Cartegena, Spain – Picture of the Day

Thursday, May 14, 2026

The third of our coastal Spain stops was as lovely as the last two. Each town definitely has its own vibe (how cool am I?). I like the water everywhere of Cadiz, the pizzazz of Malaga, and the welcoming feeling of Cartegena. We went into a lot of stores on the main street – art and clothes and trinkets. The architecture was old made to be updated and new made to look old. It was wonderful.

There were a couple windows with water running down between panes of glass. The store was empty, but the water was still running. I liked it a lot.

This was not on the main drag, but I thought I could live there.

Tile streets again. You can get used to that really fast, but I do wonder if they are slippery when wet.

The first shop we stopped in had this t-shirt out front. We laughed! Yesterday we saw little pointy hooded figures in several stores. They came in a lot of colors. Keith wandered if it was fashionable KKK. Apparently, he isn’t the only one.

Eventually, Keith was looking for a restroom. he saw one in a gelato store, but then it was not available. they had amazing things in their case.

He found a public WC on his phone. Of course, it was where we had just come from. We backtracked and found a little silver building. Yay! It cost .50. We had .40 in coins.

We went back a couple blocks to Spar grocery store. We found our favorite flavor of chips – paprika (sometimes called chile – depends on the country). We checked out and didn’t get the right cents. Keith had to interact to make a $2 coin into better cents.

We didn’t get these. I sometimes make bad decisions. My favorite candy is red candy.

Cute.

Spain grocery stores smell really good.

We went back to the silver building and the green lights were now red and a man was impatiently waiting. I sat on the bench and waited. Keith came over after a while and said the other man had given up because it was taking so long. (It had been pretty long) I suggested knocking. He said the person would answer in Spanish. I said at least you would know the person was there. Time passed again. Keith returned and said it was a total waste of time. The 15 minute timer had elapsed and turned it back to green/available. He put in his 50 cents and the door remained locked. Bummer. He looked over and saw a man go in. WHAT? Cheater. Keith went up to wait and to ask how to get it to work. After a very brief time he was back. Man came out, held the door for him, he went in, and was out already.

That was a big adventure that involved finding chips. Such a time.

This fancy round-a-bout middle was right by the WC.

We mapped taking a walk to a “panoramic lift” to a castle. It sounded good. It was an interesting walk – a bit different from the main shopping area, but not far. School got out while we were walking and it was interesting that all of the kids being walked home where with dads. There were two moms way at the end of the crowd.

Alexander sent us a kitty picture while we were walking.

The panoramic lift was an elevator with glass on the side. It was €2 and a fabulous way not to walk up a hill.

The first thing we saw up top was a peacock sitting in the bushes. And a kitty.

The castle was pretty old. And broken.

We assumed this guy lived there. Keith named him King Verde. He looks concerned. I wonder why, but we did not learn. Learning wasn’t our thing today.

Keith said look at the flag poles with no flags. I said look at the things on sticks.

There were a series of ….. gates? We thought they were the beginning of 1000 gates in Spain to match the ones in Japan. They weren’t red.

I was really taken with the Roman forum. What a great view. The POTD shows a new amphitheater next to the very old one.

I was sitting on a bench by the forum. I was relaxing my face so if anyone walked by and looked at me, I wouldn’t look squishy. I felt pretty squinty from the bright sun. I called it model face. I felt like models feel when they are being beautiful. I think.