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The Fort Isn't As Big As We Thought?
We thought the fort near us was good size until you see the cruise ships go by. We are still in A Coruna (LaCoruna), Spain along with quite a few other boats waiting for the north winds and the large seas to die down. The last couple of days we have had sunny weather which is a nice change from the grey skies and cold wind we’ve been experiencing the last few weeks. Things are looking up (the glass is half full).
Thankfully there is plenty to keep us occupied while we wait for better weather. It seems that the days have been slipping by and we have been either working on the boat or exploring the area some more. We were told by a few folks that the nearby Military Museum was very well done so we checked it out. The displays are well laid out and they cover Spanish history from before the Roman conquest to current times. They have excellent displays of weapons, uniforms, and flags from the early 1500’s from a wide variety of countries. It is somewhat ironic that the Military Museum is located in what had been the Convent of Sao Francisco. There were a few pieces of information in English, however, most were in Spanish – it’s times like this
Building A Parking Garage
Parking seems to be a problem so nearby they are building a very large parking garage. we wish we had better language skills. The gentleman working at the museum saw our interest and really tried to help explain things – fortunately we were able to get quite a bit of what he was trying to convey through Bob’s Portuguese and through some of his efforts with hand signals and pointing out things in the displays. He also made sure to tell a few important points that we should look up on the internet which we did when we returned to the marina. There is so much to learn about the history of this area – there were so many countries involved and for so many centuries it is hard to keep it straight. We in the US are such infants when it comes to world history. To think that when the Romans arrived here there was already a well-established city which had fought off Celtic and Arab raiders for centuries. The museum covers more modern warfare predominantly dealing with the Napoleonic wars, World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II and Spain’s involvement through the UN in several peacekeeping efforts around the world. There was also mention of Spain’s conquests in the Americas, Cuba
Guys Are The Same Everywhere
In Spain it is the same as everywhere else – if you see a construction site, you’ll see plenty of guys “supervising” from the sidelines. Bob even joined in. and the Philippines. The weapons displayed were in excellent condition and carefully displayed. By the front entrance of the museum was a German 88 field artillery piece. Anyone who’s ever seen American war movies may remember that the German 88’s played a major role in World War II due to their accuracy and ease of deployment. Inside the museum there were large displays of handguns, rifles, mortars, machine guns and a few field artillery pieces from Napoleon’s army.
We have been taking numerous walks around town exploring different sections of the city – some days taking the bus part of the way to buy parts for our bicycle, other days to get some routine blood work done or just turning down a new street we hadn’t walked before. We recently found out that there is a large shopping mall on the other side of town so managed to find bus 11 which takes you on the half hour ride to the “mall”. Believe it or not this was the first time we have ever been to an IKEA. It took us a good part of the morning exploring this store, the place is amazing. Lucky for us not much
The Sea Gulls Have Arrived
This fishing boat came in close to the marina entrance bringing all of its seagulls with it so we had visitors on the dock. of it will fit on a 40 foot sailboat so we were pretty safe, but did manage to still buy a few things. Bob was able to get his “Home Depot” fix while visiting Spain’s version of the mega-hardware store. The mall looked like anything you would see in the US accept everything’s in Spanish. Neither of us have ever been big mall shoppers, but it was nice to be able to pick up a couple of things that have been on our list for a long time.
We had 2 folding bicycles when we first left the US but had sent them back to storage (Thanks Charlie & Lynn) because we had been advised they would not be useful (in fact dangerous) in the Caribbean. That was fine, but now that we are in Europe we miss having them. Lucky for us we found a used folding bike for sale in Lagos, Portugal, but we have been looking for a second one ever since. A fellow cruiser gave us his well used bike, but after working on it we realized it needed more work and money than we wanted to put into it. We finally caved in and
Nice Bike & Walking Paths
Bike riding is very common here and there is a great divided bike path all around the edges of the city for people to use. The walking promenade is right next to it – great way to set it up. bought a 2
nd bike and have really enjoyed using them on the excellent bike trails around here.
Of course there are the daily chats on the dock with the other cruisers comparing notes on interpretation of the weather forecasts, where we should be heading, when we think we might leave the marina and in general just comparing notes. We have met lots of nice people here that way – we are waiting here with a couple of Dutch, Swedish and even another American boat that came in recently. It was nice to see another US flag waving as they are quite rare here in Europe from what we have seen.
When we first arrived in A Coruna we had heard about a major festival, the Festival of San Juan which was to be held June 24
th (summer solstice). When we first heard about it we thought it was a shame we wouldn’t be around to see it. Well, the upside of being stuck here because of the weather is we get to participate in the festival.
For centuries people of northern Spain have been celebrating the summer solstice with bonfires, fireworks, bread, sardines, music and dancing. It
We Made It To The "Mall"
We made it to the shopping mall in A Coruna after being here a couple of weeks –this one is quite large but looked very similar to those in the US. Big difference? Restaurants close between 4PM and 8:30PM even in the mall! Fast food stays open for those that have to eat between these times. is said that this is the time to drive evil out and when the witches flee. For days people have been collecting firewood, old furniture, wooden pallets and anything else that could burn to build their bonfires on the beaches by the city. We ventured out with another couple around 9:30PM and had a chance to see thousands of young people milling around on the beaches around the bonfires they had built. Some of these were relatively modest made of a few shipping pallets and others were multi-story affairs. The designated time to light the bonfires was midnight and it was quite a speculator show with fires dotting the beaches and then a huge fireworks display went off. Adding to the display was the setting off of hundreds of paper lanterns rising into the night sky lit up by candles that powered them upward. Tradition states that you must jump over the fire 7 times in order to obtain good luck and obtain protection. In the middle of the beach (this beach is probably four or 5 km long) a large wooden building had been erected and at the top of the building was a witch riding on a broom.
Picture of the "Mall"
This mall is said to be the 3rd largest in Europe. Not sure however as quite a few of the places were empty spaces, others seemed to be high end stores. As soon as the fireworks were over this large multi-story building started to smoke and then burst into flames. It was a spectacular display to put it mildly. There were easily thousands of people lining the beach watching this all take place. We finally gave up and headed back to the boat when the smoke got so thick our eyes were burning. The irony is that ever since the festival we have had sunny blue skies instead of grey ones, summer has begun. We now are just waiting for the rest of the good luck to bring us calm seas and better winds.
For the past few days we have been watching a shift in the weather and it looks like we will be leaving tomorrow (July 2). Janice just downloaded a weather forecast on the SSB that is predicting good weather for our continued northern movement. Our next stop will be in France in the province of Brittany. We should get there by the late afternoon of Thursday, July 4
th. We have heard wonderful things about this part of France and are looking forward to getting back on the road again.
We hope you all will
Interesting Combination
The military museum is located in what had been an old monastery – it was strange to see rose pedals & rice around the armament – we saw why as the church is right next door & this is the season for weddings. have a very pleasant July 4 holiday and although we will not be there with you we will be thinking about you. Take care.
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