In praise of maps

I must have been to Murcia City at least twenty times. It's only about fifty minutes from Culebrón and a bit less from Cartagena. According to a list on Wikipedia it's the 9th largest city in Spain. Anyway, nearly every time we go there we go to the square outside the Cathedral, wander around a bit, maybe get onto Gran Via and then decide there's not much going on and leave.

Sneakily they seem to have opened a tourist office in the Cathedral Square without us noticing. So today, for the first time, we had a map as we wandered. What an amazing difference. It wasn't just that we got to see an exhibition about Alfonso the Wise, went to the Archaeological Museum, wandered the Christmas Market and nearly went in the Fine Arts Museum, it was that we knew where we were and, maybe because we went a sensible way from one place to the next, we went past scores of new and interesting places.

The town felt really nice too. It was a warm day, I dumped my jacket and pullover and still felt over warm in a T shirt, and the Christmas lights, Christmas happenings and Christmas crowds made it an exciting place to be. Our luck must have been in too because the Cathedral was open. It was the first time we've ever got inside.