Beautiful Cartagena

Talaria is the white hulled boat with the red stripe (and the US flag)

Here we are proudly flying our American flag in port at Yacht Port Cartagena!  It was a bit of a squeeze getting in there but we made it.  What a nice surprise Cartagena was - so beautiful!  

Cartagena, Spain

Jeff, Mel, Joe and Mike

 Our goal was to arrive with enough time to enjoy Cartagena and enough time to prep the boat for the winter before our departure. We gave ourselves two weeks - one week for play and one week for boat work.  We were no sooner docked than we received a visit from "the twins".  Joe and Jeff are from California and were the unofficial welcoming committee at YPC.  It was nice to be greeted by fellow Americans.  They came on board, had a glass of wine and invited us to dinner with themselves and another American couple.  We had a fabulous dinner at a little street Cafe in Cartagena.  As the conversation wore on we discovered that we and the other couple had mutual friends.  Talk about a small world!  So, of course, we took a picture of the four of us and sent it to Dottie and Will (our mutual friends).  A great night!

Cartagena

 Cartagena is an ancient city, it has been inhabited for 2000 years and was particularly prominent during the time of the Roman Empire.  In 1988, the second largest Roman Theatre on the Iberian Peninsula was discovered in Cartagena.  There is also a whole Roman village that was excavated.  Amazing!  

Roman Theatre

Roman Theatre

There are even Roman ruins under the floor of the department store in town.  They put plexiglass down so you can see the Roman ruins under the building.  

Roman Theatre

 We are just in awe of the level of skill required to construct the theatre.  Limited tools and just a tremendous amount of hard, back breaking labor and ingenuity. 

Roman Theatre

All this history that until now has just existed in books for us is real.  History just comes alive when you are in its midst.   Truly a trek back in time. 

Roman Village Ruins

We just love Cartagena and are so glad we had at least a week to explore.  The only thing we did not like was the cruise ships that show up daily.  Huge ships that unload hundreds of people make the town feel claustrophobic and commercial. 

Temple in the Roman Village Ruins

Michael and I got to where we would try to walk into town BEFORE all the "tourists" got off the ship.  And stay on the boat until they all got back on their boat!  We just prefer the quiet.  Due to Visa restrictions we will have to leave the EU and head home for awhile.  But... we decided to do a road trip thru Scotland before leaving.  And a few days in London.  More on that later...