Well, I went to Europe last year for the first time in my young life, and I haven't had the chance to share some of the stories or pics from that trip here, I'd also like to apologize for my rude behaviour when first becoming a member here and coming right out asking for sources and verification on suspect Cubans etc..
it was hard before with no point of reference of what the genuine artical was and having ones only experience from trusting someone on the internet,
ok, pics and stories time,
my first destination was Rome, Italy, I had planned to grab a coiuple of smokes in the Duty free shops of Heathrow on the stop before Rome, but I was with the girlfriend and completely exhausted after the 15 hour flight so I didn't get a chance,
on my first day in Rome I had a tour for most of the day, but at night I went back to Piazza Navona (one of the destinations of the day tour) and happened across a Habanos dealer where I picked up a Monte No.1 and a PSD No. 4
Little Shop in Piazza Navona
After spending a ton of cash on a decent meal (Tourist Traps were unavoidable) I smoked the Monte No.1 at the Pantheon, what an awesome experience
Smoking he Monte No.1 at the Pantheon
The heat must have been getting to me becuase the next day I went to Pompei and put the PSD No.4 in a plastic bag and then in my pocket, (even though I had brought a good sized travel humidor) I never got a chance to smoke the Cigar in Pompei, but this is what it looked like at the end of the loooong day:
The next morning, I decided to smoke some of it despite the missing wrapper, hey it was expensive
those are the Cigar stories for Rome, I didn't have a lot of leisure time there and the rest of the stories are not Cigar related, so, on to the next city...Amsterdam,
I passed back through England again before Amsterdam this time to gatwick airport where I picked up a three pack of Punch Petit Coronas Tubos, one Monte Petit Tubo and One Bolivar No.1 Tubo from the duty free shop,
Amsterdam, was beautiful, great weather, really advanced, like an English girl I met on a train later on in the trip said when we were discussing Amsterdam, " Those Scandinavian countries really have it down" anyway, the topic, Cigars,
I had read about the P.G.C. Hajenius shop beforehand and was really looking forward to hunting it down, it was my last day and I only hada few hours left before heading to England for the last leg of the trip, now, Amsterdam was a very advanced modern city, but the people were terrible at giving directions, very wishy washy, "go right, and then left, yaaa" so my girlfriend and I ended going in a lot of circles, but finally found it!!
Entrance to P.G.C. Hajenius
A peak in the front window
Interior P.G.C. Hajenius
The shop was huge and amazing, there were lots of Habanos as well as P.G.C's own brand of Dutch cigars, I picked up some cigarillo size boxes of these, their pretty good, the only thing that was a little annoying were the sales people, they would accompany you through all of the rooms and try and push different cigars, "this one is great, and this one, oh and you should try this one" they obviously make a lot of money in commisions, my sale rep ended up being really cool, she put all of the ?Habanos that I purchased into a "Dutch" cigar box and sealed the box, and then put that box into a large ziplock and sealed that ziplock as well,
she then showed me to the smoke lounge, it was cool, there was a Cigar Museum on the upper level of the smoke lounge with tons of ancient cigars and books, as well as posters, check it out:
Cigar Museum
Proudly displaying my purchase:
I apologize for the quality of the pics, the lighting was very dim, I realize that this thread is getting a lot longer thatn I thought it would so I'm going to leave out some stories and move on to the next Cigar shop,
ok, I dodn't really like London very much so there aren't any cigar stories from that city, dirty and crowded city, luckily, I had planned ahead and really wanted to see the north of England and not really knowing too much was deciding between Manchester and Liverpool and just picked Liverpool, this flight attendant on British airways had this to say to me when I told him I would be going to Liverpool during my holiday, "you telling me your going on holliday in Liverpool is like me telling you that I'm going on holiday in Detroit"
well, I'm calling bullshit, Liverpool was beuatiful, the people were the most friendly and honest than anywhere I've ever been, and I swear every one of them were hilarious with quick wits, now I see why the Beatles were the way they were,
ok, let's wrap things up, there was a little shop up off water street in Downtown, Turm
Standing out front
With the Owner
The owner said tha http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/ was their supplier, the Cigars were damn expensive in England, more so than anywhere else,
well, this ended up being really long, hope some of you enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to going back at least to England again this summer as I just didn't have enough time on that fine Island this time around,
it was hard before with no point of reference of what the genuine artical was and having ones only experience from trusting someone on the internet,
ok, pics and stories time,
my first destination was Rome, Italy, I had planned to grab a coiuple of smokes in the Duty free shops of Heathrow on the stop before Rome, but I was with the girlfriend and completely exhausted after the 15 hour flight so I didn't get a chance,
on my first day in Rome I had a tour for most of the day, but at night I went back to Piazza Navona (one of the destinations of the day tour) and happened across a Habanos dealer where I picked up a Monte No.1 and a PSD No. 4
Little Shop in Piazza Navona
After spending a ton of cash on a decent meal (Tourist Traps were unavoidable) I smoked the Monte No.1 at the Pantheon, what an awesome experience
Smoking he Monte No.1 at the Pantheon
The heat must have been getting to me becuase the next day I went to Pompei and put the PSD No.4 in a plastic bag and then in my pocket, (even though I had brought a good sized travel humidor) I never got a chance to smoke the Cigar in Pompei, but this is what it looked like at the end of the loooong day:
The next morning, I decided to smoke some of it despite the missing wrapper, hey it was expensive
those are the Cigar stories for Rome, I didn't have a lot of leisure time there and the rest of the stories are not Cigar related, so, on to the next city...Amsterdam,
I passed back through England again before Amsterdam this time to gatwick airport where I picked up a three pack of Punch Petit Coronas Tubos, one Monte Petit Tubo and One Bolivar No.1 Tubo from the duty free shop,
Amsterdam, was beautiful, great weather, really advanced, like an English girl I met on a train later on in the trip said when we were discussing Amsterdam, " Those Scandinavian countries really have it down" anyway, the topic, Cigars,
I had read about the P.G.C. Hajenius shop beforehand and was really looking forward to hunting it down, it was my last day and I only hada few hours left before heading to England for the last leg of the trip, now, Amsterdam was a very advanced modern city, but the people were terrible at giving directions, very wishy washy, "go right, and then left, yaaa" so my girlfriend and I ended going in a lot of circles, but finally found it!!
Entrance to P.G.C. Hajenius
A peak in the front window
Interior P.G.C. Hajenius
The shop was huge and amazing, there were lots of Habanos as well as P.G.C's own brand of Dutch cigars, I picked up some cigarillo size boxes of these, their pretty good, the only thing that was a little annoying were the sales people, they would accompany you through all of the rooms and try and push different cigars, "this one is great, and this one, oh and you should try this one" they obviously make a lot of money in commisions, my sale rep ended up being really cool, she put all of the ?Habanos that I purchased into a "Dutch" cigar box and sealed the box, and then put that box into a large ziplock and sealed that ziplock as well,
she then showed me to the smoke lounge, it was cool, there was a Cigar Museum on the upper level of the smoke lounge with tons of ancient cigars and books, as well as posters, check it out:
Cigar Museum
Proudly displaying my purchase:
I apologize for the quality of the pics, the lighting was very dim, I realize that this thread is getting a lot longer thatn I thought it would so I'm going to leave out some stories and move on to the next Cigar shop,
ok, I dodn't really like London very much so there aren't any cigar stories from that city, dirty and crowded city, luckily, I had planned ahead and really wanted to see the north of England and not really knowing too much was deciding between Manchester and Liverpool and just picked Liverpool, this flight attendant on British airways had this to say to me when I told him I would be going to Liverpool during my holiday, "you telling me your going on holliday in Liverpool is like me telling you that I'm going on holiday in Detroit"
well, I'm calling bullshit, Liverpool was beuatiful, the people were the most friendly and honest than anywhere I've ever been, and I swear every one of them were hilarious with quick wits, now I see why the Beatles were the way they were,
ok, let's wrap things up, there was a little shop up off water street in Downtown, Turm
Standing out front
With the Owner
The owner said tha http://www.cgarsltd.co.uk/ was their supplier, the Cigars were damn expensive in England, more so than anywhere else,
well, this ended up being really long, hope some of you enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to going back at least to England again this summer as I just didn't have enough time on that fine Island this time around,
