Todd and I arose early this morning. We had to walk a few blocks to even find a place open for coffee.
We headed back to the hotel and packed up. Took an Uber to Enterprise to get our rental car, and then drove back to the hotel, white knuckled, to get the kids. I can drive a stick, and in the city no less, but there are some different street signs and rules. I was not excited about this part of the trip but here’s to new experiences!
We drove through the mountains and took the two hour drive via the inland route down to Alicante - the city in Europe with the most sun. I was looking forward to soaking in some vitamin D after our chilly winter back home. It sure is beautiful!
That’s a gigantic banyan tree and there were a lot more around the downtown area. Who knew they had those here? We’ve seen them in Hawaii mostly. Todd checked out a local real estate listing for a two bedroom apartment. $140,000. Not a bad price! It’s a pretty beach town with a casino so apparently gambling is okay, and a huge nativity set just down the road from this Alice in Wonderland themed street!
And after we snapped pictures, we picked out the perfect lunch spot of neopolitan pizza. Everyone agreed that it was the best pizza we’ve had on this trip. Our waitress even commented on the amazing Niner game last night (which we missed). Todd was wearing his Niner cap so she must have figured out quickly that we were Americans. Todd has noticed very few baseball caps here in America they are everywhere, like the hydro flask, but here? Nada.
Todd and I agreed that the salad was the best. The balsamic dressing was amazing and I could have eaten that salad by myself, but alas, we were sharing as we do at most restaurants. did you notice the empty sangria pitcher in the background? Happy people drink sangria at lunch - just saying!!! After lunch, we had more room for food! Yeah us! So we stopped for espressos, gelato, and a baby macaroon.
I did duck into a Starbucks just to see their prices. In Spain, you get a coffee and croissant for 2 Euros. I wondered if Starbucks would compare because in America…can you even imagine??? Yeah, no dice. They had their staples like a gingerbread latte for $5. Nope. No thanks! We’ll wait until we get back home.
After a quick stop at the market for water and cash, we got in the manual transmission rental car and headed south to Cartagena. This rental care was a hot topic today as I maneuvered the vehicle through a foreign country all while trying to not get a scratch on it. Let’s just say parking spots are small, parking is weird, roundabouts are confusing, and underground garages are a terrible tiny idea.
We arrived in Cartagena just before sunset and decided to take a walk to check out the town. It was dead. At 4pm the country is asleep, much like it was at 7am this morning when we just wanted a cup of coffee.
Thankfully we walked to an area that needed no ticket, the ruins of a Roman Amphitheater. This was the reason for stopping in this town so we are glad it was a cool place to visit. It was so cool!!!
We enjoyed the views and continued down to the waterfront where it’s quite evident this is a shipping and naval community. The port is conveniently in the shape of a C which makes it partially protected from invasion.
After checking out the scenery, and watching the town come to life, now that it was past 6pm and people had awakened from their siestas, we stopped and got waffles with chocolate and bananas, you know, because we aren’t really that hungry and don’t want dinner.
We also ducked into this church and found all the normal adorations of Jesus that you’ll find this time of year. You know, and aquarium with a nativity scene. Why didn’t we take a photo??? Ugh. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest. That rest didn’t last long as we realized that we did still need dinner and UberEats had very few options. We ventured out but after striking out at a few local places near our hotel, we walked back to the downtown quarters and found a place with paella - as that was on a few people’s minds.
The paella was the best purchased on this trip and the artichokes were a pleasant surprise when we thought we ordered the garlic shrimp. That’s sometimes what happens when you don’t brush up on your Spanish before a trip like this, or you don’t point well enough at the menu.
Katie and I lamented that the food is not our favorite part of the trip. Italy’s food is much better - hence why our lunch today was so delicious. By the time we finished dinner, it was 9pm. We are improving on being able to stay out late, but it’s also hit and miss. Tomorrow we might be in bed at 7pm. Who can say. But tonight, the lights were out, and our bellies were full, and we blissfully walked back to the hotel with 16,683 steps on the watch.
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