After 2 good weeks at sea, it’s back to usual. I’m at the mercy of the British Railway services.
No staff, no one to answer the Help button, no Guard that gets off the train to help me, staff that are sometimes so unfit slow moving, and so bereft of any sense of ‘ customer service’ that I am left feeling both helpless and alone.

This wasn’t supposed to be how I am.

I’m In a bloody great electric wheelchair so I can’t even take my chances on the roads via Triride.

And I’m spasming for all I’m worth.

I did go back on antispasmodic medication in the hope that they’d work out for me this time. The effects? Possibly less spasming ( good ✅) SIGNIFICANT deterioration of my mental processing and memory ( 🤷❌❌❌❌❌)

I simply HAD to come off them. It’s one thing being a spasming Spaz, it’s another being a bewildered Spaz.

Yesterday we stopped at Cartagena. Having had to divert from the Italian ports, we got some more Rome yesterday in Cartagena. In 1991 they discovered that there was something Roman underneath layer upon layer of buildings, going back 2000 years.
A large church even impinged on the area they were interested in. So after removing all the ( really shoddy ) flats that were there In 1991, and then underneath those layer upon layer of building works, they found a very much intact Roman open air theatre that would have accommodated 7000 people.
This is now open to visitors, and yes they have lifts too, so even I could have a wander around.
As later builders ransacked/ reused the Roman blocks and pillar segments there were all sorts of walls and raised areas made out of incredible pieces of carved Roman architecture, that had just been used as hardcore upon which to build really basic housing. To see what was there in terms of architecture 2 millennia later, it does pose the question ‘ how much had we really progressed?’

All the places we have stopped at have had beautiful architecture, and it’s all very different to the UK. Narrow alleyways seem to in all these cities. We like our big gaps between houses in the UK. People don’t like their neighbours too close. Having buildings close together and then long narrow walkways makes for very shady and therefore cool area between the buildings. We don’t have that ‘ it’s too hot ‘ problem in Britain… maybe in a hundred years we’ll build stuff differently… once climate change has made it 35 degrees Centigrade at Christmas?

Imagine living in a really bad flat one year, with really poor quality buildings right next to you, and then a few years later having a Roman theatre to look at out yer toilet window..?!

Apparently we’ve just sailed across what used to be considered ‘ the end of the known world’.

I expect that shortly we’ll fall of the edge and never be seen again.

The mahoosive ship is literally kerbside to the town…

View from our cabin…

So if you look at this picture of Alicante, what do you see?
Beach? Bars? Marina? I’ve no idea.

What I see is that fort on the top of a hill. And I want to go up there! Before my injury I’d have wanted to run up the hill to the top, or at the very least walk up.
I’d definitely not have wanted a coach or taxi or anything… I mean what would be the fun in that?

So at 3.45 and knowing that we HAD to be on board by 5.30 ( and having had a few glasses of wine by now ) I’ve got this irresistible urge to Triride up there. Lizzy ( quite understandably and logically ) doesn’t think it’s the best plan and tells me so.
But anyway… of course I do… and it’s worth it.
Worth it mostly because it was a challenge I just had ✅ off. I don’t know why I’m like this, but I am. Those that are will totally empathise. Those that aren’t won’t understand my ‘ compulsion ‘.

Hi to those that understand 👏🤦‍♂️🤷

😅

Never seen so many people in wheelchairs… as in Valencia.
Well other than in Stoke Mandeville!