Saturday 21 March
After heavy rain the previous night we woke up to blue skies! So a wander round the town in the morning and then a walk to the salt marshes in a conservation area just five minutes away from the accommodation. The sea was over the other side of the marshes. Lovely day but a bit breezy...
There were flamingoes paddling and feeding in the shallow marshes - and yes, that was a lone trainer just washed up on the shore...
Sunday 22 March
The town of San Pedro is sort of sideways U shaped with the two points at the top nearly touching and encircling the Mar Menor - the Little Sea. We drove from where we are staying at one end of the U to a bit further along the coast. More salt marshes, flamingoes - and mud! Lots of mud! But therapeutic mud for paddling and bathing in...
At intervals along one of the promenades were wooden walkways with steps down into the shallow waters.
These were labelled on the map as the mud baths so we assume that in summer people do actually bathe in them!
And along one of the other walkways there were signs at the side of a mud stream asking people not to remove the mud - very protective of their medicinal mud it seems!
There were big piles of salt on some of the flat areas in the distance so the salt is still being collected (harvested??) as it used to be.
All sounding a bit vague here - perhaps we need to read the blurb from the Tourist Info...
We could see lots of flamingoes in the distance but they are well protected from people by the high banks that can't be reached by the tourists.
There were also a couple of windmills in need of renovation - a breezy bit of coast...
So we had a nice walk and then decided to admire the scenery from a bar with a beer and plate of battered squid...
A lovely coast line - nice and flat and just waiting to be explored by bike - time and weather permitting!...
Monday 23 March
For the previous three days rain had been forecast but there hadn't been more than a tiny bit and it had been sunny until the early evening when it clouded over - that seems to be the pattern at the moment on this bit of coastline.
Today was cloudier so we walked across to the weekly market to give the weather time to sort itself out for the day...There were instructions at our accommodation on how to get there but at the end it also said - or you can just look for the blue and gold spire...
As the sun was shining it was easy to find!
Lovely market - big and sprawling and loads of everything! Lots of people there and a great atmosphere.
I managed to blag a good discount on a top I'd seen. The stall holder gave me his best price, I gave him my offer, he laughed at me and said the equivalent of 'how do you expect me to feed my children at those ridiculous prices' and 'it costs me more than that to buy them' so I shrugged and walked off. Luckily Mike told me as I rounded the corner that he was shouting me back - so back I went and he didn't haggle further but put the top into a bag telling me that he was making no profit at that price. I paid him, thanked him and then told him not to be daft, he was making money on his sale, I was getting it cheaper so we were both happy! So he laughed and we were both happy!
Good job Mike had heard him - what the stall holder had taken as my dogged determination to stick to my price was actually my deafness and I hadn't heard him shouting!!
As it is nearly Easter people are beginning to make beautiful shapes out of palm fronds (the children carry them on Palm Sunday). They sort of weave them. Several stalls on the market were selling them but they are quite delicate so I didn't buy one - just another thing to get squashed in the car when we move on. But I spoke to one of the men to ask if he had made those himself that he was selling. He said he had, and then he gave me this tiny rose made out of a sliver of palm frond. He said he had made several for a young girl's decoration and that this one had been left over so it was a gift for me. How lovely!...By the time we got back the weather had decided to be more cloudy, bit breezy and threatening rain so we went for a walk in the car along the coast! Very nice too but we couldn't see much for the mist and cloud out at sea so we gave up, came back and holed up in a bar for a 'menu del dia' long lunch...
So (nearly) no photos...
Tuesday 24 March
More cloud today with the threat of thunder too. We hopefully set off for Cartagena in the car leaving a warm but overcast day behind us. We had only been driving 5 minutes when the heavens opened and the temperature fell by 6 degrees!
By the time we reached Cartagena it was just dull and cloudy so we parked up and set off for a bit of sightseeing.
When we got down to the port we could see that there was a P & O cruise liner parked up! Well that explained all the socks, sandals and sunhats along the Calle Major!... The most English/American tourists we've seen all the time we've been here.
We actually found the Tourist Information centre here and got a map - not that we used it!
So - we had a wander round some of the sights for an hour before the rain started again. It came down gently at first and then set in for the duration in a more determined fashion. Shame as Cartagena seems to be a lovely little city. Perhaps we might have time to return another day - when the cruise ship has gone...
What else was there to do except sit in a bar and have a couple of beers and some tapas (sigh...)
So - what did we do in Cartagena? We bought two umbrellas!...
Wednesday 25 March
Another chilly day (well nearly single figures!!) and some rain showers so we decided that a trip to Murcia was in order.And when we got there the weather was better and it didn't rain all day (probably because I was carrying the umbrellas as insurance!)
First stop was breakfast - milky coffee and toast with warmed goats cheese, drizzled with honey and pine nuts sprinkled on top.
Absolutely delicious!
Then it was time to wander...
And for the first time we actually found a Tourist Information office without really looking for one...
So, armed with our map, off we went with no particular destination in mind. We stopped on a corner and an elderly, smartly dressed lady asked if she could help us. As she chatted she told us that we should visit the Salzillo Museum - we had plenty of time and so we did!
A great choice! There was a huge display of 'Nativity scenes' - these are clay and wood sculptures and are not just of the Nativity but show life and scenes from the 18th century when they were made. So detailed and interesting.
There were also some of the floats used in the Semana Santa processions in Murcia - it was interesting to see the differences in costumes...
So, having done a bit of culture (probably for the first time this trip!) we thought that we deserved a little beer...We went into a posh tapas bar and ordered a couple of things off the menu - one of them being 'salmorejo genital' which quite intrigued us!
Salmorejo is like a heartier version of gazpacho and the 'genital' was probably an autocorrect from 'genial' meaning lovely!
Indeed it was lovely - a creamy, tomato soup with nothing added!
So - that was our day - a bit of culture, usual food and drink and a wander round the beautiful city of Murcia!
Thursday 26 March
Sunrise over the salt marshes...
... and then we went to see Cartagena again!.
Quite different from the other day when it was rainy...
It was still quite chilly although the sun was shining...All the flags were flying at half mast because of the German aircraft disaster in the Alps we think.
This young boy was dressed in an admiralty uniform and celebrating his first communion . He had his photo taken next to the Perla submarine - we asked his mum if we could take a picture and she said that we could be in it if we wanted to - quite rightly very proud of her son...
A lovely wander in the sunshine but although the cruise ship from the other day had gone, another one had taken its place - so more inappropriate socks, sandals and shorts!...
We decided to drive down the length of the thin piece of land surrounding the Mar Menor. It was about 15km in length and at times you could see the Mediterranean sea on one side and the Mar Menor on the other.
We stopped at the tip to take some photos and were treated to a full air display from what could only be described as the Spanish equivalent of the Red Arrows who seemed to be practicing over the sea!...
Then a slow ride home along the coast road...
Another lovely day!
Friday 27 March
Sunshine and a slight breeze - time to pop down to the hotel Thalasia near us to hire bikes. I knew that the blue neckerchiefs we had bought in Valencia for the Fallas (but never used) would come in handy - it made a great headscarf to keep my hair out of my face.
So we had a long, leisurely ride round the salt marshes and local beaches - and went past Lola's house!...
And the sunset over the salt marshes...
Saturday 28 March
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