Its the annual re-enactment of the defence of Cartagena
ROMANS AND CARTHAGINIANS FESTIVAL
21 – 30 September 2018, in Cartagena, Spain
A festival where the football ground and surrounding area becomes home to a camp of bars (and camp followers) and the streets have twice daily parades. The battle ground this year is near the port and under the castle walls. The jet fighter advantage wasn’t enough to beat the invading army 🤷🏻♂️
A break in the war events for a beer with an old shipmate, Shane. He quietly hailed the barman and we watched Liverpool lose to Chelsea 
Onto a modern war then, a bit of a surprise on this coast really.
A Sunday drive up the Spanish mediteraneo autovia, passing Cartagena, Torrevieja, Alicante and into Benidorm found the town under mock attack.
Machine gunfire and smoke grenades came from a packed paseo. The beach had anti-tank defences and gun nests 
A dozen or more parachutes dropped to the sands as Prisci and I sat with our Tostados y tómate 
There were lots of uniforms strolling around and a neat motorbike patrolled the front with a nurse on pillion
Signs and leaflets advertised the event in commemoration of June 4th D Day, but didn’t explain why September 30th was the event day?
The row of old police cars and another of bikes, small motorised cars and tanks was impressive
We took the glass elevator to the roof of Planta 21, a lounge bar above the hotel to see the Benidorm new town coastline a little better
Then back along the small cove before heading towards the car
I sat with a coffee watching the mobility scooters race bar to bar. It wasn’t so much the amount of this battery driven chariot racing, but I’d never seen tandem versions of these before. The first one was a surprise and I thought I’d missed a chance to picture a unique vehicle….. then we noticed they are in droves here!
After collecting the car from its space just outside of town we drove down to spaces opening up along the shore line. Swimming in the warm Med before the two hour drive back to Puerto Mazarrón was a great way to look back and see some impressive buildings backdropped by the ring of mountains.
Madge and Johnny Vegas Not spotted, but their characters seemed to be present everywhere 
Geriatric Gap Years 