Cartagena

Cartagena, Common Sense's winter port, has been inhabited for well over 3000 years. It was the Carthaginians' European home away from home, as the name suggests, and has seen the typical waves of conquest and settlement - Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Moorish, Spanish, Fascist - which have left their layers in the landscape and the culture. It has always been a busy seaport and from our slip we can watch the fishing boat harbour, container ships unloading, huge cruise ships blocking the view of the mountains and the comings and goings of Spain's considerable naval fleet including its submarines. It's an interesting place to just sit and watch!

It's all happening here - Yacht Port Cartagena

There are remnants of Roman and Carthaginian cities everywhere, including the basements of restaurants and public buildings. An entire Roman theatre was discovered while they were trying to build a cathedral - and now the remains of both sit side by side, overlooking the city. Once you've explored a few of the sites you have a sense of a whole ancient world buried beneath the streets.

What lies beneath the city?

Cartagena offers a lot to see and do. We recommend getting a Cartagena Card for about 20 euros. It is usable over nine days and gets you into quite a few attractions, including a bus tour of the city and a cruise on the harbour. There is quite a good naval museum, but its main attraction is housed in an outside annexe and is easy to miss: the first fully functional, navigable submarine, designed by Isaac Peral of Cartagena and launched in 1888. It is a surprisingly modern-looking vessel.

Another highlight is the central fort that overlooks the city, offering great views and the shrieks of the resident peacocks. Within it virtually the whole town sheltered from Franco's troops during the Civil War, and it is now a refugee museum. Particularly moving are the stories of elderly survivors recorded on video. One old fellow recalled eating lentils for months on end - and never touching another lentil once the war ended! 

The old town is quite beautiful, with many of its streets paved in coloured stone, massive gnarled ficus trees shading the squares and lovely buildings of several different periods. I love the first floor bay windows or box balconies (no doubt they have a proper technical name) where it's easy to imagine the senoritas of a bygone age sitting and flirting with passing caballeros from behind their fans. The wonderful Mediterranean tradition of the evening stroll (paseo here) is in full force and everyone from newborns to the very ancient and decrepit can be seen on the waterfront or the main promenade, showing off the latest in flamboyant Spanish fashion.

 

From a cruising perspective, Cartagena has been an excellent winter port. First and foremost it is safe, sheltered and secure for all vessels. There is a bit of chop when the wind blows directly into the harbour, but as you can see, breakwaters protect boats from any serious swell.

There is a small but friendly international community of cruisers and, of course the usual opportunities for Happy Hours, Sunday barbecues, excursions and so on. Importantly for us, Cartagena is a real city, not a tourist town that only functions for the summer season as many marina 'towns' seem to be. It has a university, hospitals, all the usual infrastructure and, as a 'Cuidad de la Cultura', there is something happening all the time - festivals, concerts, street dancing, religious parades, theatre. Sadly we just missed the famous Festival of Romans and Carthaginians, which sees the whole populous in role, acting out fully costumed dramatic scenes from their city's ancient past.

So that's it for the moment. Next blog we'll do a bit of a photo-tour around the city - and I think it's about time for a beer blog from El Capitano.