Ports of Cartagena and Valencia Spain

[TahoeLady]

I am looking into a cruise on the Eurodam in the spring and I would be stopping at both Cartagena and Valencia two times. Is there enough to see and do to warrant two visits to these cities. And what do you recommend as not to miss highlights. Thanks.

[maxout]

I am looking into a cruise on the Eurodam in the spring and I would be stopping at both Cartagena and Valencia two times. Is there enough to see and do to warrant two visits to these cities. And what do you recommend as not to miss highlights. Thanks.

 

You might find more information in the ports of call forum here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=596

[orgutierrez]

I am from Barcelona which is not far from any of these two cities. I have not been to Cartagena but I've been many times in Valencia. It is a beautiful city. Make sure not to miss Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias which is a modern building with a museum inside. The city centre and the Cathedral are also beautiful to wander around.

It is a nice city, nothing super spectacular but interesting!

[SilvertoGold]

Loved Cartagena! Small, easy to walk around, ship docks right at the town.

 

The Roman Theatre is beautiful and very accessible. They were working on an archaeological dig a few blocks away and it should be progressing well and open to the public by now. There is a lovely fort to climb up to and walk around: great view of the town.

I could walk around this place for hours on end: lovely streets, interesting shops, markets cafes. Slow and easy!

 

Valencia is much, much larger, has an overpriced shuttle that stops in a very inconvenient location. There is lots to see in this spread-out city. You really need to google this place. Two days easily.

[kazu]

I wouldn't have any problem with two days in both of these ports :D

 

sounds wonderful to me

[fire eater]

From my diary 2014 - D-day and Baltic:

 

From the main portside area of Cartagena:

Walk up to the main road and turn right.

Love this bit from the net: "After about 50 metres, there is a crossing. It is illegal in Spain to cross the road near to a crossing and not use it, or cross when the lights are red, so it´s highly advisable to actually use the crossing and wait for the light to go green to cross over."

Continue bearing to the right and you will see a tunnel going through the vast wall which looks out over the port. Walk through the tunnel, and carry on for about 100 metres, and you will come to the foot of the panoramic lift and Civil War Refuge Museum.

 

The port is right next to the city, with lovely palm-lined pedestrian thoroughfares. Today is a public holiday so it was very quiet when we arrived and strolled along the above route. And yes we did use the crossing correctly! And the tunnel has some wonderful graffiti. There were lots of police around the place, mainly just sitting in their parked cars, but keeping an eye on things.

 

We decided to go up to Concepcion Castle first so walked to the panoramic lift and bought entry to four places, which cost only €9 each.

 

We walked up one flight of the stairs around the lift and into the Civil War Refuge. Tunnels everywhere, going quite a way into the hill. We could only go into certain areas of course, but it was fascinating. Lots of photos of people in the 'bomb shelter' and some wonderful old film of life before 1936 and then the planes coming and just pounding the city over and over again and people standing around just so shocked and distressed.

The places bombed were the hospitals and homes and no military areas were targeted. What a rotten thing to do.

We returned to the lift, which is see-through and that was ok. But walking across from the lift to the hill over metal mesh was a bit iffy.

We walked up many steps to the Castle and had a good look around for quite some time. Interesting. Lots of peacocks (and peacock poo) everywhere. Walked down to the lift and back to earth, then retraced our steps to enter the Roman site. It has lots of history on the walls and lots of finds behind glass, with explanations and dates. So you follow the corridors and read everything and look at the photos and film and eventually come to the last one and step out and voila! you are standing at the top of a 7000-seat Roman Theatre. What an amazing sight! After we explored the top, we realised we had to go down the steps to exit so 36 very big steps later, we were at the base of the stage. We were very lucky to visit the Theatre and enjoyed it so much.

We strolled past shops and cafés and the locals must have decided it was time to party as there were people everywhere and loud Spanish music being broadcast in the plaza. There was a really happy atmosphere.

Returning to the ship a different way, we came to a street which had a crossing, but no lights. There was a policeman there on point duty, madly waving his arms and blowing his whistle over and over. Another cruise ship had come in while we were in the town, and he was obviously making sure that no tourists were going to be run over while he was on duty. I couldn't work out why he was blowing his whistle a different numbers of times. Once it was four short tweets, then six, then four, then another four. There did not seem to be a reason behind it. Maybe it made him feel in charge. :->. This is a lovely, interesting port. Thanks, Cartagena!