Spain – March 2024

Our next two scheduled stops were in Spain, although due to weather conditions, one of them was changed which resulted in two bonuses from our perspective.

The day before we were scheduled to arrive in Cádiz, the Captain announced that we would instead be calling on Cartagena because of a storm.  Due to strong winds, we would be unable to leave Cádiz if we stopped there as scheduled, so we would be entering the Mediterranean early to ensure that we made it to our scheduled stop in Barcelona a few days later on time.

Bonus 1 – passing through the Strait of Gibraltar in daylight

Our original schedule had us passing through the Straight of Gibraltar in the dark.  Instead, we passed through in the late afternoon.  This is the entrance to the Mediterranean from the Atlantic and is approximately 8 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Bonus 2 – a visit with friends!

But for us the biggest bonus was a chance to visit with some sailing friends that we hadn’t seen for approximately 18 years!  When we heard about the change, we quickly sent a message to our friend Rob to see if he and his wife Sue were in Cartagena and available to see us.  They had recently relocated to Cartagena and still live on their boat, Joyeux.  The answer was yes, and we agreed to have lunch with them on board; the cruise ship dock is adjacent to their marina.

 Cartagena is a city of just over 200,000 people that was founded by the Carthaginians in approximately 227 BC; it was later known as Carthago Nova during the Roman Empire.  We started our day learning about that history in the Barrio del Foro Romano museum.

After the museum we visited a nearby square, did a little non-productive shopping, and walked a pedestrian street back towards our lunch date at the marina.  Since we were early and it started raining, we stopped for some light tapas before arriving at Joyeux.

We had a wonderful time visiting, eating and drinking on Joyeux until time to return to the cruise ship.

Second Spanish Stop – Barcelona

It was our second time in Barcelona, so we decided to do some things we hadn’t done during our first visit in 2010.

We walked from the point the cruise ship bus dropped us off along the waterfront before heading to the Museu Picasso, featuring primarily Picasso’s early works donated by the artist himself and others.  It was interesting to see how his art progressed and changed over the years to the style he is associated with by most people.

After the museum we wandered the Barri Gotic neighborhood, one we hadn’t explored on our last visit.  We had a great tapas stop before heading to another neighborhood for some shopping and more tapas before returning to the ship.