Hotel Tres Luces Vigo

... static caravans pitched up for the winter) all for the princely sum of Euro 8 per night! The surf in Ancora looked rather too frothy (pollution or a good head??!) for our liking and so we headed a few km down the road on the 6 Nov to Agucadoura, yet another deserted beach, where both of us donned our wetsuits, dived in with our boards and were unceremoniously dumped back on ...

... 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.

... you arrive at the city center. The only thing going for it is the view of the city, especially at night.

In the afternoon we went to the top of the Castillo de El Castro that has excellent views of the city by and harbor below. For lunch we bought oysters from a street vendor and then took them to a bar nearby where we ate the oysters with Lemon and drinks. Vigo, although larger than many of the neighboring towns is a much laid back ...

... 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.

... There are also a number of dams on the river, serving to control the floodwaters which used to deluge Porto, and also providing hydroelectric power. We stopped to look at one of these dams, the Carrapatelo, where the lock, at 141 feet, has the largest displacement in Europe. By comparison the total drop at Bingley Five Rise is 59ft over five locks. That makes the Carrapatelo lock 12 times deeper than one of ...

... to it very easily!  So finally this brings us to our current haven, I think we will spend another day here before we head south through Portugal. The drive from Astorga was long and varied with some stunning roads and scenery, very hilly as we passed along, 'green Spain' but when we finally spotted the sea we knew it was the right choice. As we got closer the clouds disappeared and the afternoon sun shone off the sea, it was the perfect setting we had been looking for.

... 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).

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!)

... much reflection that could come about just from a car ride from the train station to the house. The sights and memories that I have come so quickly from visions of all these places. I´m very glad to be back here and I think it shows. And I´m very glad that this was my last stop on my trip - Vigo is not the biggest tourist place, but to me it means a lot and I´ll be able to leave with a grand feeling of satisfaction.