Cartagena, Spain – Day 2 Transatlantic Cruise

Monday, November 24, 2025

Our first port was Cartagena, Spain. We had a long day to visit and since we didn’t book an excursion, we took our time getting up and off the boat. The ship was docked near the city making it easy to walk into town.

I read a legend reporting St. James the apostle had founded a church in Cartagena in the 1st Century. It later became a cathedra. I wanted to find the site. On the way, we found a wonderful walking street, paved in marble tiles. The “street” was rather narrow and much of the architecture reminded me of New Orleans with the iron railings on the balconies and shutters on windows.

It felt like a friendly and relaxed area. Many people were quietly greeting each other, clearly locals out on their morning walk for a paper and coffee and a sit on the plaza. The dogs in Spain weren’t quite as trained and restrained as in Great Britain. We heard a number of dogs barking at other dogs. 😉

A tour guide stopped his tour at a map we were looking at. He said that Cartagena was a peninsula until a hundred years ago or so when they filled in the narrow body of water on one side. This allowed the city to expand. I guess the lack of much land created the need for narrow streets with long, connected buildings. As such, we had to pay attention to notice churches obscurely tucked in amongst everything else along the row of multi-purpose buildings.

We were able to go into several churches. I was surprised to see that the churches we’ve visited have focused on Mary. Jesus is there, yet Mary seems to be the central focus. Curious.

Winding around through the narrow streets, we finally came upon the Roman Theatre that they are excavating. I’m still baffled that this treasure laid unknown until 1987. That is less than 40 years ago! Crazy!

Roman Theatre Built Between the Years 5 and 1 BCE

The Roman Theatre area is said to be in the area where the first century church had been located. They open up that area about four days a month for tourists. Sadly, we were two days early. Continuing our walk, we went up steep hills via stairs and around picturesque walks. At the top of the hill, we found ourselves looking down into the Roman Theatre ruins. It looks as though it is restored enough that it may be used for some plays.

We saw lots of peacocks at an old castle (or was it a fort?) We also heard a lot of birds which the Merlin app identified as Monk Parakeets. When I got a glimpse of them, they reminded me of the wild parrots in St. Pete. I loved seeing and hearing them then and here.

The three nieces in Alyssa’s family are my Peacock, Flamingo, and Parakeet. I wished we would see a flamingo to round off seeing all my birds today. Sadly, none appeared. Yet, it was fun to think about the girls.

Walls of Roman Amphitheatre and Gladiator Chamber

There is also a Roman Amphitheatre in Cartagena being excavated. We saw the walls from the distance. The area is fenced off. It would have held sporting events like bull fighting.

On our meander back to the ship, we found a fun spiral stairway with a sea-themed mural on the walls. There were whales, fish, sea turtles, jellyfish, and at the ocean floor, Neptune. Once at the lower level, there was a two-laned traffic tunnel which was also painted. Looking up, there was a snorkeler. It was a clever piece of artwork.

Back on the ship, we ate a small lunch and later had some supper, both at the buffet. I was able to get connected to the internet to post about Barcelona. Gregg got half of his new Grisham book read.

Thank you for traveling with us!