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

Content:

Day 8, From Cartagena to San Pedro del Pinatar

On the fourth day in Cartagena we take the bus to next destination. The plan was to go all the way to Alicante with three different busses but we got stuck in San Pedro del Pinatar.

Department Historico:

Now we are moving to a new place and we have to leave our nice room where we have lived for 3 days.

Museo AVGSTEVM:

Before we leave Cartagena we have a museum to visit, the AVSTEVM (the Roman Agustus) museum. It is an excavated part of the Roman Forum, a large part of that forum is also located under the San Francisco square that we have visited so often during these 3 days.

A long hallway in the building's basement leads us to the museum.

The excavation under the house is indeed large, yet it is only a small corner of the Roman Forum.

Plaza San Francisco:

After we leave the museum we see this old photograph of the San Francisco square. Given the car in the background I guess it is from the 1930s. The statue is in the middle of the square and not on one side like today, and they have also turned the statue around. The ground today is covered in marble, here it seems to be cobblestone. The trees may be the same as today.

Decumano Maximo:

We now have to walk towards the bus station, here we again pass the excavation of the old Roman main street.

The bus station is not far away. Here we pass the Punic Wall which also marks the end of the old city.

We arrive at the bus station a little early and take a walk around the modern neighborhoods. At a roundabout we see a submarine on display, we are not far from the naval museum.

Bus station:

Now we are going to board the bus, we have been told that you buy the bus tickets on board the bus and that was true. In the background we have one of the old medieval defensive forts.

Map, From Cartagena to San Pedro del Pinatar:

We got stuck in San Pedro del Pinatar and this bus trip got short, only 42 km.

At Wikipedia you find more information about San Pedro del Pinatar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ San Pedro del Pinatar (San Pedro del Pinatar, Wikipedia)

The bus doesn't have to drive far before we reach rural environments.

San Pedro del Pinatar:

So now we have arrived at the first bus change in the town of San Pedro del Pinatar. Now there is a problem, we ask a bus driver where the next bus leaves from. He says that there are no buses from here to where we want to go. He points to a town far away and says we have to take ourselves there. We look at the clock, 25 minutes until a bus leaves from there and it is many hours until the next bus. How are we going to get there, we look around for a taxi but can't find one. What do we do now? I search Booking.com for accommodation here and find a nice hotel near the sea with available rooms. We decide to book that hotel.

We take the direction towards the sea and the hotel. We feel a certain concern about the hotel, it only costs 30 Euros, are there a lot of other fees or is it ready to be demolished? In the photo on their website it looks like a really nice luxury hotel.

The hotel will be located near a desalination plant and we have arrived at that location here.

This is where the hotel is located, we arrived a little after check-in time, but we asked if it was okay and it was.

Oh, this looks really modern and nice, just like the pictures we saw. We go in and check in, it turns out that towels are not included, we have to add 3 Euro, a total of 33 Euro, we have never stayed so cheaply in recent years.

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There is even a pool included that we can use, but never had time for it.

Now we are really hungry, a little way from the hotel on the way to the beach we find an English pub. We order a pizza and a drink, it felt very good with some food.

Playa de las Higuericas:

After dinner we continue down to the beach, it doesn't take more than ten minutes from the hotel to walk to the beach. Gunilla studies the local map, here are the saltwater lakes that the city is famous for. Salt mining has been important in its history, even the Romans used it when they made their sauces, Garum.

The beach is long, here heading south towards Cartagena where we came from.

We continue a bit north along the beach and come to a beach. Our plans for tomorrow are to take a bus at the next town, we see it far away, 3 km away.

Gunilla says something about coffee being good, we look for and find an Indian restaurant where she can get coffee and a pastry. I myself have an ice cream.