Cartagena is a port city on the southeastern coastline of Spain. After 10 consecutive sea days aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas our first port stop was Cartagena. This is my Cartagena port review.
We had finally made it to Europe. Excited when I woke up, I walked over and opened the balcony blinds. I had never been to Cartagena and didn’t know what to expect. Just by looking out the balcony, I instantly knew it was Spain. It had that classic Spanish feel to it.
What I didn’t expect was that we were literally parked in downtown. This huge ship, one of the largest cruise ships in the world had literally pulled up into the downtown area and taken the first available parking space. I couldn’t believe how convenient and accessible the city was from the port.
Do you need to purchase an organized excursion while visiting the Cartagena port from your cruise? No. This is definitely a port stop where you can walk off the ship and have a great day on your own.
I hadn’t been back to Europe in several years. My excitement level was off the chart. I was back and in Spain! The hardest part literally was making myself wait a bit before getting off the ship. This is Spain after all, nothing is open yet. They are all still sleeping from the night before!
The plan was simple–Roman Theater, Tapas, Pintxos and Spanish Wine. I’ve been on a lot of cruises and seen ports all over the world. There’s always some hike just to get off the pier and through the customs and immigration area and that takes time. We walk off the ship and I look at my phone’s map. The famous Roman Theater is .2 miles away. We were literally closer to the site than the back of the ship!
Interestingly enough we ended up walking atleast a mile or so trying to find it. I had seen pictures; it was this huge Colosseum-like structure. How could we possibly miss it? But we did. We walked by the entrance twice and didn’t notice it.
Some History
This structure was built between the years 5 and 1 BCE. It held as many as 6,000 spectators for Roman theatrical performances. The theater itself was used for around 200 years. It was then turned into a shopping market area. Later, around the 6th to 7th centuries during the Byzantine rule they basically filled it in and turned it into a commercial district.
Later the Christians built a church, Santa Maria la Vieja, on top of the site. Several more civilizations built thriving city centers and communities on top of the site buried underneath. Built more than 2200 years ago, used for a couple hundred years and then lost for 2,000 years. The site was discovered in 1988 during a construction project. I like to tell this story because it makes me feel better about walking all the way around it before realizing where it was! 🙂
You enter through a rather normal looking door like you were walking into the DMV or something. There’s a small 2-person ticket booth to buy the ticket and you walk down a small hallway like you’re heading to the cafeteria at work. You do start to see artifacts though. At first, it’s just a couple. Then you realize you are walking into a different world and a different time.
In just a few minutes you’ve travelled back more than 2,000 years. The site itself is breathtaking. This was during Rome’s Golden Age after all. Every city in the world wanted a Roman style theater and Carthago Nova built this one! The history of the city inself dates back even further to the 6th Century BC. Its first city name was Mastia. Then in 227 BC it was conquered by the Carthaginians and named Qart Hadasht meaning “New City”.
It was in 209 BC the Romans took this city and named it Carthago Nova. This is when the theater was built. The Romans rule remained until the 6th Century when the Byzantines conquered it and renamed the city Cartago Spartaria where it served as the capital of the Byzantine province in Spain. Later it was renamed Qartayannat-al-Halfa. It wasn’t until 1296 when it became Cartagena. King Jaime II of Aragon conquered the city and it became part of Valencia.
Now that’s a lot of history. Feel free to have a seat in the theater and let your mind begin to absorb it. Anyone ready for some tapas, pintxos and wine? I am!
Food & Wine
When in Spain, tapa bars don’t begin to open until at least 12 Noon so time your visits to the museums and the theater first and then you can claim it’s tapa time! Leaving the Roman Theater, you are literally in the heart of the city and surrounded by countless options. We quickly found this amazing Gilderia, LaTitaFina. They specialize in serving various versions of the Gilda. It’s a classic Basque pintxo served on a skewer.
Named after Rita Hayworth’s character from the 1946 film “Gilda”. She was said to be salty, spicy and green and so is this pintxo. It’s the perfect Spanish bite consisting of an olive, guindilla pepper and anchovy. It pairs perfectly with a Txokolina. We don’t see a lot of Txokoli here in the US because they drink it all at the tapa bars in Spain.
I’m mostly a red wine kind of guy. This is an exception. I absolutely love a Txokoli. It’s slightly effervescent, super dry, highly acidic, crisp and refreshing, especially on a hot day. If you see a bottle at your wine shop drop it in your cart and thank me later. It’s fun too as it’s typically poured from a high position to give it even more sparkling intensity and bubbles. Take a peek at the video below.
We did stop at a couple of other tapa bars on the way back to the ship and had some Spanish red wine. You’ll find glasses of quality red wines from La Rioja and Ribera del Duero throughout the city for less than $4 Euro a glass. Wine is so reasonably priced that you could easily think the bottle price is the cost for the glass but it’s not.
The price & quality of wine is one of my most favorite things about Spain and most certainly the hardest to transition back when returning to the U.S. so enjoy it and drink up while visiting. When you get back you can always join us for a private Spanish wine tasting where we will share our best tips and finds! https://foodwinetravelguys.com We can talk tapas and pintxos and marvel at the bounty of beautiful wines that Spain shares with the world.
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