Our return flight itinerary was scheduled to be Vigo-Madrid-London Heathrow-Washington Dulles. Viking had arranged a coach transfer from Santiago de Compostela to Vigo airport. (Like us, most of the Santiago group were flying to Madrid to make connections. Vigo appeared to offer a better outgoing flight than Santiago.) To accommodate our early morning departure, the Parador kindly provided a to-go breakfast. This included an apple, nuts, a juice drink, a ham sandwich and a pice of almond cake. The coach departed at 6:30 a.m. for the 9:20 flight from Vigo. Once there, we learned high winds at the Virgo airport caused Iberia to redirect the incoming flight to Santiago. We had already checked in, so everyone then had to collect their luggage and head for Iberia buses to take us and hour's drive back to Santiago! ... read more

We were now in the Spanish province of Glaicia, which has many historic and linguistic ties to Portugal. Motoring north along Autopista AP-9, we passed Vigo at 3:00 p.m. Catching a glimpse of Vigo was interesting. It has a large Atlantic-facing port and is Spain's most important fishing port. Cruise ships call at Vigo for shore excursions to Santiago de Compostela. The city and port are situated on the Ria de Vigo estuary, which we crossed on the Ponte de Rande highway bridge. A number of raft-looking objects were floating in the estuary. These were Bateas, used for Galician mussel farming. Between Vigo and Pontevedra, the coach made a stop at Área de Servicio San Simón for an afternoon break. Arriving in Santiago de Compostela, the coach boldly drove right up into the historic district and ... read more

Thursday morning was set for Porto sightseeing. The Viking tour bus drove us across the Ponte Infanta Dom Henrique from Gaia to Porto proper. Multiple bridges across the Douro connect Porto and Gaia. To the right was the iron Ponte D. Maria Pia, built by Eiffel in 1876-1877, now out of service. To the left was Ponte Luis I, built in 1881-1885. It has always been a tram bridge. The first stop was Porto Cathedral (Sé do Porto). Porto is a very hilly city, built on basalt cliffs rising directly up from the river. The cathedral was built on one of the hilltops. Begun in the 12th century, the cathedral is fundamentally Romanesque in design, but it has undergone several retouchings. The two Romanesque towers and rose window surround a Baroque portal addd in 1772. Inside, ... read more

Today rain caught up with us. Portugal and the Douro region were happy, as we had already learned the past summer had been the driest in many years. Our shore excursion from Régua was to Lamego. Lamego is famous for the Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios. The Bishop of Lamego founded the pilgrimage site as an alternate to Santiago de Compostella. Pilgrims seek healing for themselves or family or a friend. The Rococo church was built in 1750-1905, replacing a 14th century church on the site. Inside is a gilded high altar with the image of Our Lady of Remedies (Nossa Senhora dos Remédios) carved in wood. Photography is not permitted inside the church. In the small park adjoining the church are two very old chestnut trees, estimated to be over 700 years old. What ... read more

An all-day coach trip to Salamanca was the agenda for today. From Barca d'Alba we crossed the Águeda river, a Douro tributary, to enter Spain. The mountains of Portugal extended briefly into Spain, but shortly thereafter we were crossing the high plateau of central Spain, known as the Meseta, This region is part of Castille and Léon. The landscape and vegetation here, like the plateau in La Mancha, is very reminiscent of Southern California. It is mostly open country with scurb vegetation or farmland. A few towns are encountered on the road to Salamanca. The first was La Fregeneda with a hilltop church. Others featured light industry, warehouses and agricultural businesses. After about a two-hour ride, Salamanca came into view. The first sight of Salamanca was the tower and dome of the New Cathedral. Then we ... read more