Saturday, November 9, 2019

Taking a Slow Boat to Rome (Part 3): The Port of Cartagena, Spain

On our 12th day at sea (April 18, 2019), we disembarked from our ship, the MS Koningsdam, at Cartagena on the southeastern coast of Spain.  This was the third port of call on our 14 day transatlantic cruise that originated in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (see Part 1).  I posted about our second port of call and my excursion to Granada and El Alhambra in Part 2.

























We engaged a friendly cab driver to give us a two hour tour of the city.  I was able to communicate in Spanish with him and where it was more difficult to communicate, he used the Google Translate app on his phone.
Our cab driver and tour guide
He had a standard tour which included the highlights of this beautiful ancient city with a long history of settlement and conquest. Iberian tribes were conquered by the Carthaginians in the 3rd century BC using this natural harbor as a base.  During the 2nd Punic War, the Romans took over the harbor and town in 209 BC from the Carthaginians and renamed it Carthago Nova (New Carthage).


The Romans ruled Carthago Nova until the Fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.  It was an important silver mining area and the natural harbor was important for the defense of the Roman Province. Beginning in 409 AD, there were successive occupations by the Vandals, Visigoths, Byzantine Romans, and Visigoths (again).  Muslims invaded the city in 714 AD and ruled it until  King Alfonso X of Castile conquered the city in 1245 and established Christian rule and a base to continue the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, finally ending with the fall of Granada in 1492.

The natural harbor at Cartagena is the site of an important Spanish Naval base built in the 18th century.
By Juan José Ordovás - Spanish Ministry of Defence, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45418609 

The Port of Cartagena 
Inner harbor and city of Cartagena



The outer harbor

In the harbor of Cartagena, the cruise ship pier, marina, and naval base on the right
as viewed from the Roman amphitheater (below)
By Trasamundo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10031340
We visited the only swimming beach on the rocky coast of Cartagena, Cala Cortina:

Above the beach was the prison that Franco imprisoned Republican fighters during the Spanish Civil War
 Our driver took us to Conception Hill and Conception Castle  the highest point in the city of with an excellent overall view.  We visited a Roman Amphitheater built between 5 and 1 BC.  It was only discovered in 1988 and was  excavated and restored ending in 2003.





  

I asked our driver to take us to the Soccer Stadium to see where FC Cartagena played.  My own city of Albuquerque had initiated a new USL soccer team, New Mexico United, and I wanted to have a photograph of me in my NM United shirt to share with my daughter, Amanda, who was the COO for NM United:


We headed back to the downtown area of Cartagena and enjoyed the historical buildings and beautiful architecture.






Across from the Plaza de San Francisco is the Casa Maestre: a modernist building by Víctor Beltrí inspired by the Casa Calvet de Gaudí which we saw in Barcelona in 2015.

Huge Banyon Fig Tree in San Francisco Plaza

Isidoro Máiquez, the most famous Spanish actor and a native son of Cartagena


Plaza de San Francisco tile

Colorful topiaries in Plaza de San Francsico


Detail of window wrought iron


 We headed for the best shopping street in Cartagena, Calle Mayor, or Main Street.







We enjoyed lunch at a tapas restaurant on Calle Mayor:









It was Holy Week (La Semana Santa in Spain) in this very religious city.  A troop of young people dressed as Roman soldiers marched through Calle Mayor.



The floats and processions of religious orders would not begin until 4:30PM but our ship was scheduled to embark at 4:00PM so our guide took us to a warehouse to let us see the floats being prepared for the evening's processions:












We headed back to the port and got on board the MS Koningsdam, ready to continue our trip to Rome, Italy with two more days at sea.  I will finish our trip with Part 4 of  "Taking a Slow Boat to Rome" which began April 7, 2019 with Part 1


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