Museum of the Revolution

....or otherwise titled. "Don't buy the Che Guevara/Fidel Castro hats thinking you are being 'ironic'".

As a Cold War kid and growing up with the stories of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was very interesting to visit 'the other side of the story' so to speak.

The Museum of the Revolution is located in the old presidential palace.  It was where the initial revolutionary government was located after overrunning Bautista.

And when you see the pictures: It is completely Gypsies in the Palace.

There was, of course, some artistic license with historical facts. But hey, their country, they can tell the story however they see fit.

In the back of the museum is a fenced and heavily guarded park (only accessible from the museum, but visible from the streets) where pieces of a shot down U2 spy plane (true), Soviet era tanks (this is the tanks that our Great Leader shot upon the USS Houston from), not to be confused with the tank out front which also was the tank that the Great Leader shot upon the USS Houston from.  (Fidel evidently hopped his rides alot).

And la piece de la resistance-no pun intended-Granma.  The boat that brought Castro and his cohorts back to Cuba from Mexico.

Granma is heavily guarded by military personnel.  I mean HEAVILY.  Tim tried to work his charms on one of the female MPs, but she wasn't having it.

I highly recommend going to the museum, all of the displays are in Spanish and English and it is interesting to see how Castro is portrayed vs how we have been raised to see him.

The first of the tanks that Castro used to shoot at the USS Houston.

Interior of the palace.

Many pictures of the Castros, Guevara, Cienfuegos taken from this table.

Presidential office.

Example of the displays

Interior courtyard of the palace.

 

Hall of mirrors (from former regimes) trying to replicate the hall of mirrors in Versailles.
Not in the best of shape now.

Che Guevara

Bautista, Reagan and the Bush boys. 
See-here's the punchline-we can do this about our presidents ourselves
in the US and not get executed.
Who's winning that round?

Bullet holes outside the Palace.

One of the vehicles used on the palace raid.  And yep, those are bullet holes again.

Memorial to the heros of the revolution.

Stern view of Granma.

Another view of Granma.  Big boat, hard to get good pics.