last photos from Italy and now we're in Spain

After four days/three nights underway, yesterday we finally arrived in Cartagena, Spain.  A long crossing…the gale that had been howling down from France left big waves that hit us on the beam and made everyone a bit queasy the first day.  Despite anti-seasickness meds, Maggie threw up 4 times in the first 24 hours, although I think she was a bit disappointed she didn’t beat Hugo’s record of 7 times in 1 day when he was 8 and had the stomach flu.  What a tough little up-chucker.  Never a whimper or complaint, she just gets it over with and then goes back to sleep.

It was a rude re-introduction back into sailing…we’d had such a nice few days in our last stop in Italy in Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia.  Cagliari is a perfect place to see superb examples of all the various civilizations that have dominated large areas of the Med:  it has a Carthaginian necropolis, a Roman amphitheater, Byzantine churches and a wonderful walled medieval part of town.  The well laid out archeological museum explains the history of the island, particularly the unique Sardinian Nuraghe civilization, which started around 1800 BC.  What an interesting comparison to what we'd seen from the same time period in Egypt.  We rented a car and drove into the interior of the island to learn more about the Nuraghe with a visit to a remarkably well-preserved massive fort-like tower and village.  Then we drove up to the nearby plateau, where the Nuraghe went to get the enormous volcanic basalt stones they used to build their towers, and also saw the cork trees which the Nuraghe used as insulation in their sleeping areas.

Another gale from the west starts tomorrow, so we’ll stay here in Cartagena until it blows through, and then head towards Gibraltar.

Nuraghe village remains



Their tower complexes included a

courtyard with a well







 

 



Remains of a house, with a circular ritual

bathing area and an arch from the cooking oven



Nuraghe warrior figure



Phoenician amulet necklace...have to admit I like their

faces better than the classical Greek ones!