Cartagena, Spain

We had no plans here other than to try to visit several museums. We docked shortly before 10 and were on the gangway when they announced that we were free to leave the ship. We followed the crowd, the HAL Eurodam was in port also, so lots of people, to the main walking street and just started walking. There were some beautiful buildings in the area, built after the Spanish civil war. Many of them are Art Deco in design. We asked about a transportation museum we had heard about but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. We first visited the Crafts Center. There was a lot of ceramics and some modern things, not the classic Spanish art I had seen in the past. From there we headed toward El Corte Ingles, Spain's equivalent to Macy's. It was quite a long walk but we found it. 

Inside the dept store they had food in the basement, including a large grocery store. I like looking to see what they have. We looked for the souvenir area and again it was not what I expected. In the past they had a lot of beautiful things which were made in Spain. Now they had magnets and some small plates, but nothing very nice. We looked around a bit then headed back toward the port. 

There were cafes on the sidewalk all along the street. We waited until we were back on the pedestrian only section to choose one. Mel had calamari, as usual. I ordered a tortilla de patatas which is a Spanish omelet with potatoes. I ate those almost daily when I went to school in Valencia for a summer many years ago. It was delicious as was the cafe con leche. The ship served flan after dinner so my Spanish food experience was complete. We may eat the same tomorrow!

We had really wanted to visit some museums. We arrived at the former City Hall which was a gorgeous building, just as it closed. The guard allowed me to take I picture of the staircase then closed and locked the doors. The info office next door said there are museums open until 6, like the Roman Theater museum across the street. We went there. It looked small from the outside but actually had a tunnel to a building in the next block then continued until you were out in the theater! It was like an amplitheater but they showed models of how it had once been a theater with a large stage. From there we exited and ended up in front of the facade of an old church. It had been built on top of part the theater. We were looking for the exit but ended up on top of the hill at the base of a castle. We continued up and visited the castle museum also then went back the way we came, passing the church and finally following an alley around to the main entrance of the Theater museum. We had left bags there so had to go back. 

We were only a block from the pier. We headed that way, past where our ship was berthed, to the Museum of Underwater Archeology. They had a lot of items from old ship wrecks. They had examples of items processed with the correct conservation methods versus some that were not. It was very interesting. They had a number of coins that were found including some beautiful gold ones. One Spanish wreck was found off the coast of Virginia by a private treasure hunter. Spain actually sued for possession and won, but the artifacts are still in a museum in Virginia under mutual agreement. They just had one of the two anchors found at that museum. 

By now it was after 4 pm. All aboard was 5:30. We headed back to the ship. Mel used the phone while I went onboard. There were hundreds of jellyfish in the water by the ship, I had never seen that before. We walked over 8 miles today and up almost 30 flights of stairs. Hopefully we will both be ready to do it again tomorrow in Malaga.