A day around Cartagena, Spain

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We were going to take it easy today because the forecast indicated rain and, having walked 4 miles for the past SEVERAL (lost count) days, we were going to give our bodies a rest. As the morning continued to brighten and the temperature was fairly cool, we decided going to Cartagena might be a nice idea. We figured it might be a nice slow walk and we had wanted to go see the Roman ruins. We finally headed out about 9:30 or so and arrived around 10:15. We weren't exactly sure where we were headed and decided to let Google maps direct us. Naturally, as we've had happen in the past, Google maps lead us on a wild goose chase. Later we learned it was taking us there, but to a place where we were unable to get in. The Roman theater is in the main part town, however, the entrance to it and the museum was in another direction. We finally found it and headed in. The work to recover the theater didn't actually start until 1988. Apparently, with a city that had been built around a cathedral and inhabited for years, made it difficult for anyone to know what was actually there. As that part of the city started to become a very depressed part of the city and fell to ruin. As they started to "regenerate" that part of the city, they were able to fully uncover the remains of the theater. This did not fully occur until 1990. Between 1996 and 2003, they continued to excavate, recover and rebuild the theater to what we saw.

After walking around the theater, which is basically up and down the steps, we exited it and continued our walk around the outside of the theater. The cathedral is still undergoing renovations so it was closed.

Our walk continued down to the harbor, naturally, to the marina. They apparently had some type of festival about to start as people were entering the square dressed all in period garb. It was pretty cool. The weather was starting to look a bit ominous, like it could rain at any minute, so we headed back to the car.

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Photos

A view from the "wall" street just above the harbor
The street we were on is actually the city's fort wall.

"lights"
The red and green lights of the harbor entrance

church tower
one of several in town

exterior wall of the cathedral
we were not able to get in as it is currently undergoing renovations.

statue
This is a statue that originally presided over the meeting room in the locate senate house situated in the Roman forum at Carthago Nova. The statue originally had the toga draped over the head, however, as you can see, the head is gone. The statue was much bigger than life-size.

tunnel
this tunnel lead from the museum into the theater. the rock wall down at the end is original.

facade
apparently they built a facade (the "pink" wall) to, apparently, hide some of the theater. From the outside the facade looks like an apartment building.