Monday 22nd November 2010

We spent the weekend exploring the area on foot and bike, you can walk around  the water’s edge in either direction for miles. The finger of land which creates the Mar Menor is built up with apartment blocks and one main highway through the middle which has lots of shops and restaurants, it's obviously been designed based on an American beach resort. You can cycle along the length of it, mostly on a cycle lane which is great. On Saturday we came across a small beach, inland side, with around 20 Kite Surfers, these guys were flying about, some literally! It looked great fun! It also has lovely marinas dotted about and the inland sea is great for water sports.

Monday we caught the bus into Cartegena, not being too sure what to expect as it is a naval port, we were pleasantly surprised. The city is small and is undergoing refurbishment all over; the local papers are making a big thing about cruise ships starting to dock here now, so I guess they are trying to make it as attractive as possible. It seems to be working as the marina and quay is lovely, it has some restaurants and a massive statue of a nude male sitting crossed legged, the girls informed me it was anatomically correct and wondered if it was a true reflection of the model! I pointed out that artists like politicians always exaggerate!!

The city has some remains of Roman buildings, which were all shut as it was Monday! So we had a good wander around and spent a long lunch sitting at a restaurant near the quay. We had a great meal, with local wine and the waiter even brought out a bottle of Spanish liqueur to sweeten the bill!

Just as we were finishing a group of four Brits, three retired blokes and a 20yr old grandson, from Newcastle I would guess, staggered over to a table behind us. We'd noticed them in the square earlier, just going from bar to bar, and had obviously been drinking for the past 3-4 hours! Loud, drunk and swearing, you'd have thought blokes in their 60's would have out grown this but no. It's a wonder Europe lets us in!

We finished off the day with a walk around the shopping area before returning to the bus station. We were early for our bus which was lucky as it was obviously going to be full, mostly of Spanish OAP's from La Manga town. As usual once the bus doors opened it was every man, women and child for themselves! This lot would give Linford Christie a run for his money when it comes to getting to the front of a queue. But we made it onto the bus and got seats, the only problem was, whilst the bus picks you up from the campsite, due to the one-way system it can't drop you off there! So we were dropped off in the next village and had a short walk back to the camp. Buts that’s another story!