After a lazy day the previous day, we had an excursion booked this day. Our port of call that day was Cartagena. We were up just after 7 and got ready. As our tour that day included food, we did not want a proper breakfast. We went to Cafe Promenade for a coffee and a donut. They have a coffee bar selling espresso-based drinks at Sorrento’s next to Cafe Promenade. We decided to use our coffee voucher for some proper coffee. Graham had an Americano and a cinnamon sugar donut. I had a latte and a chocolate donut.
Shortly after we had finished our breakfast, the announcement came that the ship had been cleared. We headed out. We stopped for the port photos and then we decided to go exploring. As soon as we came through the port gates, we spotted the meeting point for our tour. We had about 90 minutes to explore. We made a tactical error. We thought we may as well have a quick look at the old town. We misidentified the beautiful building that was right across the road and headed straight on rather than left. This actually turned out to be a blessing. Instead of in the old town, we initially ended up in a small park with some very interesting and beautiful trees. They were Moreton Bay Figs.
As we exited the park, I was even more confused. Ahead of us was something that looked incredibly like the ruins of a Roman theatre. One of the things listed on the tour was the Roman theatre and it mentioned that we would have a photo stop at the adjacent park that would give us great views over the Roman theatre. Apart from the park we had just exited, there was another park on the hill above the theatre. This part fit. However, it also mentioned that the Roman theatre is in the heart of the old town and that most certainly not where we were. The mystery was solved on the tour. Cartagena has the Roman amphitheatre as well as a Roman theatre. What we were looking at in the morning was the Roman amphitheatre. This is currently not open to the public.
The park on top of the hill looked interesting. There were stairs going up, but there was also a winding road. As my knee is not coping too well with stairs, we took the road. Graham was not sure if we had enough time, but it took less than 10 minutes to get to the entrance of the park. The area that is now the Alfonso Torres park has been a significant location in Cartagena since Roman times. There are some interesting walls and structures in the area. There are some beautiful trees and flower beds. It is also home to the local castle, Castillo de la Concepción. The castle was never finished. Part of the castle was demolished in the early 19th century. Essentially the only part of the castle that still stands is the keep, which is now the history museum. The surrounding land became a city park in 1920. Alfonso Torres park provides some nice views over the city of Cartagena.
We never made it as far up as the castle, but we could see it from the area we were exploring. It is definitely not one of the more impressive castles in the world. The words utilitarian and boxy came to mind. The museum is meant to be very good, but this was not on our to do list that day.
We discovered a duck pond with Muscovy ducks. The fact that the castle is referred to by the locals as duck castle may have something to do with their presence. A passing couple told us that there was a mummy duck with her ducklings on the next level. We headed up there. They were so cute. We were extremely lucky that just was we were thinking about leaving, mummy duck decided to take her ducklings down the stairs to the duck pond. We gave them some space. Initially they were not sure at all, but most of them got the hang of the stairs quickly. One tumbled over and landed on its back. For what felt like forever, it was just lying there. My heart was telling me to do something to help the little one, but my head said that interfering was going to create more problems. While my head and my heart were still doing battle, the duckling managed to get back on its feet and joined its family. Once they were all safely back on even ground, we left and headed back towards the port. I did not fancy going the long way round and decided to brave the stairs. The stairs were not steep and there were bannisters all the way. This turned out absolutely fine.
We took a slightly different route back to the port. This took us to another real gem. The underpass leading back to the port is decorated with a huge ocean mural which was created by an artist called Krasser who was born in Cartagena and went to art school there, but now lives in Milan. When we got there, a tour group was in the area. They moved on a short while later and I was able to take a photo.
We headed to the meeting point and quite a few people were already there even though we arrived 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled meeting time. We checked in with the representative from the tour operator. Ten minutes later everyone was present, and we set off with our tour guide Bruno.
We had visited Cartagena in Colombia in 2014, and I thought they were the only two. Graham thought that there was also a Cartagena in the Philippines. Our first stop was a map on the seafront that showed all the places around the world that are called Cartagena or a variation of the name. Let’s just say, there are a lot of them. Even if you just concentrate on places that are spelled Cartagena, there are 30 of them. The Philippines have two and Colombia has a staggering 9 places that are called Cartagena. The one in Spain is the northernmost Cartagena.
After we had stopped at the map, we pushed on towards the old town. This was a real surprise. When I did my research before the trip, Cartagena did not grab me at all. I don’t think the local tourist board is doing a great job promoting this town.
The old town is beautiful. You know you are in for something special if the pavement is covered in marble. Apparently, Cartagena used to have a bit of a “keeping up with the Joneses” culture. Lucky for me the Joneses of Cartagena were rather fond of Modernista architecture. It all started with Casa Cervantes. The wealthy industrialist Serafin Cervantes Contreras was looking for admission to the casino. The casino in Cartagena has nothing to do with gambling, but was a very exclusive members club. To gain admission, you needed to be introduced by an existing member. Although Serafin Cervantes Contreras courted various members, the desired introduction was not forthcoming. By all accounts, he was both eccentric and a very sore loser. He bought the neighbouring plot and commissioned the young Catalan architect Víctor Beltrí to build him a house that was bigger and better than the casino in every respect. Beltrí trained in Barcelona at the height of the Catalan modernism movement. The resulting house is stunning. After this, Beltrí was a very busy man. He completed around 800 different projects in his 40 years of living in Cartagena. Even with this, demand outstripped what Beltrí could do and other Modernista architects were brought in. I was in heaven as I have a bit of an obsession with Modernista architecture.
We moved off Calle Mayor through some side streets to the square in front of the Arsenal. The restaurant that was our first food stop was overlooking the Arsenal. Bruno told us a bit of the history of the naval base and the Arsenal. He also explained that the Arsenal plays an important role in the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cartagena. It is traditional in Spain to eat 12 grapes at midnight, one with each chime of a clock. This is meant to bring good luck and prosperity for the following 12 months. In Cartagena, people assemble on the square where we were sitting and eat their grapes to the chimes of the Arsenal clock tower.
At the restaurant, we were offered a choice of beer, wine, sangria, water, coffee or soft drinks. We both went with the sangria, which was potent and delicious. The food at that stop was a Spanish omelette, which consisted of sliced potatoes, onions and eggs, which is sliced like a cake. We really enjoyed this. Our tour group was really fun, too.
After leaving the first restaurant, we weaved in and out various side streets while Bruno pointed out significant Modernista buildings. We then arrived at the Roman theatre. Bruno gave us a potted history of Cartagena and told us a bit about the Roman theatre. What was truly staggering was that the Roman theatre was big enough for 6000 spectators. In the 13th century, the old cathedral of Cartagena was built on part of the Roman theatre and over the years, it completely disappeared. Part of it was rediscovered in 1988 and then they had a good look what else may be there and excavated the Roman theatre, which is now a museum. At one stage I left the group for a short while to go up some stairs to get a better look of the Roman theatre and some unobstructed photos.
Our next food and drink stop was around the corner. We were again given a choice of drink and went with the sangria. The dish that we got to sample there was a cracker with potato and tuna salad and optional anchovy. Graham really liked this. For some reason he ended up with a second one. I don’t eat fish. They made me a cracker with tomato and vegetable sauce and quail egg. This was delicious.
The building that the restaurant was in was decidedly quirky. The building was at some stage extended. The old building was kept, and the extension was built around it. The fountain that used to be outside the original building is now inside and is used as a table.
Our last food stop was on Plaza San Francisco. This square had the highest concentration of Modernista buildings of the areas we visited. There is also a headless statue of the emperor Augustus in the square. Bruno told us that this is probably the product of ancient recycling. It is thought that when a new emperor came into power, the head was removed from the statue of the previous emperor. The body was reused and only the head was replaced. The statue was unearthed during some construction work, but the head was never found.
We were given a choice of drinks again. We stuck to the sangria. Each version was different. We liked all of them, but agreed that the first one we had was our favourite. The food at this stop was a Serrano ham croquette. This was Graham’s favourite. Mine was the Spanish omelette. We both genuinely loved everything though.
While we enjoyed our food and drink, a beautiful building caught my eye. I wandered over there to have a closer look and take some photos. This was Casa Maestre. Casa Maestre was again the work of Víctor Beltrí, but was heavily influenced by Casa Calvet in Barcelona, which was the work of Antoni Gaudí. Of all the beautiful buildings I had seen that day, this was my favourite.
The last thing we went to see was an archaeological site. The Roman Forum Molinete Museum consists of the ruins of a wide variety of Roman public buildings. This includes the curia (the local senate), the colonial forum, the atrium building, the sanctuary of Isis, Roman roads and thermal baths. We have seen similar complexes in other places, but they tend to be standalone archaeological sites in the middle of nowhere. What makes this so unique is that it is right in the centre of town. We also stopped at the excavation site of the Decumanus Maximus, the main east west street of Cartagena. The ovens that used to heat the thermal baths are also in this area. This was found in 1968 when old barracks were demolished. The Roman sites we touched upon are by far not the only ones that Cartagena has to offer. If circumstances brought us back to Cartagena, I would love to check them out.
We passed some more beautiful Modernista buildings and then the tour came to an end. We were given the option to either stay in town or walk back to the port with Bruno. We were heading back to the ship, but decided to take a leisurely stroll back on our own. One the way, we found the Church of Santo Domingo and decided to check this out. The Church of Santo Domingo is the oldest church of Cartagena. It was part of a Dominican convent until the 19th century, when it was handed over to the local diocese. It may not be spectacular, but it is a very pretty church.
After visiting the church, we slowly walked back to the port. I wanted to have a look at a stall that had caught my eye in the morning. They had jewellery made from macramé and semiprecious stones. Graham had pushed on towards the ship. I called out to him, but he did not hear me. I followed him. I loved the look of the jewellery, but as I pretty much exclusively wear jewellery from Wyrding Studios, I probably would not have worn it very often anyway.
Once we were back on the ship, we quickly went back to the cabin to drop off our stuff. Although the food we had was very nice, there had not been a lot of it and dinner was a long time away. We decided to head up to El Loco Fresh to get some food. Graham had nachos with chilli beef and cheese sauce, and I had Mexican rice with black beans, chicken and beef carnitas and guacamole. I loved mine, but Graham was not so keen on the chilli beef. We then stopped at Sprinkles for some strawberry. vanilla swirl ice cream on the way to the Music Hall.
They had flags around the world visual trivia. We scored 11 out of 15 and the winning score was 15. I was proud that I manage to get a couple of obscure flags, but was annoyed that I got a flag wrong that we had come across before. After this trivia, we headed up to the Roy bar. We both had the drink of the day, which was a Negroni sbagiato. Graham loved this, but I was not keen. He finished mine and I had a virgin mango daiquiri instead.
We headed back down to the Music Hall for trivia @ 5. This was a complete disaster, and we only scored 2 out of 15. The winning score was 9. After this we went to the cabin to get showered and changed. It was red night that evening. Red is not a colour I wear often, but at the last minute I had decided to switch out one of the heavy gowns with a lightweight gown that is black with red roses. I wore that. We went downstairs to get some photos.
With the photos done, we still had some time before dinner. Graham sat down outside Starbucks, and I decided to have another look at the logo shop. I could not believe that Odyssey is the one ship that does not have Spirit Jerseys. I checked every inch of this shop. I was just getting ready to accept that they really do not have Spirit Jerseys when I noticed that a member of staff was putting some new stock out at the back wall. Sure enough, they were Spirit Jerseys. I absolutely loved this design. I had to be good though. I knew that if I bought my Spirit Jersey there and then, I would be charged Spanish VAT. I decided to wait until we were out of EU waters.
I went to get Graham, and we went downstairs for dinner. Graham quickly went to the bathroom, and I got collared by a photographer who was taking photos in front of the crystal curtains outside the casino. He took a few photos of me and when Graham came back, he took some more photos of the two of us. Then we went to the dining room.
The menu that night was A Taste of Mexico. We both had the poblano pepper soup topped with roasted corn, red peppers, fresh cilantro and sautéed chorizo for our starter. For his main course, Graham had the chili-lime crusted salmon served over a sweet potato, mushroom and kale hash topped with mango and bell pepper salsa. I had the carne assada, which was chili-marinated and grilled flank steak with Mexican-style rice, pinto beans, sautéed spinach and peppers, and salsa verde. I gave the spinach to Graham. We both had tres leches cake for dessert. We also had a couple of glasses of Chateau St. Michelle Riesling each.
After dinner we headed back to the cabin. We got ready for bed. Graham went straight to sleep. I read a couple of chapters and then I went to sleep, too.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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