It was time to leave London and start seeing more of England. There are SO many places to visit! I’d originally decided to skip Wales and split our time between England, Scotland and Ireland, but then I read about how beautiful parts of Wales are, so I combined England and Wales and spent a bit more time there than each of Scotland and Ireland. But that meant that we only had seven days in England.

We used public transportation to and throughout London. We then took the train to Bath. We wanted to go to Stonehenge as well, but we couldn’t find a train to it. So, we went to Bath, rented a car and drove to Stonehenge and back to Bath.

We got to Bath and I walked to the car rental place. I used Google maps, which took me to a residence. Ha! But I’d passed a Europcar Rental Office on the way, so I went back to it and they had our reservation. After dealing with them for about 30 minutes because they were trying to overcharge us by many hundreds of dollars, I drove to pick up Michael and we made our first stop: Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein in Bath. Yep, just what every tourist does!

I thought it might be a bit scary. It wasn’t. But that was fine! We ended up learning a LOT about Mary Shelley.

Let’s just start with this: Written over 200 years ago, Frankenstein is one of the most influential books in literature.

We learn this about Mary in the first room:

Mary had a complex and unconventional childhood. Keenly interested in science, she was especially fascinated by galvanism, the theory that electricity could be used to bring a dead body back to life.

This explains why the first room you enter also has a fake electricity-generating machine. You put one hand on each of the vertical bars and hold on. The sound builds then it makes a loud noise and lights up.

Day two in London started at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We got there about a half hour early. We waited. It was time for the changing of the guards. Nothing. After a few more minutes, two police officers came around and told the crowd that the changing of the guards had been canceled for that day.

So we just took some pictures of other stuff.

Outside of the gates to Buckingham Palace is the Victoria Memorial, a monument to Queen Victoria, by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled 6 May 16, 1911, though it was not completed until 1924. 

We began our 33-day long UK/Ireland trip on June 7th, taking a plane from Malaga, Spain to Bournemouth, England, then a train to London. This was the cheapest way to get there.

Here is our England/Wales itinerary from 30,000 feet:

We had two full days in London, and a total of 11 days in England and Wales. This post is about London.

I’d been to London when I was in college and was eager to return. Michael had never been there. I was excited to see it with him this time!

Our first sight when getting off the train at Paddington station, other than Paddington station, was of a modern artwork of animals sitting around a table. We each sat to visit with them for a bit. They had British accents. 🙂

We left Cartagena on June 3. It was a two-day trip (240 nm) to Gibraltar, so we anchored overnight at Almeria. We saw a few dolphins along the way, but they didn’t visit for long so I only have a few not-so-great pictures.

We expected to have an entirely uneventful trip to Gibraltar. We did, for the most part. But then this happened in Almeria.

‘Twas the night of our passage, and all through Seahike
Not a creature was stirring on this anchorage site;
The wind was blowing outside o’er the sea
And the waves were rolling, though we were alee;
And Michael on his side and I on my back,
Had just settled down for a long summer’s nap,
When out on the water there arose such a noise,
I threw off my sheet and lost all of my poise.
I gave Michael a nudge and said, “Someone is here,
And I don’t think it’s Santa or his tiny reindeer.”
We donned all our clothes, threw open the door,
And said to the darkness, “We’re coming, wait more.”
The moon in the sky gave sort of a clue,
But the flashlights they held gave us the full view.
When what to our wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature boat and three Spanish señores.
Their uniforms and papers, no need for credentials,
We knew at that moment they were Customs officials.
They came on Seahike, the sugar scoop, with care,
With hopes that our documents would all be there.
Our boat cert, our passports, our address and more,
Our length and our beam, and our draft and last shore;
To the officials we gave them, all wrapped in a bow,
While our pillows and bedsheets called us from below.
When the info was entered and we’d signed both the forms,
They went to their dinghy to find other moors.
But we heard one exclaim as he tugged on his vest,
“Go back to bed and continue your rest.”

Yes, that is exactly how it happened. It was 11:30 p.m. when they arrived.

We weren’t able to sail the entire trip, but it was enough to make us happy.

Most of the work on Seahike was done while she was on the hard. She was splashed after two weeks. Here are some pictures of Seahike and her new parts.

I’ve said before that Cartagena is beautiful. It is. It is also uber historical. Today I want to share some of their beautiful architecture with you, as well as two museums, a lovely beach, and a castle that is dangerous to bikers.

These pictures have no descriptors as they are just things that entertained me in one way or another as we strolled the streets of Cartagena.

May 13 was the day we visited the home of Licor 43. I had never heard of Licor 43 prior to going to Cartagena. It is now officially one of my favorite adult beverages.

Licor 43 is a secret family recipe (Really! Only three family members know the entire recipe) made with 43 (hence the name) natural ingredients. It is the best selling Spanish liqueur in the world.

Legend has it that 2,000 years ago in Cartagena, Spain, a version of Licor 43 known as “Liquor Mirabilis,” was first produced and enjoyed by the Romans, who conquered the city of Qart Hadasht (Cartagena) in 209 B.C. The drink we know today was inspired by this elixir. It began in 1946 when the secret recipe was bought by three members of the Zamora family. Licor 43 is still produced exclusively in Cartagena following the family recipe.

Only five ingredients are known publicly. The other 38 remain hidden in the brains of the three family members (I hope they never travel together!). Those known to the rest of us are:

— Coriander
— Vanilla
— Green Tea
— Lemons
— Oranges

We tasted the original 43, chocolate, crème brulée, and horchata. And we tasted two mixed drinks. We bought three bottles. It was such a fun experience!! I should note that we took a bus there, but it didn’t really go there. She dropped us off about a quarter of a mile away and only after some prompting. Weird. The return bus never showed up so we took a taxi home. 🙂 🙂

This post is mostly about Murcia. But first, just a few more pictures of Cartagena and one of our new puzzles.

The sculpture below is called The Marine. This was Spain’s first monument to the Spanish Marine. It is made with pieces of bronze provided by the Navy. The aim is to pay tribute to the Marine Corps, one of the older units that exists in Cartagena. As you can see, it resides across the street from the Arsenal.

The picture on the right is street art. The picture on the left is . . . a tomato! I’d noticed that it had started to rot. I had other tomatoes I could use, so I just kept this one to, you know, watch it rot. I thought it was rather artistic. When I posted it on my Facebook page, one of my friends told me she was worried about me and suggested that I had spent too much time on the boat. Another friend agreed that she had a point. 🙂 🙂 🙂

I threw out the tomato after this picture was taken. Michael was afraid of it. What a wimp. 😉 😉

As you learned in our last post, we’d just finished a puzzle. But we didn’t have any more on Seahike!

Tragedy! What to do? Google “toy stores near me,” of course! And who’d thunk, there is a Toys (backwards R) Us within walking distance (4.8 km). Google Maps took me on a rather strange route. I quickly ended up on a dusty dirt road. . . with a chain link fence blocking the path.

But wait! Some determined soul had cut a hole in the fence just big enough to get through if you crouched down and weren’t super-sized. My first thought was that I should turn around and go another way. But then I told myself, “Cindy, someone took the time to vandalize this fence and it would not be fair to them if you didn’t take advantage of their handiwork.” So I did.

Here are a few pictures of the route.

After the dirt road, then the dirt path ended, I walked along a street with no sidewalk for a time until I reached a small shopping mall. Behold: Toys (backwards R) Us and Spanish puzzle heaven! I bought two.

We visited the Spanish Civil War Museum a couple of days later. The museum is situated in a tunnel built on the slope of Concepción hill. This tunnel was one of the many air-raid shelters constructed in the city during the civil war, as a response to the bombings from the rebel side. Built in 2001, the museum gives an insight into the daily lives of the people who lived through this period, and how they survived.

I mentioned in a previous post that Cartagena was beautiful and has a lot of history. Let’s explore a bit of that today, beginning with the beauty! I find beauty in flowers, trees, water, buildings, artwork, mountains, theater, science, clouds, athletics, the printed word, people, etc. I bet you do, too!

Now let’s look at some street art!