A Whiter shade of Green!

We upped stakes at Almeria this morning and moved on to Cartagena (pronounced Cart-A-He-Nah).

To say the scenery was ordinary would be an understatement. The main geographical feature is the barren arid mountainous terrain however the valleys and flat land were covered in greenhouse like structures - should really be whitehouse structures which in the main appeared to be constructed of some type of fabric.

To say there were a few of them doesn't paint the picture - the highway from Almeria to the turnoff to Cartagena is 87 kms and they were visible on both sides of the motorway for at least 50kms of that and then were prolific again as we neared Cartagena.

Looking at the land it is a wonder that anything would grow but the farmers have clearly devised some agricultural practice that overcomes what nature has dealt them.

From the turnoff referred to above to the outskirts of Cartagena, a distance in round figures of 100kms, we passed two trucks going in the same direction and were passed by no more than 10 cars. It is a toll road but was really deserted.

Ran into some difficulty finding the hotel as there are two addresses in town with the same street name, Calle Real, and as you would guess when that street is loaded into the GPS it takes you to the other one which is at least 5kms from where we needed to be.

By applying what little logic we could muster we drove by the seat of our pants through the city until we found the hotel which is situated within 2 mins walk of the port area.

Parking the car was also a little taxing as the park was underground and access was by a car lift - the only issue is that the lift is narrow and the vehicle is not. However with some astute guiding from Sherry and some not so confident driving by myself we got it into the lift (both side mirrors were tucked in to achieve that) down the two levels and then manoeuvred into a parking space made for a mini - getting the beast out will be another problem to overcome but that will be in two days so plenty of time to worry about it!!!!

Today there were 2 cruise ships in town

Thomson Majesty

Royal Princess

so as can be imagined the area in proximity to the port was really bubbling.

Had a stroll around the city in the vicinity of the hotel and passed a restaurant sign which was worded rather interestingly....

....one can only guess what the correct translation of their dish is but not sure we are willing to tempt it.

Tomorrow we will have a look at the sights, the main one being the Roman Amphitheatre which was built in the middle of the 1st century A.C.