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Tuesday, March 21, 2023

A Walk Around Cartagena: 21 March 2023

  Today was a day where we did not have to be somewhere specific. We started with breakfast in the dinning room since we had plenty of time to go ashore. We have been to Cartagena before and decided to just do a walkabout. We had planned to go see the fortress and the Roman Theatre but never got there. There was another cruise ship in today so the main streets were very busy. In addition it was school visit day or something like that. There were bus loads of kids all over the place ranging in age from kindergartner to high school. I think they all wanted to go to the Roman theatre. We decided to skip that.

We decided to head to the city market which is always a good place to soak up some local activity. This market was smaller than many markets that we have seen and basically sold fish. There were a few meat markets and a few stalls that had more varieties of olives than you can imagine. There was one very interesting wine store. There were 6 kegs with a tap. I guess you bring your own bottle and just tap off what you want. It was a very new experience.

From there we went looking for a portion of the original Punic Wall that surrounded the city. I think we found it but it was hard to tell. A stop at the military museum and we started back to the harbour. Judy wanted a chiros. However no matter how hard we looked, no chiros. She said there must be one like a chip wagon. We did find them the last time we were here.

However we did come cross the Archaeological Park. The excavations started in 2008 which probably explains why we missed it. It was an entire Roman set of ruins. They are probably the largest of this type that we have seen outside of Italy. They were very well reconstructed with plenty of signs in English explaining the buildings and the function of each area. Well worth the visit,

Not having found the chiros and a bit weary from the past few long days, we headed back to the ship for a refreshment and a bit of lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent with a short nap.

It was suppose to be a formal evening tonight but instead it was a Dress to Impress night what ever that means. I was going to wear shorts. We did manage to get to the lounge for a Manhattan for me, water for Judy. Dinner was good as usual but we still don't like it. The staff will tell you that they prefer the fixed dining in 1 dinning room, anytime in the other 2. We enjoy the same waiter every night but he seems to be run off his feet most nights. We notice the difference in a lot of little things. However Dexter, the area supervisor keeps us laughing and does visit every night. We hit it off the first night.  Dinner tonight was lobster which we have been waiting to have for a few nights.  Dessert was a chocolate journey one that is "special".  It was very good.  We did go to the entertainment but left because the singer was doing an Elton John Tribute but it wasn't very interesting.  We cut out early.

Tomorrow is our last port. We do not have a tour but will just walk around. We have not been to Palma Mallorca so that should be good. We may even take the shuttle into town but we will see. The weather has been sunny and pleasant.

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