May 16, 2012: Barcelona, Spain (Montserrat)
	May 14, 2012: Malaga, Spain (The Alhambra)
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From the Ship's Log:   Monday, May 15, 2012 Cartagena, Spain 7:00am      Pilot embarked 8:06am      Safely docked 5:40pm      Vessel undocked and underway

For the first time on this cruise, we will be docking at a port that we have been to before- Cartagena, on the southern coast of Spain. When we took our cruise back from Europe in 2008, Cartagena was the first port we stopped after the beginning of the cruise in Barcelona.

Arriving and Docking in Cartagena

The trip from Malaga to Cartagena involved a short 205-mile journey along the southern Spanish coast east and then north to Cartagena. All this was accomplished overnight, and by six in the morning we were in sight of the port itself. We got closer to the outer entrance to the port by about seven, when the harbor pilot boarded the ship.

As I said, by seven in the morning we were at the entrance to the Cartagena harbor, and I was up on deck to watch our progress into the dock. Getting to the cruise ship dock, which is right at the city center, requires a circuitous route around a long breakwater and past a range of hills on the west that contain a good number of military installations.

We assume that the harbor pilot who boarded the ship about seven knew the route intimately, and our slow, hour-long progress to the dock was interesting to watch. Fred and Greg joined me up on deck for breakfast about seven-thirty, and together we watched through the Lido Pool area windows as the hills and harbor slowly slid by and we came into the dock. We'd been to Cartagena before- in 2008 when we did a repositioning cruise from Barcelona back to Fort Lauderdale, so we already had a lot of pictures of the route in to the dock, and didn't repeat them here.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Aerial Map

Because we have been here before, and because there weren't any shore excursions that were particularly enticing, the three of us decided just to walk around the city and have a look at whatever sites seemed interesting. We spent the morning walking through town, and then Greg left us early in the afternoon to return to the ship. Fred and I retraced some of our steps from four years ago, stopped at the new Archeaological Park, and ended up at the top of Castel Torres by the Roman Theatre, before we, too, returned to the ship.

On this album page, we'll just take the walk in sections. I did want you to have a route to follow, but I thought that showing you small sections of the city might not tie the sections of our walk together well enough. So, I have created one large aerial view of the part of Cartagena that we walked through, and I have marked the sections of our walk on it. I have also marked some of the main stops we made on it as well. You can bring up a scrollable window with that aerial view in it by clicking on the button at left. As we walk through Cartagena and look at some of the pictures we took, you can leave that window open and follow us along our route; whenever you want to see where we are, or how what we were seeing looks from above, you can just bring that window to the top and use the scroll bars to move around the aerial view.

When we get to the end of our walk and back on board the Noordam, you can just close that window.

We were off the ship before nine o'clock to begin our leisurely walk through Cartagena.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Harbor Area

We got off the ship and walked north along the main pier towards the center of Cartagena. We have all three been here before, and so today we'll just be walking around enjoying the beautiful day and getting some exercise.

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When we had gotten off the ship and walked in on the dock a ways, Fred had me stop so he could get a picture of me and the Noordam. Just a little further on, I stopped to make a movie of the dock area, and you can watch it with the player at left. In the movie I comment that much of the pier is new, but I had confused Cartagena with a port on our Panama Canal cruise that was laid out similarly. We continued to the city end of the pier. There, we passed by the Naval Museum.

As you might be able to see on the aerial view (if you are following along), there is an old submarine in front of the museum, and a street that parallels the marina just north of it. Across the street are the walls of the old fortification, and there is a set of stairs leading up to what was the old city. We didn't go up that way just now, but when we return to the ship we'll be descending those stairs.

We thought that since we had no particular destination in mind today, that we might see if we could locate a coin laundry and come back and do some; laundry on the ship is pretty expensive. Rather than walk around aimlessly looking for one, we turned to the west along the boulevard and walked a block down to the building that we remembered housed the tourist office. This building is adjacent to a small park that has, as its centerpiece, a monument to the Spanish Navy.

This part of the city, built outside the old walls, is also fifteen feet lower that the buildings up on the old fortification- which now comprise only a small fraction of the modern city. You can see many of the things mentioned in the narrative above in the pictures we took between the ship and the tourist center. Click on the thumbnails below to have a look at the best of these pictures:

We went inside the tourist office to get a lead on a coin laundry, and were directed to a street north and a bit east through town, so we headed off.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Looking For the Laundry

Following the directions we got in the tourist office, we headed up the street to the north.

It was about a five block stroll up the narrow pedestrian street to the intersection where we were supposed to turn east to find the coin laundry, and it was a pleasant walk. Along the way, we snapped a variety of pictures of the buildings and other street scenes. If you want to see some of these, just click on the thumbnails below:

As you can see if you are following along on the aerial view, after we got a ways up the street leading from the harbor, we angled off to the northeast, following our directions. Eventually, we came to a kind of a park that had an interesting fountain, but we went by it to see if we could find the coin laundry where it was supposed to be at the end of a building bordering one of the main streets through town. This might be a good place to point out that in the central part of town- certainly in the area near the port, most of the streets were pedestrian streets only (although a few small cars came through them occasionally). Further out, more of the streets were for automobiles. We found this to be the case in many of the city/ports we visited, although some, like Lisbon and Rome, were almost all given over to automobile streets. But even there, in most of the older sections of the cities, the streets were for people- not cars. Quite unlike most American cities. But this made walking around them a lot more enjoyable (and a lot safer).

When we finally found the laundry, we realized that something had gotten lost in translation, for the shop did not have any self-service machines; you had to drop off your laundry and pick it up later. There wouldn't be time for that today, so we gave up on the quest. Greg decided that he would go do some shopping and head back towards the Noordam, but we decided just to walk around until the ship sailed later in the afternoon. We were going to visit the Parque Torres once more, and the Roman Theatre. (I might mention that a bit later on in the afternoon, as we were passing through the Plaza de la Merced, we did run across exactly the kind of laundry we'd been looking for. Sadly, however, we discovered that it was closed- permanently.)

After Greg left us, the first thing we did was to walk back across the plaza to the fountain we'd passed earlier. It was actually a set of buildings with a couple of fountains (and some statuary). It was a pleasant fountain, and you can see some other pictures of it using the clickable thumbnails at left.

Just following our noses, we headed down southeast along the side of the plaza and down a street that I thought looked familiar. I thought it was one of the streets through an intersection we'd visited the last time we were here, just northeast of the Parque Torres. It wasn't, as it turned out, but we weren't far from the ship and weren't worried about getting lost. Then we came to a church that also looked familiar. It had been near an open area which had seemed, the last time we were here, as an area set aside for eventual excavation of some of the ruined walls and towers that we'd seen there. I recalled that area as having some abandoned modern buildings on it as well; all that had been left of them were some walls and stairs. When we went down the street by the church, we found that it was indeed the same area, but that in the last four years it had been turned into an archeaological park. We decided to explore it.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - The Molinete Parque Arqueologico

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We walked up the street beside the church; it brought us to a set of stairs that continued up to a level area where we found the entry to the park and an interesting fountain. From this entry area, we had a good view back towards the church, and a new building that we passed along the street. That building appeared to be a brand new apartment building, done in bright, primary colors. You can see this interesting view here.

I made a movie as we walked up the street to the park entry and fountain, and you can watch it with the player at left. You can also use the clickable thumbnails below to see some of the neat views from the park entry:

The name of the area that has now been turned into a landscaped park is "Molinete," which, translated from the Spanish, can mean "whirligig" or "pinwheel." I have no idea where the name came from and haven't been able to find out. All I know is that in the summer of 2010, two years after we had last visited, the Cartagena City Council decided to rehabilitate the open area to create a new green space overlooking the city, and area that would also showcase a whole series of archaeological remains found in the area: Indian dwellings, a temple (or edículo) to the Syrian goddess Atargatis, the old wall of Philip V and other ruins as well.

If you will look at the aerial view map of our walk, you will see that, apparently, the satellite picture of the area was taken before the park was completed- or even started, it seems- for you can't pick out any of the walkways or landscaping or most of the structures that are there now. I think, however, that I can pick out the two circular structures (including the one at the top of the hill) that the park's website indicates were ancient mills (assuming the translation of the page is accurate).

The park opened to the public in October 2011. On the lower southern slope, the ruins of the old Roman Forum, which are still slowly being excavated, began having visitors in March of this year. The excavation site requires an entry fee, and you can watch archaeologists at work while you walk through the site (which is covered by a large, tent‑like affair to protect it from the elements.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The top of the hill is reached by an interconnected system of paths, stairs and ramps that now wander around the area, allowing access to all the ruins and other points of interest. And that's what we did next- follow those stairs, ramps and walkways all around the crest of the hill. We took quite a few pictures as we wandered about, and I have selected the best of them to include here. But I've chosen a slideshow to make it easy for you to look at the selection.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

The project was intended to beautify the space while giving priority to the implementation of new archaeological excavations and the preservation and enhancement of existing ones- and both objectives had to be achieved simultaneously. One goal of the project was to maximize accessibility to all people, so a thorough analysis of the location of the archaeological remains was conducted, and, guided by the topography of the hill, viewpoints, multiple terraces, views and spaces were all planned out beforehand. This was to be a major viewpoint for the interesting sights of the city of Cartagena (including some monumental graffiti/artwork on some buildings below the park). Click on the thumbnails below to see some views of Cartagena from our walk around the hilltop park:

Access to the park was via a ramp that began at the end of the street by the church. When we were here before, there had been a building housing what is known as "The Wall of the Dean" (an archaeologically-significant Roman wall). The building is still there, but it is now incorporated into the slope of the hill, and visitors can either enter it to see the wall or to on top of it and look down through a thick lucite ceiling at it. There is also another entrance from the south, a set of stairs at the end of another street a block down from the church. Once in the park, there are two different paths, one for disabled guests, which runs along the bottom of the park, directly overlooking Balcones Street and archaeological heritage located there.

Around the perimeter of the hill, there is a very interesting fence made of transparent, colored panels (which appear to be some kind of thick plastic like lucite). All these panels are in various shades of green, and they protect the area while at the same time allowing views from the street to the top of the hill and to the various excavations going on. Each panel seemed to be about five inches wide by a couple of inches thick; the effect was quite striking.

The active excavation site is underneath a translucent cover designed especially for this site; it has to protect the site while allowing as much daylight as possible for the archaeologists who are working there; provision was also made for artificial lighting at night. The improvements at the excavation site alone cost about $1.5 million. From the top of the hill, Fred was able to use his zoom to peek underneath that cover and see some of the work going on at the excavation site; click on the thumbnails below to see a few of these pictures:

More than just an archaeological site, the area is a park as well, and there are now landscaped spaces where native species, both evergreen and deciduous, have been reintroduced- allowing the creation of spaces for rest and relaxation with shade in summer and sun in winter. One novelty is the playground at the top of the hill that makes the area ideal for the families that live nearby or who will come to visit.

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In June, 2010, and aerial and ground photo project documented the various ruins in the area. Among the remains are a series of late Republican era structures associated with a slightly earlier temple located near a sacellum or small chapel and dedicated to the Syrian goddess Atargatis. The project will also involve the remains of a hypothetical castellum aquae- a structure used for storage and redistribution of water in the old city. At the top of the hill is also a more recent structure- a sixteenth-century mill.

I made a movie while we were on the top of the hill, and you can watch it with the player at right.

One of the views we had from the hilltop was of the fortification ruins about a mile distant from where we were this afternoon; we had walked over to these ruins in 2008 and explored them.

We spent quite some time wandering around the top of the hill, but then made our way back to the entrance.

Back at the entrance, we turned to walk downhill along the translucent fence so we could walk around to the excavation site that we could see through the fence. Along the translucent wall there was an area where you could sit down and enjoy the water feature that you can see at left. Fred stopped here to make a movie, and you can watch it with the player below:

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We turned at the corner of the fence and began to walk back west. This side of the park seems still to be under construction. There is the excavation site, of course, but there was an open area currently used for ad hoc parking, and our view was of the backs of the buildings along the street south of us (where the graffiti was). I suspect that this area will be redone at some point as it detracts from the otherwise very well-landscaped area. We continued walking along the green panel fence and eventually found the entrance to the excavation site.

The excavation site at the base of the hill, under the tent cover, is "Ancient Carthago Nova." This is a Roman district in the immediate surroundings of the colony's forum, dating from the first century BC. Within the site is the thermal bath complex, including a colonnaded courtyard and the atrium building which was used for religious banquets. The walls still standing are up to 12 feet high, and some of the original murals can still be seen. The baths are a succession of cold rooms, warm and hot, heated by furnaces.

Modern buildings have grown up around this area, which is now below grade. A dividing wall separates the baths from a central atrium with four major columns, which are only now being fully excavated and restored. We thought we might go in and walk around, but in light of the stiff entrance fee and a shortage of time, we decided not to. I did, however, take a couple of pictures from the entrance looking at the work going on, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at them:

We finished our walk around the archaeological park area by going across the street from the active excavation site to take a look at some other ruins we hadn't seen years ago. These ruins, part of the forum and baths complex, were apparently excavated some time ago; they are covered by a glass roof, enabling you to look down into them. You can see a couple of views of these ruins here and here.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Our Walk to Parque Torres

The next part of our walk will take us from the Molinete Parque Archaeologie east to Plaza de la Merced and then south past the University and the bullring to come to the west entrance of Parque Torres, where we intend to go once again up to the observation plaza to take in views of the city. We were curious as to what changes there might have been since our last visit.

You can follow us along on our walk if you have the aerial view open. We took a different street to head eastward, and we found that the buildings south of the archaeological park were not complete at all, but just facades that had been stabilized from the far side that we could now see. I imagine that the facades have some historical or architectural significance, and that perhaps the buildings behind them will be rebuilt. We've seen the same thing in lots of cities we've been to- cities as diverse as Barcelona and Albany.

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We wound our way through the city streets, passing a block south of the archaeological park, and came to a large public square- the Plaza de la Merced. Here, we found huge banyan-type trees, a small performance stage, statues and two fountains. I made a movie here in the plaza, and you can watch it with the player at left.

We also took a few pictures here, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to view them:

As you can see from our path on the aerial view, we went through Plaza de la Merced from west to east, and then continued to follow the streets east, following our noses as we went. I was looking for the intersection we'd been to before that lay just northeast of Parque Torres. We didn't find that, but we came to another, smaller park or square from which we could just see Parque Torres to our south. To get there, we turned south and ascended a broad walkway that looked very new. There were new buildings on either side of it, and interesting stone walls and plantings all the way along. This being spring, most everything was in bloom, so I had Fred take a seat on one of the walls so I could get a picture of him and some of what looked like azaleas behind him; you can see that picture here.

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The area wasn't familiar until we got to the top of the new walkway and found ourselves just north of the bullring, looking at the university buildings that we'd actually walked through four years ago. When we saw the bullring just ahead of us, we knew right where we were, and just how to get up to Parque Torres. At this point, I stopped to make a movie, and you can watch it with the player at right.

The bullring was just as we remembered it. When we were here before, It had bracing all around it, and we assumed that some reconstruction would be done to make it stable again and the bracing removed. Perhaps that was incorrect, for the steel and plastic bracing is still in place; perhaps that is the way it is supposed to be. But, as before, there was no way to get inside and look around, which there should be for such an old, interesting structure, so maybe work will resume on it at some point. Use the clickable thumbnails above, left, for some views of the bullring.

We walked around the bullring to the south intending to cross the street to get to Parque Torres. There seemed to be a new, small plaza there; it had not been there four years ago. There was a kind of balcony with a small round building from which you could look all around and see the harbor, Parque Torres, the bullring and some partially excavated ruins that I recalled having seen before. Instead of some individual pictures, let me include one here that Fred made by stitching together two images, enabling him to get Parque Torres, the elevator/stairs, the new little round building and plaza and the bullring all in one shot. He had me stand in both pictures, so that is why I am in the panorama twice:

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While Fred was taking some other photos, I made a movie of our surroundings, looking all the way around from harbor to bullring; you can watch that movie with the player at left.

From this little plaza, we could see quite a lot. We could see the harbor, of course, and we had excellent views across the street to the roadway entrance to Parque Torres. It came up from the street in front of the harbor through a couple of switchbacks and then up to the top. Click on the thumbnails below for some nice views from here:

We thought that we would climb the stairs to get up to Parque Torres, so we descended the stairs from this plaza to the bottom and then crossed the street, heading for the elevator structure. I stopped to get a picture of Fred with the plaza behind him and then we headed over to the elevator structure. Four years ago, going up or down was free, but this time, there was a $5 charge. Since we'd done it before, we nixed the idea of doing it again and just walked back to the other side of the street, up the sidewalk and onto the street leading to the Parque Torres motor entrance. We could see that there were also pedestrian walkways and stairs so you didn't have to actually walk up the road.

From the street, we had a nice view back to The Noordam, and from the road up, nice views back to the plaza and bullring. Going up the sidewalk, we took the pedestrian stairs directly up; these crossed the road twice, and once I had a very nice view of the road and the elevator structure. You can see that view here.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Parque Torres

We came up the back side of Parque Torres, following the stairs along the roadway until we got to the top of the road. Then we turned east to walk out to a fountain that we had seen from the walk up.

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When we got to the fountain, which I didn't recall from the last time we were here, I stopped to make a movie, and you can watch it with the player at left. Perhaps you will be able to hear the occasional screech emitted by the peacocks in the trees.

From the fountain, we walked west again up the very pretty trellis‑covered walkway towards the observation platform. We could see the platform ahead of us and just before we came out onto it, Fred got a good picture of the end of the walkway and one of the hilltop ruins to the west of the city. You can see that view here.

Then we were out in the open on the platform, and it offered the same amazing views we recalled from four years ago.

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I made another movie out here on the observation platform, looking all around from the harbor across the city, and you can watch it with the player at right.

Fred took a nice picture of the Noordam docked at the pier, and one of me with Cartagena in the background. In return, I got a nice picture of Fred with the Noordam in the background and also one looking back at the Molinete Parque Archeologie where we'd been an hour ago. There are clickable thumbnails for both of these pictures below:

From here on the observation platform we both tried our hands at creating panoramic views. Fred used the abilities of his camera to stitch together this view:

I got rather more ambitious, and took a series of eight pictures, stitching them together later to form my own panorama. As usual, the different lighting can be easily seen when looking at a solid background, like the sky, but after a bit of work the end result wasn't too bad:

We spent a few minutes enjoying the views and the sunshine, and then took the stairs down from the platform to get to the Roman Theatre. The walkway took us through an old watchtower via a tunnel, where we both took pictures of each other. You can see my picture of Fred here and Fred's picture of me here.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - The Roman Theatre

You should follow along with us on the aerial view, and when you do you will see that the ancient Roman Theatre lies between the more modern castle (Parque Torres) and the city. It is at a level some distance down from the observation platform, yet a couple of stories above the general level of the city, being up on the fortification whose walls line the harbor.

Before we left the observation deck on top of Parque Torres, we took a few pictures of the Roman Theatre lying below us. You can see one of mine at left, and use the clickable thumbnails below to see a couple of Fred's:

Then we took the walkway down, through the tunnel, and around to the back of the theatre where we had excellent views looking down into it. (There are tours you can take to go inside it, but we didn't take the time to sign up for one- we may have missed some commentary and the chance to take pictures from the proscenium, but we got good views nevertheless.)

You can see three good views of the theatre that we took from our position behind it if you click on the thumbnail images at right. You can also see a picture looking back up to the Parque Torres observation platform here. Behind us, and above the theatre, there were ruins what must have been a building or rooms associated with the theatre complex, and you can see some of those ruins here.

Our Walking Tour of Cartagena - Returning to the Ship

Our walk back to the ship took us to the west side of theatre, where we had a nice view looking west (in which you can see the top of the building where we began this morning at the tourist information center).

As we came down from the level of the theatre, we saw another really interesting mural on the side of a building, and as we walked around to the front of the fortification (so we could go down the stairs we'd photographed earlier this morning) we passed some interesting art- inside and old and outside and new. Just before we descended the stairs, I took this photo of the harbor and the Noordam.

A short while later, after stopping for an additional photo opportunity at the submarine dockside, we were back on board the Noordam and off to the Lido Pool for a snack. It was an enjoyable walk through Cartagena; a lot has changed in four years and we got to see some areas we hadn't seen before.

Cartagena - Architectural Detail

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

On our walk through Cartagena, both Fred and I took quite a few pictures of buildings and other interesting decorative details; Fred always has a keen eye for such. Since it didn't matter just where these pictures were taken, I'll just include the best of them here. Cartagena was not rife with interesting door hardware for Fred's picture collection; as it turned out, he only took pictures of two different doors during our walk today. I have included these three pictures in the slideshow that is at left.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Departure from Cartagena

Fred and I got back on board the Noordam about four in the afternoon, and when we got to the Lido Pool deck for our snack, we found the crew already there. Greg, Jim, MaryEllen and Sally had brought some wine up to the deck and had got some fruit and cheese from the buffet and were having an impromptu party:

We hung out with them for a while, and then just before the ship sailed we went up on deck to watch the scenery as we sailed out of the harbor. We got some pretty good pictures looking to the west, and a little later got to see another cruise liner passing us- the first we'd seen on this trip that wasn't coming into or leaving one of our ports. Click on the thumbnails below to have a look at these pictures:

Evening Activities

We didn't do much this evening. After the gym, Fred and I went to eat in the Vista Dining Room; Greg hadn't felt like eating much and so had a snack upstairs. We did get some good sunset pictures from our balcony just before dinner, and if you will click on the thumbnails below you can have a look at the best of them:

This Evening's Towel Animal  

Got a Guess?

This evening's "towel animal" reminded me of something, but we could never agree on what that might have been, so your guess is as good as ours.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	May 16, 2012: Barcelona, Spain (Montserrat)
	May 14, 2012: Malaga, Spain (The Alhambra)
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