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!

We left Valencia while it was still dark since we had 60 nm to go and wanted to arrive in daylight. We were sent off by a chorus of “Adios!” by a group of drunk guys in a nearby boat. 🙂 🙂

Here are some pictures of leaving Valencia (we don’t know what was on fire) and the coast of Spain on our way to Cap d’Or anchorage.

When we got close the anchorage we put on our trusty headphones. We use these when we anchor or dock so we can hear each other. It is hard to hear the other person when it is windy (or even when it’s not), especially when you are facing a different direction. Before we got these, we yelled really loud . . . and still couldn’t hear each other. We just sounded angry. 🙂 🙂 🙂 The headphones enable us to speak at a normal volume. The sound is crystal clear even when it is uber windy. I feel like a Borg, though. (This is where we separate the Star Trek fans from the rest of the readers.)

We hadn’t been able to connect with the boatyard prior to going to Valencia. When we arrived, Michael met with a nice man from the yard and discussed what we needed. The gentleman told us he would get back to us with the price.

The price was really high.

So, Michael contacted the yard in Cartagena, the place that had come highly recommended by several sailors. The price was much less there. We decided to stay in Valencia and wait for a weather window. That meant we had a few days to sightsee! Yay!

I did a fair amount of research on “day trips from Valencia.” We knew we wouldn’t have a car, which limited us to some extent. In the end, we decided to take a day trip to Xàtiva. That meant walking 30 minutes to the bus station, then taking two buses before taking the train to Xàtiva. That all took about two hours. (We did the reverse on the way back, but with a slower train with many stops.)

The main thing to do in Xàtiva is visit the castles on the hill. There’s actually no interior to speak of, save for a small area identified as a prison. It primarily consists of walking around the exterior and enjoying the views.

Description: “Xàtiva Castle or Castillo de Xàtiva is an imposing twin fortification which embodies the history of not only its town, but the region as a whole. The castle itself is split into its older part, Castell Menor, and its latter counterpart, Castell Major, with evidence of numerous cultures divided between the two including Iberian, Roman and medieval.”

We needed to leave Palma on April 2nd at noon because our berth was needed by another boat. One of the things I’d hoped to do that morning was mail a package. Despite my efforts, I had not been able to mail a package to our friends in Corfu.

Let me give you the background. I’d purchased some flower art – made on handmade paper – in Amalfi, Italy the previous September. I bought two pieces: one to keep and one to give our two friends as a thank you for hosting us at their lovely villa in Corfu. I wanted to frame both, so we took them to the U.S. when we visited in October-November. I boxed up the one for our friends and took it to the Post Office. The cost of mailing it to Greece was beyond anything I would have imagined. The woman working the window suggested I mail it from an EU country, as that would be cheaper. She also told me that I needed to put the box inside another box to protect it.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

But Seahike (and we) were in Tunisia, which isn’t an EU country. We’d visited EU countries in January and February, but we wouldn’t have had time to find a bigger box and a Post Office, plus we didn’t have a big enough carryon bag in which to put the box. So we waited until we sailed to Sardinia in February. I went to a Post Office there and asked if I could purchase a larger box and mail it. They didn’t have boxes and had no idea where I could buy one. They suggested the market. The market didn’t sell boxes.

So back to Seahike went the artwork!

Michael stayed on the boat on Saturday. I visited two main sights: Castell de Bellver and Catedral-Basílica de Santa María de Mallorca.

Bellver Castle is undoubtedly one of the most original, emblematic buildings in Mallorca’s history. It was built between 1300 and 1311 on the instructions of the King James II of Mallorca. However, the criterion behind the construction of Bellver Castle was defensive strategies planned by the Royal House of Mallorca. It was also conceived as a fortified palace where governors could safely take refuge in times of jeopardy and the monarchs used for longer or shorter stays.

It has a very specific original design, made up of a Gothic building that forms a perfect shape, with four big towers facing the four points of the compass. The keep faces north and it is separate from the rest of the castle, while the other towers are buttressed to the main body.

Some of the most remarkable architectural features on the outer façade of Bellver Castle are its arched mullion windows. Found on the upper story, they comprise two narrow semi-circular arches separated by a column.  This kind of window, which can also be found inside the building, is fairly typical of Palma’s medieval architecture.

Work on the first moat that surrounds the castle was carried out in 1330. The moat prevented enemies from invading the castle, while also increasing its relative height. After this alteration to the castle, it saw few modifications. Only an outer ravelin surrounding the first moat and the third curtain wall were added, both related to the introduction and development of artillery on the island.

Okay, do you know what a ravelin is? I did not. This is the definition: “A ravelin is a V-shaped fortification built outside a castle’s main ditch to cover the area between two bastions. It has two embankments at a salient angle, and is located in front of the innerworks of a fortress, such as the bastions and curtain walls. The word ravelin comes from the Italian word rivellino, which is a diminutive of the word riva, meaning “rim” or “bank”. The word originated in Middle French between 1580 and 1590.”

Google Maps took me through town first, then on a nice little nature trail, then to the stairs. There are more stairs than pictured below.

Michael and I walked around Palma on the 26th. It is such an eclectic and historic city with interesting architecture and an energetic vibe. We wanted to experience more of it.

The two buildings pictured below, Can Forteza Rey and El Águila, located in Plaza del Marqués del Palmer in Palma, were probably our favorites. They are so closely linked that they seem to be one building. They represent different examples of modernist architecture.

Can Forteza Rey was designed by modernist jeweler Lluís Forteza-Rey. It is an example of Modernist-Art Nouveau architecture. The building’s facade is decorated in the same style as its interior, and shows a strong influence from Catalan Modernism, especially the works of Gaudí. The building dates from 1909 and it was assigned to family housing. The façade is decorated with trencadís (a Gaudi inspired kind of broken mosaic tile) and has twisted iron railings, as well as a stone grotesque under the bay windows. Another interesting feature are the traditional Majorcan shutters with their less than traditional shape. It is now occupied by a dental office and other businesses.

The building of El Águila was built in 1908 by architect Gaspar Bonasera in the art Deco style – an eclectic style which is a synthesis of modernism and Neoclassicism. On the facade are balconies with wavy iron railings, polychrome ceramics, and an abundance of vegetable items. The El Águila building offers a beautiful solution to the structural need to create large bays and meet the commercial demand that it was created for. The geometric iron structure with oversized rivets on the first floor, evolves into vegetal shapes on the upper railings and presents a sharp contrast to the multi-colored ceramic and decorative rounded arch that finish off the building.

When I sent this picture to Heather, she replied, “Makes me want to go to the dentist.” She’s a funny one, she is! 🙂 🙂