Day 15: Cartagena, Spain

We are making our way around the southern coast of Spain toward Barcelona on the east coast. This morning was very cold (in the 40s) and windy, and I really wished that I’d packed a fleece jacket. My wool sweater and long-sleeved tee weren’t sufficient for today’s walking and tapas tour. 

We met our tour group near the ship and began walking down the boardwalk.  We first saw a replica of the Santa Maria ship.  I can’t imagine taking to the high seas in such a small ship!

Our guide told us that the obelisk is a war memorial.  Behind it is the government administration building.

This sculpture is titled El Zulu, and represents victims of terrorists.

Nearby is another sculpture, The Whale’s Tail, representing the whales often seen migrating in the area.

There are 12 cannons along the waterfront.

Next we walked past a naval history museum and saw this early submarine, the Peral, launched in 1888.  It was the first electric-powered submarine capable for combat.

Charlie thought he’d be happy living in this interesting building with a supermercado on the ground floor.

This clock tower is atop the entrance into the naval base.

These bright flowers caught our eye.

At this point, the tour went off the rails.  We were the third walking group to arrive at the first tapas place, and those ahead of us had not yet been served. Tables were set up in a wind tunnel shaded by a tall building, and it was brutally cold! After sitting there for some time with no food, I moved to a sunny bench nearby and enjoyed watching small children play on playground equipment. When the “sangria” (mostly Sprite) finally came, I drank it on the bench. The tapa, a slice of a Spanish omelet, was small and cold, but still welcome at that point. That stop took an hour, and when the guide said our three-hour tour would now be at least four hours, we began to think about bailing.  We persevered for a while longer, though.

We admired this building from the 18th century, especially the round windows.

This is one of four huge ficus trees imported from Australia in 1910 and planted in San Francisco Plaza.

This is another beautiful building overlooking the same plaza.

Charlie admired these stacked planters.

I’m including this statue for Rob’s benefit.  It’s a tribute to Isidoro Máiquez, honoring his contributions to modern Spanish drama. Maybe that will make up for our bailing from the tour before seeing the Roman theater.  When we got to the second tapas location, it was totally unprepared for our group of 19.  Sigh. At that point, we’d had it (and were starving at 12:45), so we found out way back to the ship and grabbed lunch at Johnny Rockets.

Bonus pic of a lovely building.

Tomorrow the ship will dock in Alicante, Spain.  We plan to explore on our own there for a while, and then it will be time to pack up for our departure in Barcelona on Wednesday.  That’s all for now!