Cartagena..no we are not Romancing the stone!

 Cartagena, Spain is beautiful… much different from Cartagena de Indias, Columbia ( which is in itself beautiful). We are docked today right in the middle of the town and Susan, Al and I chose to skip the included tour and head out on our own to find Tapas and wine….Steve will head on his own and explore with Viking today.  

 Docked behind us is a clipper ship!

 Again a harbor filled with yachts and private boats  Susan and Al trying to decider the sign on this weird monument. Susan knows Spanish and was trying to read the very light inscription and Albert ( knows no Spanish) was trying to figure out what it might be saying. We couldn’t decide but below is the monument

 Looks kinda like a crustacean around a spike! Although we think it might have been a monument to fishermen….

 Entering into the main town

 Plaques along the wall of the museum. 

 Street scapes

 A coffee shop with beautiful shop fronts

Al found this restaurant on line and wanted to try it.  Of course Susan and I agreed to give it our  ratings…

 Can’t remember the names of all we tried, but we just pointed on the menu and if the waitress made a face or shook her head we skipped it. If she smiled, we ordered it. 

 It worked perfectly. We enjoyed everything we ordered!

 These were translated as Horses… large stuffed shrimp!

OMG the bread in the front with the red stuff… puréed red peppers with honey drizzled over have to be the best thing to eat EVER!

 Various buildings we saw on our way back to the ship

 Al in his happy place..a bakery! 

 As we  came to this park in the center of town, there was a large group of people dressed as if it was the early 19th century and they were playing croquet! As we walked back, they had finished their games and were having tea and lunch on the greens. It was magical. Today is a holiday in Spain..Labor Day… and it was a surprise to see this celebration of another time ! It looked like a Monet picture!!!

 The pitch for the croquet game was incredible.. long grass, can’t imagine the balls went very fast through the hoops.

 Al trying to mimic the statue

 Our ship still looks great after 130 days!

 As we came to the gang plank and important taxi delivery.. toilet paper! The three taxis were filled to the top with packages of TP! Talk about important things!tomorrow we have a sea day to travel to Lisbon. In that journey we will pass the Rock of Gibraltar and travel through the Gibraltar Straits. We need a day to relax after four touring days in a row!!