¿Qué pasa?

We unemployed people have plenty of time on our hands if we choose not cook tasty meals for our loved ones, do the laundry or swab down the floors. I considered just reading the paper and tinkering on the computer as usual but, as we are still exploring our new town, I put on my Pith Helmet and set out to see what I could find.

Near the Roman Ampitheatre a young woman enticed me into the Byzantine Walls Museum. She was standing outside the place to drag in customers. Maybe she should try to persuade her employers to invest in a sign. "It's free," she said - sale made. Odd place; it looks like a block of flats, well actually it is a block of flats, it just so happens that below ground there are Byzantine walls built on top of Visigothic remains built on top of a Roman house with a Moorish cess pit thrown in for good measure. It's not up there with the Uffizi or even Monkwearmouth Station Museum but it was worth the stop.

Then the aeroplanes flew over (see last blog entry) and I wondered why. Maybe it was something to do with the upcoming Carthaginians and Romans Festival? A recentish sort of tourist development for Cartagena to re-enact the historical struggle between the Romans and Carthaginians. Camps are set up near the football stadium and there are mock battles, mock weddings and all sorts of goings on. In fact when I got onto the High Street some council big wigs (I've not been here long enough to recognise any local personalities yet) were giving a press conference about the festival. I sniggered slightly because the poster they were using as a backdrop said "When you drink alcohol - control yourself - and enjoy the fiesta!" I think the days of no Spanish drunks in the street are well and truly gone.

But that wasn't why the Eagle Patrol had flown over. No some rich folk are in town. The 42 ft and 52 ft Audi Med Cup, racing sailing boats were moored in the port. I thought it seemed anachronistic somehow, these boats are so state of the art that they have tillers rather than wheels and the control cables set into the hulls of the boats to increase aerodynamic efficiency and reduce weight yet they are still measured in Imperial feet. The Empire on which the sun never sets! They are here till the 19th racing each day in a series that has seen events all over the Med. I noticed that the King's boat Bribón, the Scoundrel, was amongst them.

Oh, and one more tiny adventure as I walked home I stopped to take a photo of the Navy Arsenal but the chap standing guard outside made it very clear that he would have to use deadly force were I to do so.

Cartagena is just a bit more happening than Culebrón.