Monday 15 April 2019

When we woke today, someone had erected a block of flats cutting off our view out to sea. It transpired that 2 cruise ships had docked against the wall protecting the marina, and we had the joy of listening to their public address announcements on and off all day, each proceeded with 3 chimes. While all of the passengers were off visiting the sites of Cartagena, the crew were playing music over the PA, which I also thought was a bit unnecessary.

We have started to explore the various elements of the city, but it has such a long and varied history that I have not yet resolved my understanding of quite how it all fits together. In summary, the city dates back to c 227 BC, and was re-founded as an outpost and port by the Carthaginians. They helpfully named it as “New Town”, the same name as the original city of Carthage, and was the port where Hannibal landed to start his attacks on Rome.  It was captured for the Romans by Scipio in 209 BC and it became a Roman colony. It then played a critical part in both the roman and Carthaginian conquests of Iberia.  In addition to being a major port, it also had significant silver mines, producing substantial revenue. Over the years it has been sacked by the Vandals, and the Visigoths, plus being taken by the Moors  in 714 AD. The Christian king of Spain captured it in 1245, and it had remained part of Spain as we know it since then.  It is a major naval port for the Spanish navy, and a French fleet taking shelter here was attacked by the British in 1757. More recently, was the scene of repeated air bombardments during the Spanish Civil war, as it was the base of the Republican navy, and the industrial base for many of the supplies required by the Republican forces. As a result of all this, there is layer upon layer of history, and I suspect that every time they wish to build a new building, they find something significant on the site, and while excavating that, reveal something even more remarkable under that.

We have armed ourselves with tickets to enter all of the museums, and made gentle start by visiting the Air Raid Shelter museum. This showed how they have made caves and galleries in the hillside to offer protection. The one we visited was said to be able to hold 5000 people.  On our way back to the boat we passed the Roman Amphitheatre, but we will save visiting that until later.

Back at the marina, I spotted something familiar and we saw another boat of exactly the same model as ours.  I think that there were only 53 made, and it is quite remarkable to be in the same place as another.  We have stood and looked at it for differences, or variations, and hopefully we will find an opportunity to talk to the owners.

As we said yesterday, Cartagena is renown for its parades in the week leading up to Easter, and we went to see today’s version. This started later than yesterday, after darkness had fallen, and was much smaller, only taking 1 hour and 20 minutes to pass and made up of 5 or 6 groups, rather than the 33 of yesterday.  We found a spot with a good view at the same place as we were before.  The crowds are not unreasonably large, I suspect because most people are actually in the procession.  As before, there were people of all ages included, and many were handing out sweets to the children and pictures of saints or religious scenes to anyone who wanted them. These seem to be collected avidly. It was a truly spectacular sight, with many of the people marching with hoods covering their heads.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	99	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	99	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)