Last night we had a very pleasant surprise. We were tired so after dinner we went up to a small club on the 14th floor for a drink before skipping the main show and calling it a night. We found a guy named Segundo Vasquez playing classical guitar. He was great. Our original intention was to just order drinks and go back to our room, but we stayed through the end of his set. He's playing at the same club tonight, so we're probably going back to hear him again.
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| Cartagena Harbour |
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| Virgin of Fuensanta |
We got to sleep a little late this morning. The ship didn't dock in Cartagena until 10AM and our tour group met at 10:15. Today's tour was called "Journey to Murcia". Murcia is the capital of the Spanish province of Murcia. It is a lovely city, a little less than an hour inland from Cartagena. We visited a beautiful church at the Monastery of the Virgin of Fuensanta (Holy Spring), the Cathedral in Cardinal Belluga Square, and the Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia. The countryside between Cartagena and Murcia is mostly flat, with farms, orchards and vineyards. The foothills begin just beyond Murcia. The area is struggling with it's water supplies, hence the patroness of the city is the Virgin of Fuensanta. The locals have a pilgrimage each year carrying the statue of the Virgin, and the first 2 times they did this, it rained. Our guide said the first time it even snowed, something very rare for the area, which has a climate like California.
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| Murcia Cathedral |
They also have a carnival each year with a sardine as the mascot. The picture below is of a sardine fountain in the river, honoring this fish. I guess they have a sense of humor too. It was a nice, 4 hour tour and David was a much better guide than we had in Barcelona.
It was nice to get back to the ship by 3PM and go for an ice cream at Ben and Jerry's to hold us over until dinner. This ship is different from others we have been on because it has some food options other than ship's food. Deck 5 has a promenade with shops, 2 pubs, a coffee shop, and Ben & Jerry's. There is also the Johnny Rocket's hamburger dinner and 2 specialty restaurants on Deck 11, on either side of the main buffet.
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| Sardine Fountain in Murcia |
Tomorrow we are going to dock at Malaga, Spain. We reread the description of the tour we had signed up for and decided it didn't sound very exciting. There were no others that sounded like they had much to see, so we just canceled the one we had. This way we can sleep in and just take a shuttle into town after all the tours have left. We plan to just check this port out on our own.
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