Another European Vacation

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Today we went to Cartagena. It is about a two and a half hour drive to Cartagena from where we are staying. Fortunately, the roads in Spain are good. Throughout our trip we have relied on Google Maps as our GPS, and again today it took us directly to our destination.

As usual, our first stop on arrival in Cartagena was coffee. We enjoyed a coffee on the Calle Mayor in central Cartagena, a lovely walking street with some impressive architecture. Then we headed off to our principal goal, the Teatro Romano. This Roman theatre was only discovered about 20 years ago, buried beneath centuries of other buildings. It seems that the theatre suffered a deadly fire in the 2nd century BC, and was abandoned. Soon after that, it was turned into a street market, and from then on it was the site of successive waves of buildings, including a cathedral. The citizens of Cartagena did not know of the theatre's existence until construction on a crafts centre commenced. Fortunately, modern Cartagena had the wisdom to preserve the theatre, and restore it in part, without damaging the old structure. They built a modern museum and entrance on the Calle Mayor, and constructed access passages beneath the cathedral and neighbouring buildings. Then, they installed a series of escalators that take visitors directly into the old theatre. We are big fans of old Greek and Roman remains, and we were very impressed. We were able to see the theatre from all angles, and fortunately it was not very busy while we were there.

After the theatre, we hiked up to the remains of an old castle on a hilltop, from where we could see what remains of an old Roman-era amphitheater. Unfortunately, all that remains of this building is the outer wall. We then made a brief walk around the port area. It appears that Cartagena is investing wisely in improving the appearance of its city centre, and we really enjoyed it.

We then headed back to Albir via a different, coastal highway. In the evening we headed to Altea, to an Indonesian restauarant recommended to us by our friends, Barry and Karen. We enjoyed Calamari and Rendang, an Indonesian beef dish.

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