Seriously wishing I took more notice in my Ancient History classes at school because this city has history, on top of its history. Our Hotel was opposite ''Muralla Punica', the defence wall founded in 229 BC! And we didn't find time to see it. Carthage is a seriously cool city. But I have to tell you about our journey to it first. Keen not to repeat the endless bus trip we endured to Almería, we took our second journey using a Bla Bla Car. A very nice driver again, making his way to work for the week as a suburban bus driver, 200kms from home. He was late picking us up (not happy Jan) due to attendance at his pregnant wife's ultrasound and we got to Cartagena just as his shift was due to start on the outskirts of Cartagena. He asked if we would mind finishing the journey on his bus? More than happy to oblige, we grabbed our backpacks and hopped on. The bus route, as it happened, passed within 200 metres of our Hotel! We checked into our Hotel, basically did a bag drop and headed out to have 'Menu del Dia' before exploring the city for the afternoon. Our Hotel offered Menu at a discount for guests so off we found a table outside and enjoyed a fine meal. Menu is served between approximately 2pm and 4pm and considered the main meal of the day. Set menu of two courses with bread, dessert, coffee or wine but the offering can vary. In Asturias it generally included a bottle of wine with small bottle of gaseosa (lemonade). You are guaranteed to be full for the rest of the day and don't require any more food (unless you are peregrinos). We've had it as cheap as 8 euros and paid 26 euros for a fabulous silver service meal and nearly always very good Spanish food. Only having a short time in Cartagena we had to choose what we wanted to see & do most. The tourist bus only ran every hour and we missed the penultimate one and when we went to board the last one disappointingly, it was only 10 minutes from the end. The tourist buses are a good way to get oriented quickly in a new city. We headed by foot into the old city, map in hand, to the Roman Ampitheatre. Which found quickly and spent some time looking at through the fence and circumnavigated looking for the entrance. Eventually finding it on the main Plaza a block away and it had closed already. Undaunted we saw the harbour walked down there to have a look and it being a lovely evening go on the Tourist boat and we arrived at the same time as the last one of the day docked. I was starting to get cross that we'd had such a long lunch and now missing everything when the Director of Language and Cultural Services noticed there was a Catamaran on the dock that had one more tour and saved the day. The boat took us around the harbour showing us the Naval Base, the oil refinery and lovely cliffs & beaches to the sounds of very loud '70s disco music, a genre I love. The group of Russian tourists who accompanied us must have too because they danced for the entire trip. By the next morning we had a plan and hired bikes from our hotel for the day. The bikes were old clunkers but before we knew it we were 3kms out of town. The bike paths are fantastic. We passed the enormous cruise ship that had come into port overnight and watched the passengers being collected to go on tours. Our next destination was a visit to the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia Subacuática (Museum of Marine Archaeology). Another fantastic museum housed in an equally amazing building. The ocean around Cartagena is rich in artefacts and on display is the wreck of Phonecian ship from the 7th Century BC and hundreds of gold coins from the 600,000 recovered from a Spanish frigate sunk in 1804. There is very good English signage and equally good display & information. We spent way more time there than we should have. Undaunted by the number of cruise ship tourists in town we headed for the Barrio del Foro Romano (Roman suburb) that is gradually being uncovered and restored. An entire suburb including Roman baths with underfloor and in wall heating. Again very good English signage and fascinating place to visit. You can see the remains of wall murals and some of the original columns and sculptures recovered. Fabulous if you like history. Saturated with history, we threw down some very nice Tapas with a glass of wine and rode out to Cala Cortina, a pretty cove about 3kms out of town to have a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. The photos lie, it was more beautiful than it looks. We enjoyed swimming in very clean, salty, shark free water that lapped beside us. Just as we were leaving the cruise ship steamed past on its way to Morocco and then Florida.
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AuthorMy interests are photography and family history research. And I like to cycle and travel. We are walking the Archives
May 2019
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