It is Monday, October 5/15

I am ready at noon and we took a collective taxi up Calle 23.  We got off and walked three very long blocks - yes I said walked, but there was a bench midway- to John Lennon Park.

I clearly remember that Sunday so long ago (1964) when the Beatles were introduced to us on the Ed Sullivan show.  My mother immediately took to John saying that he was so cute.
When Beatlemania swept the world, Castro declared a nationwide ban of Beatles music in 1964.  He thought it to be the epitome of mindless, vulgar consumerism.

On December 8, 2000, on the 20th anniversary of  Lennon's murder, Fidel Castro unveiled the bronze statue.  Lennon's  anti-war activism years and his re-branding as a political dissident had turned Fidel Castro around,

There is a marble tile at the foot of the bench with the inscription, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one," taken from my favourite Lennon song, Imagine.

Walking the few blocks in the very nice vedado neighbourhood of grass, and lush vegetation.  See the bench!

There he is….

I stop to have a chat.

He does not wear his glasses all the time because tourists were stealing them and they needed to be replaced often.  Now there is a guard sitting on a nearby bench whose job it is to take care of the glasses.  He puts them on the statue when you are there and then removes them again until the next visitor arrives.

Our next stop was to be the Fosca building (1956) for a view of Havana from the tallest building in Cuba, but it was not meant to be.  When we arrived there was security at the door telling us that the building was closed because there was a private function going on.  C'est la vie.

So, off we went to another of my must do/see things.