Where's Bertie? He's still in the Aire in the retail park on the north side of Murcia.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine. Low twenties.
Rather conveniently, as I favour a tram more than a bus, there's a stop only a few minutes walk from Bertie, from where trams run every 10 minutes into the city (15 minute journey), for a reasonable €1.40 single fare. The only downside, compared with the bus, is that the line doesn't run through the areas we wanted to visit, but it was an easy-enough walk from the nearest stop to the cathedral.
Our intentions for our day in Murcia were shaped by having visited the city before (click here for the relevant post from 20 January 2015). On that occasion we visited the archeological museum (excellent!) and the art museum (more of that later), but missed the opening hours of the cathedral. The latter was thus the main item on our agenda for today ... after coffee and second breakfast, of course.
Coffee, plus tostada served the traditional way with tomato and olive oil. The waiter was happy to practise his English on us whilst we were happy to practise our Spanish on him.
Four years ago entry to the cathedral was free. It may still be so, if you decline the audio/video tour and don't want to visit the museum, but we didn't find out. When we encountered the cash desk blocking the entrance we paid up.
I'm sure the chap who narrated the English version of the tour has also voiced an audiobook I've listened to. War of the Roses, I fancy. Whether or not that's the case, it was a well presented, perfectly comprehensible tour that only went on a little too long in a couple of its descriptions.
The choir
Grand altar and altarpiece
What a display of stonework in one of the side chapels
The usual stylised 'two fingers pointing up' made to look (helped by the tilt of the head) more like what we would now interpret as an offensive gesture.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine. Low twenties.
Rather conveniently, as I favour a tram more than a bus, there's a stop only a few minutes walk from Bertie, from where trams run every 10 minutes into the city (15 minute journey), for a reasonable €1.40 single fare. The only downside, compared with the bus, is that the line doesn't run through the areas we wanted to visit, but it was an easy-enough walk from the nearest stop to the cathedral.
Our intentions for our day in Murcia were shaped by having visited the city before (click here for the relevant post from 20 January 2015). On that occasion we visited the archeological museum (excellent!) and the art museum (more of that later), but missed the opening hours of the cathedral. The latter was thus the main item on our agenda for today ... after coffee and second breakfast, of course.
Four years ago entry to the cathedral was free. It may still be so, if you decline the audio/video tour and don't want to visit the museum, but we didn't find out. When we encountered the cash desk blocking the entrance we paid up.
I'm sure the chap who narrated the English version of the tour has also voiced an audiobook I've listened to. War of the Roses, I fancy. Whether or not that's the case, it was a well presented, perfectly comprehensible tour that only went on a little too long in a couple of its descriptions.
We only witnessed two other people cross this glass floor and both of them tip-toed across with a look of fear about them.
My verdict: a worthwhile visit thanks to the tour, but far from the most visually striking internal architecture we've ever seen in a cathedral, mainly because of how the space has been partitioned such that you can't look down the whole length and get a feel for the scale of the place. I doubt the building is as small as it felt.
Emerging at 1pm we decided that we'd delay lunch until a more normal time (for Spain) of 2pm and make a quick visit to the art museum (which closes for a 3-hour lunch break at 2). We knew we'd visited before, but only this blog told me so. I clearly remembered the archeological museum which preceded our gallery visit and the lunch that came after it, but had no recollection of the art museum. Mick was similarly drawing a blank, so off we went to jog our memories.
Mick's memory was partially jogged, although he conceded that he could have been conflating what we saw today with things we've seen in various other art museums. I established that I can visit the same museum again after a four-year break and have an entirely fresh experience. That said, from the detail I gave in my previous blog post and what we saw today, the place has been completely rejigged in the last four years. The most interesting (to me) stuff is now on the ground and first floor, rather than the top floor and it seems that the amount of religious art has been reduced.
With a 2pm deadline, we didn't linger long and emerging back onto the street we set about finding an eatery. We chose well (a fact we suspected when not long after ordering a party of workmen sat down at the next table; I don't think we've ever had a bad meal in a place frequented by workmen); it was the best Menu del Dia of the trip so far:
Three courses plus bread and drinks* for €9 a head.
Our visit to the city concluded with a walk down to the river, from where we considered catching a bus back, before deciding we'd rather walk further for the tram. It was a nervous tram ride, as both ticket machines at the station had refused to give us a 2-zone ticket, so we travelled on the cheaper 1-zone version. Thankfully the only ticket inspection was right at the beginning of the journey.
(*Because I don't drink, I always ask for water, but if you order wine then you get water as well anyway. Sometimes my order is irrelevant, as Mick has been known to received a litre or a bottle of wine all to himself. Today he only got a small carafe, but could have been quite merry if I'd ordered wine and donated it to him.)
My verdict: a worthwhile visit thanks to the tour, but far from the most visually striking internal architecture we've ever seen in a cathedral, mainly because of how the space has been partitioned such that you can't look down the whole length and get a feel for the scale of the place. I doubt the building is as small as it felt.
Emerging at 1pm we decided that we'd delay lunch until a more normal time (for Spain) of 2pm and make a quick visit to the art museum (which closes for a 3-hour lunch break at 2). We knew we'd visited before, but only this blog told me so. I clearly remembered the archeological museum which preceded our gallery visit and the lunch that came after it, but had no recollection of the art museum. Mick was similarly drawing a blank, so off we went to jog our memories.
Mick's memory was partially jogged, although he conceded that he could have been conflating what we saw today with things we've seen in various other art museums. I established that I can visit the same museum again after a four-year break and have an entirely fresh experience. That said, from the detail I gave in my previous blog post and what we saw today, the place has been completely rejigged in the last four years. The most interesting (to me) stuff is now on the ground and first floor, rather than the top floor and it seems that the amount of religious art has been reduced.
With a 2pm deadline, we didn't linger long and emerging back onto the street we set about finding an eatery. We chose well (a fact we suspected when not long after ordering a party of workmen sat down at the next table; I don't think we've ever had a bad meal in a place frequented by workmen); it was the best Menu del Dia of the trip so far:
Our visit to the city concluded with a walk down to the river, from where we considered catching a bus back, before deciding we'd rather walk further for the tram. It was a nervous tram ride, as both ticket machines at the station had refused to give us a 2-zone ticket, so we travelled on the cheaper 1-zone version. Thankfully the only ticket inspection was right at the beginning of the journey.
(*Because I don't drink, I always ask for water, but if you order wine then you get water as well anyway. Sometimes my order is irrelevant, as Mick has been known to received a litre or a bottle of wine all to himself. Today he only got a small carafe, but could have been quite merry if I'd ordered wine and donated it to him.)
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