Hesperia Vigo Hotel

... our beloved Vinho Verde (Euro 1.39 a bottle) Mmmmm.... It was off to bed, to awake to another wet day. Discussions over breakfast (boiled eggs perfectly done if you please) (Lymºs writing this by the way....Iºm just typing...) led to us both deciding it was time to break camp and head to the Algarve with all haste, we were beginning to believe that the sun was an urban myth...

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.

... they might otherwise have. One of the solutions to this problem is a rotating schedule where the crew lives aboard for a nine week period and then return home for four weeks. A crew rotations system is not common on luxury yachts, but frequently used in the merchant marines. From what I’ve heard, the typical work schedule on a Merchant Vessel is working four weeks, then home for four weeks. Then, while they are at work, they will ...

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 ...

... wizened old lady in black sat enjoying the sun. It felt as if we were seeing the real Portugal and not something out of a holiday guidebook. However, it was time to move on in the direction of Northern Spain and the ferry home. Next day we intended to head for Santiago de Compostela, as pilgrims have been doing since the Middle Ages. Would we be blessed by the saint and earn our scallop shell? The next blog will reveal all.

... 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!)

... souvenirs. When we got back, we had a wonderful send-off lunch with Anton's uncle and grandparents, and now we're about to meet Xosé to head for a short day trip into northern Portugal. At 10 tonight, Jon and I will be boarding a train back to Madrid, where we'll have to part ways. Jon's going to Toledo for a day by himself, and I fly out tomorrow afternoon for Mallorca, to stay in my buddy Miguel's place for a week and revisit some old ...