Balneario de Mondariz Pontevedra

Vigo was our last port of call on our cruise and I had given this place little thought and done no research, so it came as quite a pleasant surprise. Its a big place and quite spectacular when viewed from the height of the ship.. We didn't get chance to look ...

Today I´m headed for Vigo on the Northwest coast. Madrid has been good although tiring. It rained yesterday so I spent the afternoon at the Prado Museum. After that I walked forever, took a few pictures and ate some ice cream. If you´re ever in Madrid I recomend the Museo del Jamon, ham and cheese sandwich + beer = 2euros.

We arrived in the Marina Davila Sport near Vigo early in the Morning from A Coruña. There are many Oyster and Mussel beds in the region and it is well known for its cuisine.

The marina is just about as unattractive as a marina could possibly be. It is located at the very tip of the commercial port with no trees or grass to be found. Then, to leave the Marina, you must travel through all the commercial warehouses and wind around the bay ...

... We also had lunch at a very nice fishing village. It is not a surprise that seafood is popular… some of the local favorites are mussels and octopus. …and of course they make a lot of wine, and we sampled some that was delicious. The end of our day was spent exploring Vigo’s old gothic quarter.

... by the kilo. By contrast Tui was shut for the holiday, not just the shops but the churches and museums as well! The only places open were the petrol stations, all with long queues of Portuguese filling up with cheap Spanish fuel, at 10 to 15 cents a litre cheaper than Portugal. On another day we drove 15 miles south to our third river, the Lima, at Viana do Castelo. The coastline between Caminha and Viana is superb ...

... anything but they got the hint, so it was on to the next stop which wasn't a great prospect in the rain on the mad roads. The stop we found was in the port town of Ondarroa, there were loads of other campers right on the harbor so it felt allot safer. During the night and the next morning the weather didn't seem to be getting much better so we decided to go south a bit. The weather in the north was pretty lousy, the weather certainly wasn't what we were ...

Today we headed south.  When planning this trip I got Cadogan's guide to Northern Spain and it had 5 areas in it that shouldn't be missed in Galicia.  One of them was Tui (pronounced 2-ie) this town is on the river Mino which is the border between Spain and Portugal.  The bridge that connects the 2 countries was designed by Gustave Eiffel.  Valenca, the city in ...

Notre marche de Tuy par O Porino, Redondella et Ponte Vedra Top 5 de la vie de pelerin 1- payer 3 euros pour coucher 2- manger du spagat parce qu on peut se faire a souper 3- Avoir de cordes a linge deja installees (pas piege a con!) 4- Spirit du pellerin...ca chante, ca souffre...tout le monde ensemble 5- Se rendre compte que meme si on a passe 30 ans, on est encore les meilleurs (hi!hi!)

... that was part of the deal about going to the albergue) and the time meant that we had missed the pilgrims' mass we decided to search out the camping option. By that time we were both pretty fed up and hungry as we'd had no breakfast, not even a cup of coffee. We bought lunch, ate it then fell asleep. Didn't mean to fall asleep but it was so cold (everything's relative, it was probably 16 degrees) we'd got into the tent to warm up, next thing we knew it was 2.30. Talking of ...

... just because I had nothing else to do. I loved living so close to the beach. It was nice to know that even after eight years, I can arrive back there and feel like I'm welcomed there as if I had only been gone for a few days. I felt the same back with Alberto's mother's place. We had a real good meal for dinner. We had langostinos and some nice cheese and wine of course. It was a bit funny because Oscar, the young son asked why we didn't put candles and such for the ...