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| Looking out of at the port of Cartagena |
When I was a child growing up in Western New York, going out
to dinner was a rarity – a real treat reserved for special occasions. I had one favorite restaurant that was in
downtown Buffalo called Laube’s Old Spain.
The interior had a towering ceiling, and the walls were yellow stucco
with grill-work at the upper windows. There
was an open upstairs area, representing a balcony where it was possible to sit
at a table and look at the patio and diners below. The patio floor was made of
stone slabs. My parents explained that
the décor was meant to recreate a Spanish villa. I always loved sitting in
there and looking around at what I considered very unique and exotic buildings.
I never dreamed that one day I would have the opportunity to see it in
reality!
As we set sail westward from Civitavecchia, Italy, we had a
very busy day at sea before arriving in our first port of our 2-week extension
(called Iberian and Gallic Explorer). We
sailed into Cartagena, Spain at about 10:30.
As we entered the harbor we could see a huge fort overlooking the
passage. This is probably because
Cartagena has been a major naval port for this region of Spain since the 16th
Century.
Cartagena is named for Carthage in northern Africa. This
recalls my years of Latin in high school and college: Carthago delenda est! Carthage was settled in the 1st
Century AD, and Roman ruins are evident in the city. Our very first port on the 2013 Grand World
Voyage was Cartagena, Colombia, and we assume that it was named for Cartagena,
Spain.
Since we will be in Cartagena again in 2015, we decided to
do it on our own this year in hopes that next year I will be mobile enough to
do an excursion here. Having learned
that the walking was very flat and smooth, we decided to grab a quick lunch on
the ship before taking the wheelchair and heading out to see the city. They were certainly correct on the
terrain! The entire area around the ship
was a pedestrian walkway, well paved with smooth rock that made it easy to push
the wheelchair. In fact, Chuck stated
that this was the easiest terrain for pushing the wheelchair we’ve had on the
entire trip (and that includes Florida)!
We enjoyed the stroll along the lovely harbor before heading into town
on the pedestrian walkway.
Upon crossing the street, one of the first things we noticed
was that Cartagena has a series of shoe sculptures similar to what Chicago had
several years ago with their cows, as well as the lions we saw in Cape Town, SA
and the dolphins we saw in Victoria, BC.
Cartagena’s pitch was for “shoepping”.
It seemed like every intersection had a different high heeled shoe, each
painted in a different manner.
We enjoyed stopping periodically to snap pictures of the
picturesque buildings and statues, and in a couple of cases managed to
unobtrusively get some photos of locals.
We were fascinated by the Spanish architecture – the
towering buildings with the grillwork, in some cases decorated with vines or
flowers, that recalled my childhood memories.
Statues depicting events in the history of Cartagena adorned some of the
plazas.
We were a little reluctant to get far from the beaten path
with the wheelchair. It would be one
thing if I had been mobile enough to get around easily, but we didn’t want to
get too far astray and create problems getting back to the ship. However, we did take one short detour off the
main strip. It was a good choice: we discovered the ruins of the Roman
Theater. Spread throughout the city is
more evidence that this was once a Roman stronghold. We were glad to have gotten a glimpse of one
of them, though the signs indicated that it wasn’t open on Mondays.
At that point, we decided it would be wise to double
back. I was ready to return to the ship,
and this gave Chuck the time to wander the streets without having the concern
of getting me around in a wheelchair.
Cartagena is a lovely, picturesque Spanish city that we
definitely look forward to visiting again next year!
BT
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