Glasgow Oia

Feeling like a couple of drowned rats since having set ashore on the Continent, we felt it time to head south to Portugal with all haste. Having awoken to another damp morning, in Luarca, we quickly packed up and hit the road. Several hours later, and we found ourselves in Portugal, pitching our tent (the first time since leaving GB) on a pretty much deserted site (save for all ...

... other than from the coach that took us on our tour. As we left Vigo heading north along a motorway, I realized how green everywhere was compared to when we went to Rojales and the South East of Spain last year. It reminded us both of the Lake District in Cumbria.

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 ...

Today our port of call was Vigo, Spain. It is in the Galicia region (northwest) and it is quite beautiful. It rains there a lot, but we had a beautiful sunny day. We had hired a guide to show us the area. The highlight of the day for me was going to a castle. It was amazing… both the building and the ...

... and sand. As a result, it was extremely noisy for a couple of days - in fact it reminded us of that manic weekend at Orgiva. So rather than sit in the sun and be deafened, we decided to drive out and explore the area, which proved to be far more scenic and interesting than we'd expected. At either side of the Minho estuary are hills, fortified since before Roman times. The towns along both riverbanks show evidence of ...

... at first we had made a huge mistake crossing the border from France. The weather had been awful that day and when which didn't help as the driving vibe changed instantly. The Spanish seem to have a far more 'I'm going for it' attitude to driving than the French, they seem a lot more impatient and it was hard to adjust at first. The first place listed in our free camping guide seemed nice in the book, a quite car park virtually on the beech, but it wasn't that ...

... is where people from Spain travel to buy towels (not sure why but they did have lots of towels for sale) and Em & Eric did get a set just to follow the tradition.  Tui was a much nicer place and the cathedral was lovely. On the way home we stopped in Baiona an old port city with a cool old fort.  We took the walk along the top of the walls (a 3 km walk).

... He was a bit confused as to why I was there, I guess, especially considering that the last time I'd been there was before he was born. The next few days were a whirlwind of tourism and catching up and doing the huge summer sales that started. With Monchy, Miriam and Oscar, I saw Baiona, had fresh oysters, went to the train station and the saint on the mount. With Pedro, Henar and Pedro's girlfriend, we hit the Old City as well as having tapas and going to a bar on a weekday.