Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Videos: Christer Lundstedt
Friday 31st of December
08.06 It's morning in Alicante. The last day of the year is here. Here in our room on the fifth floor of the hotel Estudiotel Alicante (https://www.estudiotelalicante.es), the hot water is still absent. Will it be until next year before we get hot water again? Who knows?
09.02 No water of warm temperature has appeared yet. I hope the breakfast is better.
09.51 At breakfast we first washed our hands with hand sanitizer and then put on plastic gloves before we picked the breakfast buffet. The breakfast itself was good. The coffee was fixed by putting capsules into a machine. It's not like I want my morning coffee. Another good thing is that we seem to have hot water again.
10.14 After a re-shower each, we are now ready to take to the streets of the city. The first visit to the shower was mostly a splash of cold water.
10.48 In the small supermarket Dialprix on Carrer Alemania we have bought some drinks for the evening. It's after all New Year's Eve. Next, we will locate today's means of transportation. Then we will see more of the city. We will visit the older parts that we did not have time to do yesterday.
11.25 After seeing a little more of the older parts of Alicante we will now pause before doing more. So far we have seen, among other things, the 17th century cathedral with the complicated name Concatedral Sant Nicolau de Bari d'Alacant. The city's restaurant owners are preparing for the day. On street after street, tables and chairs are exhibited. We do not have time for the tram that goes 11.40 but have to wait for the one that goes 12.40 instead.
11.37 The two travellers have moved. Now we are at the small and cozy square of Plaza Quijano. The sun is shining and calm prevails. A lady is walking her dog and some who have taken a nap in the morning pull up their shutters and roller blinds.
12.33 We are ready to leave Alicante for a number of hours. We are returning tonight to celebrate the New Year here in the city. Underground at the Plaza de los Luceros roundabout we found the Luceros tram station. Now we are waiting for the transport. We had planned to take a bus to the neighbouring town Benidorm but after some research we found information about this new modern tram line between the cities. Tram Alicante (https://www.tramalicante.es) is the name of the company we are going with.
15.20 We walk further towards the centre of town. In a park, Parc de L'Aigüera, we saw variants of the three wise men. They looked like those Playmobil figures. In another version, they were huge, clearly matching the huge images of Joseph and Mary that we saw yesterday in Alicante. They also had their own small tents with a royal throne in front. In Spain they are called Reyes magos. The traditional Spanish Christmas celebrations have been held on January 6 and the Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos), who distribute gifts. The children get some Christmas presents on Christmas Day, but most come on the twelfth night on January 6th.
17.39 It is not easy to find coffee. It goes bad with what we intended. In addition, we are hungry. It is siesta time and New Year's Eve, not a good combination. Most food places and cafés have closed. Some will reopen later in the evening. In about twenty minutes the tram goes back to Alicante. What do we do when we arrive?
21.18 We first walked past yesterday's cozy restaurant, Da Nonna Nina, but they had closed. We have therefore moved on to another of our candidates.
Saturday 1st of January
The breakfast room at Estudiotel Alicante.
Christmas decorations at Concatedral Sant Nicolau de Bari d'Alacant.
Beautiful buildings at Plaza del Abad Penalva.
Plaza Quijano, Alicante.
The restaurants are preparing today´s business on Plaza Santísima Faz.
People have gathered for entertainment on Plaça de l'Ajuntament.
Plaza de los Luceros, Alicante.
We are going with a tram to Benidorm.
Avenida Beniardá, Benidorm.
New Year´s Eve´s simple lunch.
Peter is having lunch at Victoria Gastrobar.
The bullfighting stadium in Benidorm.
The baby Jesus in a playground.
Los Reyes Magos, the three wise men in Benidorm.
Platja de Llevant, Benidorm.
A happy snowman in Benidorm.
Beautiful view of western Benidorm.
Balcón de Mediterráneo, Benidorm.
A view of Platja de Llevant in Benidorm.
L'Illa de Benidorm, the small island outside the city.
A seagull by the Mediterranean.
The last dinner of the year will be at the restaurant Indian House in Alicante.
New Year's Eve in Alicante.
There are many floors in our hotel.
00.04 Feliz Nuevo Año is shouted between the balconies. The previously mentioned noise has begun again and sounds like a worn swan, injured rooster or something along those lines. 2022 is here. This is the third year of my life with three equal numbers. I continue to drink from my Freixenet Cava and Christer from his Peñascal Rosé. I think this is the first time we drink cava and rosé wine at a new year's celebration.
00.22 We have called and talked to our friend Patricia who lives in Singapore. In 2013, she lived in Bandung, Indonesia. Then we met her and she guided us on Java and Bali. She has also visited Sweden twice, in 2014 and 2016. During the conversation, fireworks started and we were able to show these in a video call. 01.04 We have finished our beverages and the fireworks have stopped. It's time to crawl into bed. 08.28 This year as well has a morning, a morning with breakfast and further travel towards a new city. 09.48 We were the only ones in the breakfast room. The whole hotel seems empty and deserted. Many people sleep a little extra after New Year's Eve. We will also be leaving the hotel soon. 10.36 There was not much life in the streets either. However, some signs of life can be seen at the bus station that we reached after a walk through the centre.
Another Spanish bus journey begins. We are now leaving Alicante.
The river Segura flows through Murcia.
Pasarela de Manterola is the name of this swaying footbridge.
A wonderful boat trip on Segura's waters.
Oranges in the trees on Paseo Fotógrafo Verdú.
Peter in the room at Hotel Universal Murcia.
11.07 We are once again on the road with a bus from the company ALSA (https://www.alsa.es). Today the trip goes towards Murcia.
11.22 We have just stopped at the Aeroport d'Alacant, Alicante airport. Many tourists land here on the Spanish east coast. 11.35 The city of Elche has been passed but not seen. It was too far on the side of the road. Elche with 234,765 inhabitants is best known for having over 1,000 shoe factories. 12.06 We have left the motorway and are now rolling towards Murcia, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Murcia. We have now left the area where the Catalan/Valencian language is spoken. Now it is just ordinary Spanish. At the entrance to the city we saw a nice football arena, Estadio Nueva Condomina. Unfortunately, the city's teams do not maintain the same quality as the stadium. The two teams UCAM Murcia and Real Murcia both play in division 3. 12.38 Once again we have arrived by bus in a city, in this case Murcia. It is Spain's seventh largest city and has a population of 447,182. Once again, Christer has better control than me on where we should go. Maybe it's because he was the one who planned the trip. We are now sitting in a park, the Jardines del Malecon, and mostly gathering power and letting time pass. Our room should is not ready for check-in yet. 13.01 Fate work in mysterious ways. A little girl in the park is dressed up as a princess. Two little guys came walking on a leash. 13.34 The river Segura has been crossed via a swaying, rocking footbridge, Pasarela de Manterola. The sun is shining and now we let the time pass again. There is check-in only at two o'clock. We sit on a bench at Paseo Fotógrafo Verdú. 14.03 We have arrived. We now stay at Hotel Universal Murcia (https://universal-pacoche.es) and room 42. At check-in we were asked if we wanted inside or outside. Inside sounded nicer but it turns out we have courtyard view. It's a small room, but it works for me. After all, this is a 1-star hotel. We stay south of the river in the District of Barrio del Carmen, Murcia's oldest part.
Hotel Universal Murcia. We are staying here two nights.
Monumento al Sardinero on Plaza de Camachos.
Fuente de los Jarrones.
Casa Consistorial, Murcia´s city hall.
Cardinal Belluga (Luis Antonio de Belluga y Moncada), a church man from the 18th century.
Glorieta de España, Murcia.
15.02 We have left our room and headed out on the streets of Murcia. There are police officers and an ambulance at the church. Probably some kind of traffic accident has occurred. In the Plaza de Camachos, a copper barrel was filled with water. Filled, it tipped, the water poured out and everything started over. The fountain is called Fuente de los Jarrones. We just crossed a bridge with padlocks. It's like a tradition on our travels. The bridge is called Puente de los Peligros.
15.28 In the square Plaza Cardenal del Belluga in front of the beautiful cathedral (Catedral de Murcia) there was a hustle and bustle. There is not much space at the restaurant tables. Otherwise, it is quite quiet in the city. However, we need food. Other hungry ones are the pigeons around us here in the Isabel Square (Plaza de Santa Isabel). 15.50 Zana's Kebab (https://www.zanakebab.es) will be serving us our first lunch of the year. There is no luxury here. We mostly want to be fed. We found the restaurant because we saw their car parked and out of pure curiosity we then looked up the restaurant. 16.48 Zana's was not an simple and plain kebab place as we first thought. It was a really nice restaurant. We are both full and satisfied. The food was really good. Now we are in the Plaza de las Flores, the square of flowers. It is adjacent to Plaza Santa Catalina. 17.03 The church of Iglesia Parroquial de San Nicolás de Bari rises in front of us. We are in the Plaza San Nicolas. Have we gone crazy or did we just hear the melody from Pippi Longstocking playing from some apartment?
Murcia in a Christmas mood.
Catedral de Murcia, built in the 14th century.
Red carpets on the streets when we come visiting.
Zana´s Kebab. We are eating a late lunch here.
The image behind Christer makes it look like he's in a completely different place than Zana's Kebab.
Teatro de Romea, Murcia.
17.35 This is a diverse city. We walk between old and new, from crowded cozy little squares to deserted streets. Where we had lunch, it looked like New York. Other parts are completely empty. We just saw some kind of archaeological excavation outside the El Corte Inglés department store. Outside the department store we have found yet another Spanish skating rink.
17.44 We decided that this will be as far as we intend to walk today. Now we're going to go back and maybe even find coffee somewhere. 18.08 Our Murcia walk has taken a break at yet another branch of Starbucks Coffee. Espresso as well as Café Americano is drunk by the two of us. It's nice to sit down for a while. 19.01 It's time to leave the coffee room with the mermaid as a symbol to go home. 19.40 There were mixed feelings and results on the way home. Hurray (!) for the beautiful purple Christmas tree in the park Jardín de Floridablanca and the Chinese run small shop where we managed to buy beverages. How many times has a Chinese helped us? Not as nice to see the intended dinner restaurant Casa Pacoche next to the hotel closed. 20.54 It is not easy to find a suitable restaurant for New Year's Day dinner. There are few sensible options near the hotel. This is not the first New Year's Day when we are in despair looking for a suitable restaurant. 21.16 We have taken out a possible direction of possible open restaurants in our taste.
Plaza de las Flores, Murcia.
Iglesia Parroquial de San Nicolás de Bari, Murcia.
Archaeological excavations at Arrabal de la Arrixaca in Murcia.
We have once again found Spanish people ice skating.
Iglesia Arciprestal de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, a church beautiful at night.
The beautiful purple Christmas tree in Jardín de Floridablanca.
21.36 We have walked through the Barrio El Carmen in search of food. Now we have turned at the closed Chinese restaurant Dong Fang Hong. We can't go any further and the clock is ticking.
21.59 Not much seems to be open, no big restaurant anyway. Maybe we should go to Burger King. 22.30 What a day. We first checked out Pizza Hut, mostly a mess in there. Ordering semi screaming in Spanish in a cluster with other people didn't feel very nice. We moved on. At Burger King it went fine to order via a monitor with touch screen and it also worked to pay but no receipt was printed. After a conversation with one of the staff, everything worked out. Now we can finally eat. 22.59 It turned out simple but tasty. We sure wandered around a lot before dinner. Maybe we'll enjoy it tomorrow. News reaches us from the home front. Today, for the first time, the price of diesel in Sweden has passed 20 kronor (US$ 2,20). 23.20 We have changed our plans. Tomorrow we skip the La Liga football game we intend to see in Elche (Elche vs Granada) to instead have a full day for our trip to the port city of Cartagena. It feels good.
Sunday 2nd of January
09.00 The church bell of the nearby Iglesia Arciprestal de Nuestra Señora del Carmen toll. A new morning is here. What's going to happen today? At least we'll have breakfast first.
10.02 Today we went outside to have breakfast. It is included in the room rate but served in the neighbouring hotel, Hotel Pacoche. Once in the breakfast room I showed the breakfast ticket where the room number is already written. When I was asked for the room number, I chose to show the key instead. What an extra job. 10.59 Now we have re-booked the bus tickets for tomorrow's transport. Plans have changed. Originally we were going to go by bus to Elche and see a football game in La Liga (highest Spanish league), Elche vs Granada. As we will visit Cartagena instead of tomorrow we could re-book the tickets for an earlier bus departure. When we left Barcelona eight years ago, the city's football team was actually waiting to play against Elche in a cup game. 11.14 We walk through the neighbourhood of Barrio El Carmen on the way to the railway station Murcia del Carmen. 11.44 It did not go that well for us to buy train tickets in a vending machine. Everything was given up when a Spanish phone number had to be given. We solved everything the old way. In a cash register and over the counter we received our tickets for the local train towards Cartagena. 11.59 Soon a long train departs from the company Renfe. Its destination for us, as mentioned earlier, is the port city of Cartagena.
Breakfast at Hotel Pacoche.
We are ready to depart from Murcia del Carmen.
We have arrived to Cartagena.
The railway station in Cartagena.
Muralla Púnica, the Punic wall.
Plaza San Francisco in Cartagena.
12.33 The landscape outside the train is dominated by various shades of brown. The soil seems dry and thirsty. Now we pass orange plantations.
13.30 Now we are in Cartagena and at the train station. The name of the city comes from the Phoenician Qart Hadasht (New City), later renamed Cartago Nova by the Romans. The first settlement is said to have been created around the year 228 BC. by general Hasdrubal the Fair of Carthage. Cartagena has a population of 216,365. The other day, Christer seems to have been given a Swedish ten kronor coin in exchange. All of a sudden, he has such a coin in his possession. Now we are resting at the Plaza de Jaime Bosch. 13.48 In the Plaza San Francisco square, people have lined up to watch some kind of Christmas show in a tent. 14.11 After some walking along the pedestrian Calle Mayor we have sat down at Cotton Grill (https://www.cottongrill.es) to have lunch. The area between the edge of the table and the back of the sofa is not for big bellied men like me. 14.24 We have placed our orders and see on TV that Getafe leads against Real Madrid in the live football match that is shown. 15.13 Even good things must come to an end at some point. We have eaten very tasty, clearly on top of the best burgers we have eaten over the years. Now we are in Plaza del Rey. Here it is an adult man who again and again wants to ride in a small carousel. He seems to be suffering from some kind of mental disability. 15.50 Winds come from the sea. We are on the area of the old regatta club in the Port of Cartagena. It's sunny but windy. 16.02 A huge man in bronze, El Zulo, sits sunken in the open Plaza del Puerto de Cartagena. A cold wind is blowing. The man is the monument to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Madrid in 2004. In the harbour, a barco turístico (tourist boat) has just left the harbour for a journey towards an unknown destination.
Monumento al Procesionista on Plaza de San Sebastián.
Cotton Grill, a very good choice for today´s lunch.
Christer ordered a Tower Burger.
Arsenal de Cartagena, a naval base.
Christer is sitting in Cartagena´s port.
El Zulo, a monument about the victims of terrorism.
16.26 In addition to the memorial El Zulo, there are other monuments and statues in the port area. It was the Navy monuments that dominated. Most impressive is the Plaza Héroes de Cavite.
16.39 We have been up to the old Roman theatre here in Cartagena. It was fenced and difficult to photograph. We shot a small video about the connection between ancient Carthage and modern-day Cartagena. 16.50 In front of the city hall (Ayuntamiento) in the building Palacio Consistorial de Cartagena there was a small lecture from a guide. If our Spanish had been better, we would probably have learned a little more than we did. Let's go on a coffee hunt now. 17.00 The cafés we planned to visit are closing due to siesta or are overpopulated. Shortly after lunch we had found the interesting CaféLab-Casas Del Rey that serves many unique varieties of coffee. We should have gone there then. Now there is a long queue to enter. Now it is time to return to the bus station. There is coffee in Murcia too. 17.25 It is possible to buy bus tickets to lots of towns and cities in ticket machines at the bus station but not to Murcia. We are hoping that it is possible to buy a ticket directly from the driver or should we take the train instead? If so, when does that train depart? 17.48 It may not be the best solution with a train. It is clearly the most expensive. We found a ticket for US$18 per person in an expensive fast train instead of taking the bus for around US$5,50. We didn't like going back to the bus station. Most importantly, we will make it to Murcia. 18.26 We are on board the train that comfortably takes us north towards our hotel again. 19.30 We are back in Murcia again. Sometimes strange things happen to me. This time my cell phone stopped working. I've let it unload and hope it works out.
A tourist boat in the port of Cartagena on its way to an unknown destination.
Peter writes down what has happened since the last note.
The long history of Cartagena is summarized.
Monumento al marinero de reemplazo.
Teatro romano de Cartagena.
A tourist guide in front of the city hall.
20.02 To quote Doctor Frankenstein from the classic movie "It's alive". My phone died, froze. It's alive again.
21.05 Now we are going out again. We'll try to find a dinner restaurant. Tonight we hope for a better solution than yesterday's Burger King. Murcia is worth a nicer restaurant experience than that. 21.22 We crossed a new bridge towards the centre. This time it was Puente Nuevo. On the other side of the Segura River was a tent where someone was testing speakers or whatever sound experiment was going on? It sounded strange. 21.32 Taking out a direction randomly sometimes leads right but tonight we ended up wrong and out of position. We didn't go where we thought we were going. Now we turn around. 21.50 It became a bit annoying, a confusing Google Maps position in the mobile, wrong navigation and other hassles but finally took us to Restaurante Pizzeria La Góndola, an Italian restaurant on Calle Saavedra Fajardo. We're in the student quarter. Here our wine glasses have just been set. There will be only one glass each. 22.37 They served us just enough large portions of good Italian food. Christer has just filmed a beautiful Christmas tree that changes colour. It is located in the Plaza de Europa opposite the restaurant. We'll see if we can get back to our hotel. 22.54 Now we are at home in a room that is warm here in the Hotel Universal Murcia. There is not much more left of this day than to unwind and eventually sleep.
Restaurante Pizzeria La Góndola, Murcia.
Peter is having dinner at La Góndola.
Catedral de Murcia is beautifully lit in the evening.
You can see 94 photos from December 31 in this photoalbum.
You can see 89 photos from January 1 in this photoalbum.
You can see 88 photos from January 2 in this photoalbum.