DAY 20 MONDAY 30 MAY (MEMORIAL DAY) CARTAGENA DAY 2

Breakfast is always great at NH Hotels and we enjoyed it hugely. It was a gorgeous day so we strolled down to the harbor through a beautiful park. This area is all gorgeous government buildings, plazas and parks. It really was quite lovely.

I love the way the Spanish populate their parks with statues, memorials, fountains and lovely flowers. There was a memorial to all killed in terrorist attacks, a very powerful gigantic bronze sculpture of an man sitting with his head at his knees, obviously grieving. There were also sculptures scattered around of sailors, either sitting on the benches or in motion. Nice and very unexpected. Of course Cartagena is a big Naval area with the Naval Museum and training areas so, all in all, very appropriate. Lots boats in the harbor, not doing anything because, it is Monday! Everything is closed on Monday, museums, art galleries, the Roman Coliseum! That’s okay, we walked up the side and Paul took a picture over the fence. Interesting but not as extensive as Merida, besides Paul is not up to walking too much. He went to have a beer or something and I decided to hike up above the exhibit and look down on it. That was a steep climb and a lot of steps on my Vivofit! The tourist office told me I could go and see the first submarine ever built! Not true, there was no way I could get round the harbor to that exhibit, especially on a Monday, and the Museum was closed. I did find the bronze tail of a whale in the harbor, success!

I returned in time for lunch. Paul had noticed a restaurant selling Patatas Pobres from Driving Over Lemons fame so we had to try them! Lunch accomplished, it was siesta time. We noticed that there was a noticeable lack of tagging and graffiti in the town center, probably because of the high police presence.

We strolled into the center of the old town to have drinks and snacks later and enjoyed our usual people watching. I really like this city and the weather is pretty good but we have decided to move on to Lorca tomorrow. It will cut down on the drive to Ubeda the following day. It was a quiet day which we really needed. Paul has noticed that my eye is now purple! So we both needed the rest, we will continue our wanderings tomorrow!