Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas left Ibiza on 18 May 2022, and we arrived at our next destination the following day. What you will view this week and for the next several weeks (I estimate the next four) is Cartagena, Spain. Yes, five weeks is a long time to spend on one destination, but we did a lot during this stop. As I mentioned previously, this particular cruise offered up a fairly unusual itinerary featuring many destinations Ursula and I had not previously seen, and Cartagena is one of those. And as you can see in the photograph below, Vision was moored adjacent to the Cartagena Naval Base. Moored at the base was the submarine you see below, which I believe is one of Spain’s two remaining Agosta-class submarines, the Galerna:
At the port yet another tour awaited us, and for the rest of this week I’ll be showing you the first stop on this tour. We’re talking about Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fuensanta). And there is much more on this high hill overlooking Cartagena besides just the church. There is also a castle (Casa del Cabildo) and a Benedictine monastery (Monasterio Benedictinas Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta).
This religious site sits high above the surrounding areas, and the views alone are worth the excursion. The vista below is northwest of the sanctuary. The municipality of Molina de Segura lies in the distance.
Looking further to the left gains you a view of Casa Espiritualidad Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta (House of Spirituality of Our Lady of Fuensanta):
Don’t forget to glance down. If you do, you might miss this shot:
On Wednesday we’ll go inside the church and also stroll the grounds around the monastery. Until then, let’s just take in some additional views:
Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)
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R. Doug Wicker — Author 