After breakfast at the patio grill, we get off in town, literally - we’re parked just a few yards from the centre of the old town of Cartagena.
A new port for us, at least the Spanish one is (we’ve been to Cartagena, Columbia before) this is a hugely important port in the Mediterranean, and has history going back around 2300 years.
Even now it’s just as important, one of the homes of the Spanish Navy’s flotilla and in particular their principal shipyard. So we start by getting confused by Mr Google. The map is intentionally blurred for quite a big corner of town, because it’s all military, so we blindly follow the route, with no assurance that we’ll be OK. It turns out nice, so we continue on, avoiding the river-bed and sticking to road, until we turn into the navy base, or at least that’s what it looks like - there’s a thin road we take next to the sentry station, still marked MOD, but with permission to use.
Soon we encounter signs saying absolutely access for vehicles or on foot, yet we see a handful of people using the route, and Mr Google wants us to too. We decide to play dumb and continue on our path, which starts to wind up the hillside. Before long the signs change to “extreme precaution” and (paraphrasing) it’s your problem if a tank squashes you!!
We opt for the only sensible choice - just get on with it - and forge up the path. A couple of turns later and we suddenly hear gunfire in the distance, and mindful it’s not yet the Glorious Twelfth, we pause, before continuing on up the hill. Of course this is happenstance, not a threat, but it adds to the amusement, and before long we’re at the fort looking back down over the Naval yard, port, Sojourn, the old town and fortifications on hills all around us. It’s a wonderful view.
Castle of Galeras, our current destination, is heavily barb-wired so we’re not doing any exploring here, but after Melilla’s three forts it’s not necessary anyway, the view is everything. We return the way we came, and on the return we do spot several grouse, so maybe their season is longer than ours? We opt for the dry riverbed on our return, messing up two pairs of trainers but they will clean!
Back in town we start to enjoy the wonderful architecture, what we saw was mostly turn of century but apparently there’s also a lot of Art Deco which sadly we didn’t discover. However there is the Roman Amphitheatre, modern-day amphitheater, a bull ring, casino and archeological dig right there in town, so plenty to feast upon.
In particular the C13 Concepción Castle right in the centre is very good. We investigate the ramparts, cistern and views.
After a modest walk we’re back onboard for lunch (when aren’t we?) and later for standard afternoon, in the blazing sunshine. Prepping for tonight’s dancing, the show-bar is assembled.
We contemplated dinner at the poolside grill but it’s just toooo hot, so go down to MDR to enjoy spaghetti Bolognese / veal sweetbreads, tomato soup / wild mushroom soup, lamb, cheese, apple pie / mocha tart.
The evening’s entertainment is also poolside with the Company, the Cruise Director Matt and the amazing Janine Johnson from last night entertaining us, a lot of dancing (not us obvs) and hubby supervising the pilot boat!
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