CARTAGENA
As you can see, Cartagena is a port city and major naval base on the southeast side of Spain. The metropolitan population here is over 400,000. It was founded in 227BC by the Carthaginians and it is surrounded by five hills. The Romans conquered the city later in the century. In the 13th century Conception Castle was built on one of the hills. It was never finished and partially demolished in the early 1800's. It was made a city park in the 1920's. My tour today will take us up to the castle.
Last Night:
The three of us had cocktails at 6:00 in the Horizon Lounge before heading to Prime 7 for dinner. The specialty restaurants here on Mariner are not nearly as large as they were on Explorer. Service last night was a little slow but food excellent. There was not really any entertainment in the theater last night so we retired.
Today:
Alarm went off at 8:15 as we had room service breakfast scheduled for 8:30 this morning. They are always right on time! We arrived at the dock in Cartagena a little ahead of schedule at 10:00 am. The Mediterranean was very smooth last night and we awoke to a absolutely beautiful, sunny day. My tour today was "Highlights of Cartagena" and left the ship at 11:20. Rebecca did not go as preferred to go the the gym instead. Jane did go with me however. I thought we had been to this port on a previous cruise, but no, this was a new one for us. Guess I was thinking Cartagena, Columbia. Sydney and Steve, from Houston and was on our Explorer cruise also, was on the tour bus with Jane and I. Our guide, Delia, was very thorough and knowledgeable. I will let the captions on my photos tell you about what we saw. I will say that once again the city was very clean and the sidewalks were all marble and well kept. Spanish cities are some of the best in Europe in my opinion. Mariner is docked right next to the old, historical part of downtown Cartagena so you can easily walk from the ship into town. I am very impressed with this port of call.
I returned to the ship at 3:00 pm as did not do the half hour of free time in city which was last part of our tour. Jane did stay in town. I went up to the Pool Grill and grabbed a hot dog for a late lunch then went back to the suite to work on this blog. It is now 5:00 pm and about to post it.
This evening we are meeting Jane for cocktails hour down in the Mariner Lounge prior to dinner. Rebecca and I have been invited to dine with Mr Montague, President of Regent Cruises, in Prime 7 at 7:30. Jane will be on her own tonight. We would like to go to hear the headliner entertainer, Lovena Fox, in the theater at 9:30 if we are finished with our Prime 7 dinner.
The ship is sailing at 6:30 this evening and will be docked in Malaga tomorrow morning. Jane and I will be going on another tour then.
Here is the link to the photos I have taken the last two days. Once again, cut and paste the link to another browser to open it. Then click on the first photo in order to enlarge it and show my captions on the right hand side. Arrow through the rest of the photos.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y2cNpOXj3B61SJdI3
