Friday, October 4, 2013

Cartagena, Spain: Sunday May 12, 2013


Today was our first stop in Spain.  We decided to start the day off right and had lunch at the Tamarind restaurant.  Lunch is complimentary but is only offered on select days, so we made sure to book a reservation ahead of time to reserve our seats. 

It was quite delicious.  We had a Hot and Sour Soup (which was actually spicy), followed by Fried Rice, Dim Sum and Spring Rolls.  To finish, we had deserts consisting of Mango Ice Cream, Green Tea Tiramisu, and Coconut Ice Cream.  Although lunch wasn’t nearly as good as the first dinner we had, it was still very nice and I’m hoping to return. 

Once we left the ship, we began walking around in the town of Cartagena, which was right off the pier.  The weather was quite chilly in the late morning and required a jacket and scarf.  While we were walking, we noticed quite a lot of people biking around with the same t-shirts.  We later found out that there was a bike marathon occurring. 

Throughout the town were beautiful flowers, which Hildy really enjoyed.  Flowers are one of the few things she’ll actually stop to take a picture of with her camera.  An aspect which Hildy didn’t appreciate, but that Jessie and I did, was the graffiti.  It was quite artistic and displayed beautifully. 

One of our first stops was the Modern Art Museum.  This was housed in a colloquial building which was transformed from a 19th century home into the museum.  We only had about an hour before the museum closed, which meant that we couldn’t see the whole thing.  As it was, Hildy and I could quickly browse through the exhibits, but Jessie needed time to appreciate each piece and felt rather rushed. 
Following the museum, we bought drinks at a local halal shop and then walked along the adjacent promenade to view the beautiful gardens.  We came across the old bull fighting ring but were only able to look at the exterior, because it was closed for reconstruction. 

As we continued walking throughout the town, we stumbled upon a building designed by one of Gaudi’s students.  It was set in a lovely square with huge tropical trees.  We spent some time just sitting here and observing the great architecture and beautiful surroundings. 

A little while later we came to an archeological site filled with ancient roman baths.  Hildy didn’t want to go into this exhibit because she was worried that we wouldn’t get back to this ship in time. 

As we continued walking we came across a shoe store and Jessie found a pair of shoes. Hildy wasn’t too thrilled to be spending time in a shoe store and this made tensions rise a bit, but things settled down again once we found the Euro Store and we all found some things to buy.

After shopping, we called home to wish mom a Happy Mother’s Day, but the reception was horrible.  We continued walking towards the pier and saw some beautiful fountains.  Further on, we saw a huge sculpture of a naked man.  I decided to have some fun and pose with the sculpture.  We later learned that this was a monument commemorating the victims of past terrorist attacks.  This information made me feel a little guilty of my slightly inappropriate poses. 

The walk back to the ship was scenic and it was lovely to gaze at our huge cruise ship amongst all of the little boat in the marina. 

Once we were back onboard, we went for dinner and were surprised with beautiful red roses in honour of Mother’s Day.  One of the servers inquired about my rose and said that it’s for my future children.  I shocked him by replying that I have six kids at home… he wasn’t sure how to respond to that.  I love to “press buttons!”

Following dinner we went to ShowTime and then headed to bed.


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