Exotic Elche, Novel Novelda, Manky la Manga,Crazy Cartagena

What a date

Leaving the cousins was hard and I speak about them most days and we have them on our fridge but we were glad to leave Benidorm.  We set off for the hills and went to Elche.  We loved it there.  Mama said it reminded her of Marrakech.  It was full of date palms and water and gardens but was a very busy working city. 

Palacio de Altamira

Vinalopo

Monkeying about

We really liked it there.  I made lots of friends in the parks and we heard a band playing and went in search of it and found it and followed it.  They went past a churros stand and one of them stopped and bought a big bag full as the rest of the band played on.  He went running after them.

He went round and gave each band person a churros each but the problem was they were still playing and couldn't eat it so they clamped them to their music stands.

Then onto Novelda to see a Modernista house but it was closed.  However, we got to see the Santurio Santa Magdelena and the Castillo de la Mola which had a triangular tower which I climbed up.

Cathedral

The Cathedral had an organ made out of marble which was amazing.  Daddy spotted it and Mama said that there is nothing more amazing than a stone organ.

Stone Organ

 The best bit was parking Nona right next to the cathedral on top of a mountain and sleeping there with the lights and the cats and the howling wind.

Then back to the coast.  Mama had been going on about the Mar Menor for ages and said it was an inland sea divided by the tiniest strip of land from the Med.  She had read that it had warm waters and spas and had decided it would be a great place to be.  We stopped at first on the Mediterranean side at Cabo de Palos which was nice.  But it seemed that the land was all dropping into the sea

Cabo de Palos

but we didn't mind because we hadn'tr bought a house there or parked Nona too close to edge and the port was all blue and white boarded houses and they sold ice-cream.  Then we drove along the La Manga strip and it was terrible.  Really bad. It smelt dreadful and we counted 5 dead cormorants on one beach.  Mama said it was a sign of things to come and then we sat in silence for a while until we couldn't bear the smell.

Dead bird.  Dead Beach. Dead Beat.

So we left and drove to Cartegena and that cheered us up.  What a crazy place. Castles and ports and mining chimneys and Roman Amphitheatres and Baroque buildings and Arab quarters and peacocks.  Wow.  What a place.

View over the port and the Roman Amphitheatre from the castle

Me on a Roman Temple

 The only problem was that the No Funs couldn't decide where to park for the night.  Everytime we found somewhere they'd move on. At last we found somewhere and still the No Funs weren't happy with it.  They said that there were men walking around by themselves but I liked it because it was quiet and it had gravel that I could dig in so I protested and we stayed.  I was just going to sleep when there was a bump and daddy lept out of the van with a stick.  Then Mama jumped up and opened up all the blinds and turned the lights on and opened the door.  Someone drove off in a car and a lady crept away.  I asked what happened and Mama said well what do we expect parked next to a port.  Daddy said she had lost her dog.  But then we packed up and drove off.  To the other side of town.

Baroque arcade

Amphitheatre