My travel in Europe:
From Malaga to Alicante, Spain 2026

Content:

• Day 1-2, Stockholm to Malaga
• Day 3, Malaga to Almeria
• Day 4, Almeria to Mojacar
• Day 5, Mojacar to Cartagena
• Day 6, Cartagena day 2
• Day 7, Cartagena day 3
• Day 8, Cartagena to San Pedro del Pinatar
• Day 9, San Pedro del Pinatar to Alicante
• Day 10-11, Alicante

Day 6, Cartagena day 2

In Cartagena we have the luxury of being able to take it easy, we'll be here for a whole 3 days.

Map, over Cartagena old city:

We walked in the old city of Cartagena.

At Wikipedia you find more information about Cartagena:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Cartagena,_Spain (Cartagena, Wikipedia)

Roman Museum:

We start the day with a visit to the Roman Museum, a 100 meter walk from our department.

The entrance is on the other side of the excavations, from here there is a tunnel to the other side.

Before we came out here at the outdoor part of the museum, we walked through tunnels and stairs where there were also exhibitions to look at.

Over the most well-preserved parts of the Roman houses they have put up a roof for protection from the weather. Here we can see not only the old walls but also walls inside with partially preserved paintings.

Here are the Roman thermal baths. They were heated from fires in a nearby room and the hot air from the fire passed around the columns we see here. On top of the columns was the floor that the bathers were on. I've seen some documentary how they used children to crawl in between the columns and clean.

A basement with food storage, I would guess.

Roman Theatre:

After seeing the museum we continue in the old town. Here we have come to the Roman Theatre. Today we just wander around the outside, we simply cannot find the entrance.

The size of the theater shows that Cartagena was once a large and important port city. Many visitors came here.

Not so many years ago, a warehouse and other facilities were built for a marketplace here above the theater. Fortunately, the theater has now been restored.

Above the theater on the mountain there were Roman buildings, today it is a medieval fort. We will now go up there and see the view.

On our way up the ramp we have a view of the city, the slightly more modern neighborhoods which we never visited.

One last climb of stairs before we reach a terrace.

Here from the terrace we have a view of the harbor. Today a large cruise ship is anchored at the harbor.

Roman Amphitheatre and Bullring:

We continue away from the terrace and catch a glimpse of another old building. This is where the Roman Amphitheatre is supposed to have been, but we find very little information about it. It turns out that they built a bullring on top of the old arena. It is now closed for restoration and maybe they will find some ruins of the old Roman Amphitheatre that can be displayed in the future.

Here we have gone up to the top terrace and here is the medieval fort. The entrance is around the corner to the right. In front of us we have Hannibal, he founded this city with the name Qart Hadasht. He wanted to defeat the Romans with his trop of elephants. It did not work well and the Romans built the "New Cartagena". After this we turn downwards to the old city.

We take another path down and pass this magnificent road, it leads on to the Roman theater.

Parque Arquelogico Cerro del Molinete:

After resting for a while in the room we head out again, we have a lot we want to discover and see. Here we have come up on the mountain above the museum we visited in the morning. In the background we see the Roman Theater which we visited a couple of hours ago.

Up there on the crest there used to be a Roman temple.

Up here on the mountain there are a couple of ruins of old windmills, here is one of them.

In front of us we have the ruins of the Roman temple we read about on the way up. To the left, it is believed that the Roman aqueduct came in from the mountains, but this is mostly guesswork because no remains of it have been found.

Now we have found ourselves satisfied up here in the park and start walking downwards. Passing the part of the temple that they have partially rebuilt.

Along the mountain we can see remains of the old city wall, originally it was perhaps 3 times higher than today's ruins are.

This building houses the military museum, we never visited it.

Gran Hotel is written on the building's tower and Gunilla remembers reading that this is a very famous building. The hotel is currently under renovation.

On our way to the harbor, we pass a church where the door is open, we go in and take a look.

A large hall opens inside the door, as in all churches, very beautiful.

Palacio Consistorial de Cartagena:

In front of us is an old palace, today they seem to have gigs there.

Here is the city wall facing the harbor, perhaps the sea reached all the way here in the past.

Now we have arrived at the harbor and there are restaurants, cafes, museums and more.

A sailboat catamaran comes in, they have been on a tour of the sea around Cartagena.

Further into the harbor we find the private boats.

In the city wall facing the sea, they have built a majestic staircase. It was probably added recently, because they didn't want to make it so easy for pirates to take the city.

This will be the last for today, now we retreat to the park where we live to get something to eat. On the way there we pass this building, it turns out to be the entrance to the Roman theater and it is located far from the theater. We would like to go in but they are closing now so it will have to be tomorrow.

Plaza de San Francisco:

Finally we have returned to the park where we live, our legs ache and we sit down at a restaurant to have dinner.