I have now developed a taste for bean soup - and creole sauce added liberally to either pork, chicken or lobster as a main course. Quite happy, however, never to see another guava again.

I was sure there would be some fantastic propaganda waiting for us at the Bay of Pigs. While there was only one museum and not much else on the invasion, there was, however, amazing snorkelling with beautiful tropical fish in only 1 foot of water just off the beach.

Another surprise was the Zapata nature reserve nearby - where we did a walk with a local guide spotting native and migratory birds, watched crabs scuttle across the road in the morning on their way back to the beach and stalked the season's last remaining flamingoes from the safety of our car... Having worked up an appetite, we also visited the government-run crocodile farm - surprisingly, having held the farm's pet crocodile for photos I was still able to stomach the prospect of crocodile for dinner that night (with the obligatory creole sauce - see below).

Our turnaround point was Trinidad - a UNESCO preserved Spanish colonial city dating back to the days of the sugar plantations in the late 1700s. After the pot-hole studded drive in over the mountains, the city appears out of nowhere. The houses are right on the street and from that level there appear to be hardly any trees, just houses, cobblestones and sky. We stayed in a beautiful old colonial casa with huge high studs and an airy courtyard and got some lessons in Cuban rhythm from a very patient local salsa teacher ...

Diverting off the airport runway-like autopista (motorway) on the long drive back to Havana, we made an overnight pilgrimage to Che Guevara's tomb in Santa Clara -which features the obligatory communist parade square-style architecture. There was also time for a quick diversion to check whether the beaches at Varadero - home of package tourism - were better than the ones we'd been stopping at along the way. Conclusion: there are beaches which are just as nice in other parts of Cuba (see first photo below) - but Varadero is a nice spot to play dominoes in the sun.

Back in Havana for one final afternoon we decided to spend the last of our convertible pesos on a cruise in a 1956 Chevy along the Malecon, with some cheesy poses at the Hotel Nacionale before getting on the plane. Hasta luego Cuba!

M

And spring has sprung ...

Suddenly there are daffodils all through the parks and sun in the sky. Just the day for a picnic in St James' Park with Angus and Jamie, with cheese and biscuits courtesy of Fortnum and Masons (and the rest of the picnic courtesy of Marks and Spencers - having been scared off the rest of the prices at Fortnum & Masons).

M

Testing the elements

Time to put our hard pants back on for some serious weather. We decided to head to Finland to check out some Scandinavian delights; snow, er .. snow, and World Cup ski jumping.

First up was 2 days' skiing in a small resort called Messila near the ski-jumping venue at Lahti - 100km north of Helsinki. Given the generally low-lying hills in Finland this suited me fine as a bit of a beginner - with pretensions of intermediate on a good day. Shaun managed to find some boots to fit him (and some reindeer with mashed potatoes for dinner) and we were good to go.
On the Saturday night we bundled up and headed across to the ski-jumping international teams event. After a close battle between some of the world's best, the Finnish team narrowly lost out to some high-flying Austrians. Fantastic.

Apart from the jumping, crowd highlights were the ready availability of hot sausages wrapped in paper with mustard for snacks and - the cheerleaders (?) I am also happy to report on the faithful observance of a time-honoured sporting ritual - yes, even a World Cup ski-jumping event in sub-zero temperatures attracts streakers .. (see below).

Overall a great event and highly recommended. On Monday morning we headed to Helsinki to be met by unrelenting snow. The city seems like a good place to explore but, given the weather, we decided to go on a relaxing cruise out on the harbour.

Our destination was Suomenlinna - a sprawling military fortress built on six linked islands in the Helsinki harbour and (now that we have been to the audiovisual display on the island (nice and warm)) we can report that the fortress - built by Sweden in 1748 to contain the Russian expansion - was essentially the reason the city of Helsinki was born. Its an interesting place full of history - and a lot of snow.

M