Wednesday's sight-seeing

Wednesday, May 8^th 2013

Today was our first shore day: Cartagena on the Costa Calida – the warm coast. There were a few organised trips but we had read our touristical literature and felt pretty sure that we could take care of ourselves.

We disembarked after breakfast (slightly more substantial today as we would probably skip lunch) and followed the signs for the Castillo de la Concepcion. This was in order to achieve one of our customary touristical activities of Going Up Something High. Unfortunately we caught up with an organised group of Americans from another ship (the group was organised, not the individual Americans). 

The big lift

There is a big lift (or elevator for any trans-Atlantic readers) to take you up to the castle. Unfortunately it was a small lift, the capacity of which was reduced (in units of people rather than pure mass) because there were a number of obese Americans ahead of us in the queue.

Leaving Matt to keep our place in said queue I negotiated my way to the information / ticket booth where (after being told about all the various combination tickets available) I ascertained that it was possible to skip the lift and walk up to the castle. So we duly commenced our ascent of the stairs that circumnavigated the lift, only to find after about one storey that they were blocked off. We did however happen upon the Refugio de la Guerra Civil. I’ve been really interested in the Spanish Civil War for a few years (since I read a novel in which it was the backdrop), so this museum housed in a municipal air raid shelter built into the hill under the castle during the 1936-1939 conflict was a happy coincidence. We parted with our first tourist Euros of the holiday and it was €3.50 (in total) well spent. After the recent horsemeat debacle I was particularly enthralled by a recollection about donkey meat which was being passed off as horsemeat.

Subsequently we meandered around the streets of Cartagena and found the elusive pedestrian route to the castle, where a few more tourist Euros were well spent. There were a number of interesting displays, this time about the older parts of the City’s history. This section was completed with a 2 player game in which Rome (me) battles Carthage (Matt) based on answering questions about what the displays have just told you. Carthage showed strength in answering questions correctly. Rome showed strength in answering questions incorrectly quicker than Carthage, which was advantageous to Rome when both got the wrong answer. But ultimately Carthage was victorious.

In the grounds of the castle there were peacocks who chose not to do a handsome display for us (I would have liked to get a photo to paint) but I was wiser than to provoke them into doing so.

Matt tries out his jousting skills

And then there was an area set up for practising your jousting skills. Matt did well, especially as we had that wibbly feeling from transferring from the ship to solid ground. 

Oh, and the original intention of the castle visit – to Go Up Something High – was met as we were able to climb to the top.

Panorama from Something High in Cartagena

We descended into the town and further helped the local economy (which does give the impression of needing help) by purchasing some snacks in a bakery (skipping lunch is much better in theory than in practice). 

Trying out a local snack

I had something intriguing that was a bit like a giant sweet poppadum, mildly flavoured with fennel and pine nuts. I also popped into a supermarket (while Matt rested / snacked on a bench) to get some soft drinks and was pleased to be able to help an American (or possibly Canadian) couple choose some red wine. They were getting into quite a grumpy debate about it. “Why don’t just ask someone?” said the wife, which I took as my cue to explain the difference between a Rioja and a Temperanillo. I have no idea what the difference (or indeed differences) between a Rioja and a Temperanillo is but my best wine buff impression and thus prevented any more marital disharmony. I’m still pondering whether the end justified the means.

We meandered back to the seafront of this very pleasant town, stopping for an ice-cream on the way (clearly justified as we had grossly underspent our tourist Euro budget for the day), and were back to the ship with a bit of a margin before departure.

Unfortunately for Felicity and Terence they did not make it back to the ship: the captain announced that we would be leaving without them. I mused about the possibility that the captain had invented Felicity and Terence as a lesson to the rest of us not to miss the boat at subsequent ports. Matt and I then planned our train journeys around Europe should this calamity befall us. We decided that they would be fairly straightforward trips, perhaps even enjoyable, apart from Corsica to Gibraltar which might be a little too tricky in the available time.

Nb. During an interlude in last night’s dancing I took a quick trip to the library. The city in North Africa that we had seen was indeed Tangier. Marakech and Casablanca being located to the West (not the East as I had thought which proves that my knowledge of North African geography does indeed leave a lot to be desired).