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Today saw us dropping anchor at our final port of call, Vigo. This busy city is part of mainland Spain but only around 25 KM from mainland Portugal. The dialect here is generally a mix of Spanish and Portuguese.
When we first disembarked the ship we wandered into the city centre which is only around a ten minute walk. It was a tad disappointing mainly due to the fact that everything was closed but also, there seemed to be very little character to the place. It was essentially just a big, built up, town.
We knew that there was more to see of this place and so we decided to head back to the ship and try to find a taxi.
Vigo is part of the Galicia region of Spain and has a strong Celtic history. They proudly place themselves alongside the Welsh, Scotltish, Irish, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Bretan people, all of whom also boast strong Celtic links.
We found our taxi very easily, in fact he found us! Luciano Sanjuan spotted us all crowding round our map and asked us, in excellent English, whether we needed any help.
After explaining that we wanted to see Santiago de Compostela, another city around an hour away, Luciano agreed a good price with us and offered to drive us in his taxi. Santiago de Compostela is often referred to s the gateway to the Atlantic. We knew that the city was mean to be beautiful as well as boasting a huge cathedral. It would have been a shame not to make the effort to travel there.
Luciano said that he would take us and then wait two hours whilst we looked around before taking us back. His English was exceptional and it was a real pleasure to chat with him during the journey.
It turns out that Luciano was originally from Brazil but had also lived in Newcastle, Wales, Cornwall, Spain and Portugal. His English was so good because he had previously worked on cruise lines and had even once married an English lady. (One of three marriages!). He explained that now he has no wives but does live with his Portuguese girlfriend.
The hour long Journey to Santiago de Compostela went very quickly and soon Luciano was dropping us in the old city to make our own way round. I took the opportunity to grab a photo of him at this point. It seemed he had taken rather a shine to Barbara and, incredibly, she was taller than him!
Santiago de Compostela was most certainly more our type of city. The whole look of the place was much more attractive than Vigo and we set off down the narrow side streets on the hunt for flags, thimbles and football shirts.
The Cathedral dominated the part of the city we visited, it was immense. Apparently, people come from all over Europe to visit the cathedral and line up to kiss the feet of the statue of St James.
We decided not to kiss his feet but we did step into the place to take a peek. It was impossible to move once you got inside because it was simply too packed with people. There was some kind of service on and the choir were really very good. We just could not see them!
The rest of our time in Santiago de Compostela was spent looking round the various shops and soaking up the atmosphere of this old old city. Thankfully, it was not too hot today and we were able to enjoy the place in relative comfort. The Celtic heritage was clear because there were people playing bagpipes everywhere ...... I hate the noise but everyone else seemed to like it!
True to his word, Luciano picked us up and we embarked on our journey back to the port. Again he chatted animatedly all the way back giving us history of Vigo and the surrounding areas as well as telling us about his son who still lives in England.
Once back in Vigo we had an hour to grab a beer and to take a quick walk around the shops closest to the ship. The weather was quite cool by this time and it even started to rain. Luckily, I had bought a nice hooded top in Santiago de Compostela and so was snug as a bug. David had found the local flag as well as a Celtavigo football shirt.
I believe that Barbara found two thimbles today and will probably need another shelf to store all her new ones on.
Having said farewell to Vigo, we are now back on board and already on route back to Southampton. There is one final day at sea tomorrow and then it is homeward bound. I am looking forward to seeing my cats!
Oh...one thing.... We ALMOST won the trivia last night. I saw almost....and I shall leave it there because the boys are distraught enough that they didn't use my answer to the one question we needed too win. :-)
We have maybe two more chances to win just ONCE on this cruise. So far it hasn't happened for us but we have been close lots of times.
this afternoon we have enjoyed another afternoon tea which was yummy as usual and we are now chilling out in our cabin.
I will post one final sea day blog tomorrow. Hopefully you guys who read this have enjoyed it!
Xx
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Mum A beautiful black Dane xxxx