In Spain, Daylight Saving Time comes a week earlier than in the US--which meant that I got to sleep an extra hour before getting up early to take the bus to Murcia!
Murcia isn't really a big tourist destination in Spain, but it's supposed to be really beautiful. Most people want to go to cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, etc. So for me, Murcia held a mysterious allure as a city not often inundated with tourists (as Alicante and Benidorm are).
Murcia is pretty close to Alicante--just an hour south--so we took the bus to get there. The ride was beautiful. Murcia is surrounded by small mountains.
When we arrived in Murcia, we didn't really have a plan for what we were going to do in Murcia. Nor did we have a map. We knew that we wanted to see the Cathedral, and I was interested in seeing the Archaeological Museum. Basically, we started wandering around--knowing that eventually we'd find what we were looking for.
First, we walked through the Botanical Gardens. This area was definitely pretty, but it didn't really have a garden-y feel. We saw a number of plaques with information about birds on them--which is when I learned that Murcia is the bird-watching capital of Spain. This makes sense because I could actually hear different birds chirping in Murcia--instead of the usual pigeon coos and sea gull screeches.
We continued walking along and found a neat suspension bridge. The suspension bridge gave us a view of another bridge (that looked Roman in origin) and some ruins near the water (which looked Arabic based on the way in which the arches were constructed).
Eventually, we found the tourism office--which is basically hidden. I think you'd need a map in order to find it. With our map in hand, we easily found the Archaeological Museum. It wasn't as impressive as the museum in Alicante, but it still had some cool stuff. The Roman mosaics here were maybe even better than the ones in Alicante. We couldn't really figure out what the artifact that looks like a foot was for.
Next we headed to one of two gardens (though park would be a better word) located in the northwest part of town in order to wait for the lunch hour. The park was delightful. It had real trees (in Alicante, we only have palm trees) and areas with grass (which we also don't have much of in Alicante). I was really tempted to lay down in the grass to take a nap--just to feel grass again--but ultimately decided against it.
After lunch, we finished our day at the Cathedral. The outside is really impressive--which incredible statues and carvings. Inside, there was a very pretty chapel in the front that had some very detailed stone carvings.
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