Motorhome Adventures SPAIN | Murcia Coast | CARTEGENA

Hey hey hey how you doing? Well we had a great night's sleep here last night didn't we? Yeah it was great. We're just outside of Cartagena which is where we're heading today but we've seen somewhere to park that we're heading for. Where is it we're going? It's like a bus stop or a bus station right in the centre of Cartagena which means getting to all the places we want to see will be really easy. So we've just driven into the province of Cartagena and you've just given me the stats for people that live here. Yeah. It's really interesting. So in Cartagena itself the city yeah is about 222,000 at the last census. Yeah. But Cartagena municipality which is the surrounding areas there's just under 800,000 people. It's a beautiful road as well. I mean look at this stunning. It doesn't look real does it? It's lovely isn't it? Yeah. It's a little bit windy. Oh god we're not going right over that mountain. Oh no we're going up there. Oh crikey Gary. We're not keen, well I'm not keen on these sort of switchback roads. See how high up we are. I mean it's absolutely magnificent around here. Gary don't look at off the road god. Oh god you need to keep in low gear here love. Oh god this is horrible. Maybe we should have gone the other way and got on the main. This looks like, so this is the RM E22. Looks like we're cutting over this mountain. There you are, there's your warning. Where? What park up here? Gosh no thanks. Mind you what a view. Oh you could stay there overnight probably no problem. That is actually quite a good park up love for the night. Yeah. That park up now that was that might be quite good. Yeah. Quite good isn't it? We're just coming into the outskirts of the city but look at the cloud it looks very ominous. It did say it wasn't gonna rain today didn't it but we don't know maybe it will. Said it was going to be 26 degrees and slightly cloudy but sunny most of the day. Hey look at that little turtle or something. Is that a turtle? Loads of graffiti. There's always loads of graffiti isn't there. What a shame. I don't mind like really good graffiti. Wow that looks quite interesting that looks nice. That's different isn't it? Oh yeah look a little tourist train. That looks fun doesn't it? It does. I think I read about that you're not allowed to get out is what I read you just have to sort of sit in it and and watch but it does look quite good. Look how beautiful some of those buildings are. Wow this is absolutely magnificent. Gosh look at the size of these vessels right just by the city as well. Oh look at that. Of course it's a major cruise line of stock. Is it? Yeah it is. Oh look at all these guys they're like Mall Cop. We just suddenly thought if the cruise ship's in everything's gonna be chock-a-block isn't it? You see you probably want to try and time it when the cruise ships are not in. Remember in Gibraltar it used to be a nightmare didn't it? So we're looking to park just the other side of this roundabout aren't we? Yeah we are. So you're looking for the fountain roundabout I suppose and it's like bus parking we're really hoping we can get in. Okay this looks like a great park up for the day. Yeah so there's specific bus parking I think maybe take this one here yeah because you don't want to take the really long one in case a big vehicle comes. This is brilliant parking. Got some workmen here today now that might stop the old touters that come and charge you you know. So the minute we parked up no word of a lie some woman comes trying to bang on the window didn't she? Yeah. A scrawly looking thing with a cigarette on and sort of you could tell she was a tout so I shouted out the window like no I'm gonna call the police kind of thing. Gary got me right fish wipe on didn't I? She scuttled away proper good. So now I'm slightly concerned I should have filmed her really. I'm slightly concerned that she might like come back in like breaking because she hates me. The thing is they don't even look official they're trying to be official or pretend to be official but they don't look anything like official. No they they will come straight over she came straight over so they must be hanging around in the cafe over I reckon. So this is where we're parked and there is like a restaurant just over there they obviously keep an eye out whoever comes along but lucky for us these guys are working here today so I reckon that it's a bit safer than it normally would be don't you? Yeah. Wow check this out this is just the other end of the car park look at the murals they're fabulous. So we just crossed the road from the car park and we wanted to come and see this plane sculpture. Oh god I nearly lost my foot in here so be careful when you're walking here because there is a dip in between each slab. Oh my foot just went in typical me didn't it? Now this is a map this is magnificent so this is obviously the walls of the city. Oh there's a little tunnel walkway to go through oh it's magnificent this reminds me of Gibraltar. Do you reckon these doors get locked at night Gary because they've got like a padlock on? It looks quite well used doesn't it? It does. So it comes as you come out through here first thing you see is a fantastic mural. Wow look at this isn't that a brilliant monument? So it was put in here in September 2011. What type of plane is it Gary? It looks like it's an Avion C101. I don't really know much about it. There's the old city gates how beautiful is that? So we're going to go on the Ascensa which is a lift which will take you all the way I think it's to a park at the top isn't it Gary? Yeah it's a lookout. But it's really interesting here there's all these like um sort of doors and little tunnel networks and you say there's a tunnel that runs all the way. So this is like the old the old bastion walls that are in Gibraltar this is very similar so you've got entries here and then there's a tunnel that goes left to right all the way along it. So interesting isn't it? So in order to get into the lift it's open from 10 o'clock till 8 o'clock at night and it's going to cost us six euros to be able to get up to up the lift and then you can also get into the castle with six euros a piece or I think it's four euros each just for the lift. So we're going up in the lift and actually you can see all the way around this is amazing isn't it? I'm filming the other way there's a lovely couple in there as well. So we've just come up the lift and then that's where the bullring is but obviously the façade. When you come out of the lift you've got sort of a signposts of where to go so there are some toilets up here which is great and then the accessible pedestrian walkway goes all the way around so it seems to sort of go around in a circle. There's a little map at the top and you can see you can walk all the way around. Typical me I just need to loo first. You get a real good view of the port up here but look there's terrible graffiti up here what a shame you know. Anyway there's the cruise ship that's in and it is really packed today obviously because people are visiting but wow this takes you up here what a great spot to see everything. A little bit of graffiti there Gary don't forget to smile okay will do. Wow and this is a nice reward when you get up through the ascensor you can see the old amphitheater here the old Roman theatre. Gosh that's incredible. It's a real mixture of old and new here isn't there Gary? Workers over there with modern equipment. General Maximus! For those of you who like gladiator. Oh so we've just come across a load of ducks. These are unusual looking ones aren't they? They're not remotely bothered that you come quite close. So although it says it's got accessible paths it is very steep isn't it? So I don't know a peahen? It's the peahen up there. So that's the female peacock they're a bit more plain aren't they than the males? Yeah well they don't have to attract their mate you see so they don't have to be all colourful. All right. Typical chick doesn't have to do much work. He's literally just put a comb through his hair and that's it he's off. The minute you get into the castle there is the Leonardo da Vinci bike the design of the bike. Now I don't think this is the original do you? I think it would be a bit more eaten by worms. Well not just that I would have thought it would be a bit more locked up but maybe it is. But anyway that's either a replica or something. I'll tell you what that would not be comfortable to be sitting on. So there is a little lift as you come into the castle. We're taking that because I forgot to put my knee braces on and I have got dodgy knees still. Wow look at this as you get out the lift. So I'm not sure whether it's like um it's obviously a Leonardo da Vinci kind of week or display or something like that but this is what's at the top up here. Go on Gary stand like the guy. He said he doesn't want to get close to it because he's got no clothes on. Don't call this segment the two cocks. So this structure here is like it's a bridge but the thing about it is each piece is supporting each piece so you don't have to connect them you don't have to drill them or screw them it all provides the strength just by the shape. Did you just say to me that that is the most the strongest bridge you can build? Well it's in its time it was the strongest unsupported bridge structure. Oh look at these. This is where all the guys are hanging out they're looking over the city Gary. There's five of them isn't there or four of them? Four of them. Wow they're stunning aren't they? Wow this is really quite iconic and uh I think it's a bit of time for some Gary's goodies. Go on Gary give us the gin. But the gin of of Cartagena right so Cartagena was first settled in what we call modern times in 227 BC by the Carthaginian general Asrubal. So the Romans took it from the Carthaginians and now the Romans thought that Cartagena was so important to them that Julius Caesar no less gave it what they called at the time Latin rites. Now that means that the people who lived in Cartagena actually had rites as individuals which was quite rare in the Roman world. Now the Byzantines took it off the Romans and then shortly after the city was sacked by both the Visigoths and the Vandals. I love that the Vandals sacking a city just like modern day really. Now the reason Cartagena is so important are for two main reasons. The first one being the fact that the harbour is a very deep natural harbour and the second reason is all the hills around were absolutely chock-a-block with silver and that was mined so that was another very important reason that Cartagena became populated in those early years. So as I mentioned the natural harbour here makes it perfect for the navy and ever since the 18th century this has been a really good port, an important port for all the navies that have occupied the area and it's currently the head of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet. So my final snippet of interesting information is do you guys remember Hannibal who crossed the Alps with 27 elephants in order to try and sack Europe? Well he left from Cartagena. I don't know where he got the elephants from but this was the very location that he left to do that journey. Oh my goodness we're so close to this peacock. Oh how beautiful is that Gary? Oh that's made my day. Oh aren't you a gorgeous boy? He's lost his tail. Oh what's happened to his tail? I don't know but they normally have a really really long tail don't they? Do you think he's had it clipped? It might just be that he's an adolescent and not a full-grown male. Oh he's beautiful. Aren't you a good looking boy eh? What about the peacock? So you can go inside and it's really quite low isn't it? Little cabins as you go in as well. You can smell the sandstone. Wow this is stunning Gary look at that. It's great isn't it? Yeah it's really peaceful. It's like the Mona Lisa. Well it won't be the real one. Oh there's a replica there. Are these all inventions by Leonardo da Vinci? Yes they are. What's this one here? This one here is like, well they're calling it a combat car but basically what used to happen here is as the wheels went round this centrepiece would spin around and these, the centrifugal force, would put all these like cannonballs on the end of things and you could just go through, go through the front line of the enemy just knocking them out of the way. This is like one of the first sort of diving suits. Look at that. Did he design that as well? I mean the guy's got the brain of a planet. He has. What kind of material is it? I wonder, I don't know, we can't touch it. It's like hessian. It's like hessian material but obviously I don't think that's the original material but the original one would have been waterproof. Oh and the obligatory gift shop as you leave. Right we're getting a bit hungry. Gary's got to sort his sock out. It's gone a bit weird your sock hasn't it? And we're going to go and see if we can get a menu of the day. That's usually a great price and there's a place I've seen online that opens at one o'clock so it's just gone one. Hopefully we can get a table. Look at this, this is just a facade but look they've done a mural as if it's like a row of shops and the lady there, it's me Gary. Look all the murals down here but you've got Amy Winehouse, oh my god Mercury, Elvis. So we've just come into restaurants at Ona. They asked, there we go, that's what it says. They've asked if we've got a reservation which we haven't, they've only just opened. We think they do a menu of the day which we're looking forward to but it is lovely in here. Oh I tell you what we're absolutely knackered aren't we? If you're coming to Cartagena be prepared to get your walking shoes on. It's really really like a lot of hills, a lot of walking. It's fabulous but there is a lot of walking. I'm ready to eat now. We'll show you what we get in the menu. Okay so here's the lunch menu of the day and there's all these choices. You've got a starter, a main and a dessert and it's all for £13.99. That is brilliant but the choices, I mean it's written in English as well, but the choices are amazing. Lamb's lettuce salad with goat's cheese, oh my goodness, croquetas. There's all your starters so that's pretty good. Desserts are things like banoffee pie, lemon ice cream. Wow Gary, this is brilliant. Chicken tenderloin with camembert sauce. Wowza. It's not bad at all because the toilets are lovely and clean. €3.40 for a glass of wine although there is a Rioja for £2.99. I think I'll get that, that's quite strong. Gary's on the alcohol free. Now the sin alcohol beer here is always really good isn't it honey? It's lovely, I try to prefer it to most of the proper beers. You do, you love it don't you? And it's only a couple of euros. This is a really nice restaurant. Okay so here's our starter. We've got some croquetas, we've got four different types, they look amazing and we've also got a goat's cheese salad. This looks pretty good doesn't it Babs? It certainly does. What do you think darling? I think it's delicious. It's really good isn't it? I mean for the price, £13.99 for two courses, three courses. Okay here's our mains. So I have chicken in a camembert sauce, looks okay, not bad. But look at this, this bad boy, proper nice bit of ribs. You had to pay an extra, was it two euros? Wow, so £15.99 for Gary's menu but that looks pretty good Babs. I completely forgot to do the dessert. Well anyway it was fruit salad, so there's nothing to write home about but it was all right. But my teeth are really cold now, aren't yours? But that's what we had as our dessert, we had a fruit salad. The train's going past the restaurant, look it goes all through the town. It seems like quite good that train doesn't it? It does. Wow look at that, absolutely stunning. It's really packed along here but that was a great place to go and have something to eat. There's just loads of shops up the streets and that, it's really pretty isn't it? It's very pretty. So we're having a look at some of the stickers and you think you want this one don't you? I think that one says Cartagena more than any of the others. Yeah there's a couple isn't there, there's that submarine one, we haven't seen that yet have we? Not yet. They're all £2.50 by the look of it, that's all right Babs. In my life this has just made me laugh, look Holy Week in Cartagena not KKK. Because when they have the processions they're all dressed like this, it does look a little KKK doesn't it? Gary's looking at the bike, he really misses his motorbike don't you? It's a police bike, you don't want to get caught having a right old look at that though do you? Over in that direction there is the Naval Museum, obviously Cartagena has that naval history I talked about earlier on. Unfortunately though we missed the opening hours today so we're not going to get to see it but there's loads of stuff in there including the world's first submarine. Some super comfy chairs, are they comfortable? Oh yes they are. They're like those anaconda ones aren't they? Adirondack. So we're sitting here very comfortably and just over the road is a sculpture that I really want to go and see, look at that. We can't believe that this is the beginning of October and it's got to be, what do you reckon it is? This is 27, 28 degrees easy. I mean it's so sunny, so warm, lovely, absolutely beautiful here isn't it? It is, it is. It feels really peaceful and really very safe, a very safe city. So we're going to have a little mooch around aren't we? Yeah. And then I think we're going to head back towards Mazaron to park up tonight aren't we? I think so yeah because it's quite busy around here and there's not really that many places to park. Check this out, we've got a fabulous whale sculpture as well. This is right where everybody docks. It's brilliant here isn't it love? I can't get over how nice it is. So just down by the port they do boat trips and this is where you can pick up the boat but they've got a timetable Monday to Saturday, 2.30 to 3.45 and it's 15 euros each there. That's not bad is it Gary? 15 euros a person and for children up to two years it's four euros. This is incredible, look at the detail here. So the sculpture is actually for victims of terrorism and it was erected in 2009. It's absolutely enormous but I have noticed that they have not left anything to the imagination. Crikey, there's loads of super yachts here. Imagine being able to own one of them Gary. Forget the yachts, imagine being able to own Cartagena which one family did at the end of the 15th century. They owned all of Cartagena and actually yeah didn't own it for long but what happened was the Spanish king decided that he didn't like the family owning all of his city so he took it back by force. So there's a boat for sale in the harbour and it's a proper pirate boat. It's got a skull and everything all over it. It doesn't say how much it is but wow that's pretty nice boat isn't it Gary? It's great isn't it? Proper wooden old-fashioned boat that. It's called Benaventura. Look at those skulls right in the window there look. Oh my gosh that is a proper horror boat that. As I'm having a closer look, nope. I'd be terrified out at sea in that. No that's a definite no from me. Right it's nearly half past four and we're back at the van. Luckily there was nothing, no damage or nothing when we got back in. I was like check the tyres in case that woman slashed them. But there's nothing, you could stay here we said but we kind of feel that it's going to be a bit noisy. There was quite a lot of people like hanging around when we got back into the car park. Not hanging around the vehicle, we're just hanging around in general weren't they? Looking a little bit dodgy. So we don't think we'd stay here overnight but I think you could. But we're thinking about, you've spotted a place? The other side of the Navy Dockyard, literally a little car park next to the beach, next to a little marina on a beach. So we're going to have a look there are we? Yeah and then if that's no good we think we'll head back to pretty much where we were last night because it was such a good park up. So we've just come out of Cartagena sort of city area past the Naval Dockyard and we've seen this spot that's on search for sites. It's literally five minutes away from where the main area is, not walking distance really but there's supposed to be a free park up around here so we're just going to check it out. I've got to say I think it's a bit tight Gary and I'm rather hoping nothing's coming the other way. So we're effectively the opposite side of where we were before aren't we? We've come around so we're just coming up to it now. This is on search for sites so you do have to kind of maybe don't be prepared not to want to stay here. There it is, see what those cars are there. I don't know if that's very great Gary if I'm honest. Let's just have a quick look because you're going to have to turn around either way aren't you? That looks a bit tight and it's very slopey. So search for sites and everything's brilliant but don't always rely on it. I mean the place we were in last night was absolutely magnificent wasn't it? Yeah so you can go down there and follow it around. Okay. That's called Christmas Tower. Oh is it? And then down the end there's like a Christmas, it's called Christmas. What about that waste ground there just on that sea? It looks quite interesting that and I bet those old, I bet they were old. Submarine? Submarine pens. Do you want to go down that way because you've got to turn, will you be able to turn around? There's a lot of rubbish around here, that's the only thing I would say crikey. There's tons of rubbish here. Let me see where that car is over there. I don't know if I like it here. So as you get around here it does look proper ropey. You could stay here, there's no doubt you could park over here. I just don't think we want to do you? The big problem is, is all this rubbish and stuff here. It's quite disgusting. Why don't people just pick up after themselves. So whilst this is not a bad park up, it's quite early on in the day now, so we've decided to go back to where we stayed last night because that was lovely. And there's a nice Chewing Gita there so I can get a beer. We make our way back down to the same place we stayed last night. Right so we've just been for a walk along the beach and then we come back to the van and there's a car parked behind us isn't there? Right behind us. Music playing. We're going to move around. We've seen a little town and there might be a Chewing Gita there and we might go around there and see if we can park up. Yeah about 10 minutes away around the bay, the other end of the bay. Yeah so I mean these guys aren't doing loads of harm but you can see they're settling in for the night. Yeah table out. Loads of music. Okay we think we found something amazing but we'll show you on the next episode. So if you're not subscribed you better subscribe, give it a little ding-a-ling so you get a notification and we'll show you where we ended up. Wow that is a beautiful sunset view isn't it? I think I'm pretty happy with this.