Blogs from Vigo, Galicia, Spain, Europe - page 4

It is a Marine Park and probably the best place I have ever seen in Spain about nature and wildlife. About 85 percent is underwater. The great thing is that it is only a stone throw to the mainland, about nine miles away from Vigo city (15 kilometers). That time I was not alone, as always, but with my cousin David that kindly accompanied me, here, in this beautiful island. There could not be better place than this one for a bit of respite and to escape from the great stress of the ordinary life. The flora is abundant in the Cíes Islands. Numerous trails wind around the islands and we went for some exploration of the surroundings. Along the way we admired the great population of eucalyptol and pine trees forest that combined with the ... read more

About an hour’s walk from my flat, there is a beach called Samil, maybe it is the fact that since I left Liverpool 10 years ago, I haven’t lived near a beach – Leeds, San Jose, Xiangfan and Budapest all being decidedly inland – but as beaches go, it’s a damn good one. White sand, clear blue water, little quiet inlets and bays and lots of rocks just waiting to be climbed on. The islands opposite, accessible only by boat and only in the summer, are called The Cíes Islands and a few years ago they were voted the most beautiful beaches in the world – although by whom is something I’m not sure about as it may have been The Cíes Islands tourist board for all I know. Of course, it’s not all sunshine and ... read more

When getting to somewhere new I always have a tendency to compare my arrival with my arrivals in the places before it, almost as a way of getting a handle on things immediately and trying to get a feeling of comfortability and familiarity straightaway. Getting to Vigo airport was no different. The jet-lag, the nerves and the crying baby on the plane were all reminiscent of the flights to Costa Rica, China and Budapest, which provided me with some comfort. What was different, however, was that here, I was accompanied on the flight by the entire Celta Vigo squad (the local football team) who then proceeded to chat to kids who were staring in awe before loading all of their gear up themselves and leaving – difficult to imagine this happening in England somehow. It was ... read more

Hi all Well we've been on the road now for 81 days and covered over 2700 miles and loved nearly all of it, you'll see from this blog that northern Spain gave us a few problems. We had intended to spend a lot longer here but the lack of open sites and ADS's meant that we were very limited on where we could go, but we made the most of it as you'll see. Monday 27th September The first things that struck me as we crossed the border into Spain (although there isn't any visible border these days) was the obvious changes in building appearance and shop names, but it was the writing on the road signs that changed dramatically, these weren't written in Spanish they were in Basque, we were now in the Euskadi region ... read more

The Three Rias we visited - Muros, Pontevedra and Vigo So many people we had spoken to told us how beautiful the Rias of north west Spain were. In all honesty, we had no idea of what to expect in real terms but essentially they are like big, long and wide areas of water, a bit like Pittwater near Sydney in some ways. They have towns and villages dotting the coastline in some of them and in others such as Ria de Vigo, the city of Vigo takes up a big chunk of the coast. Our first port of call was of course Portosin in the Ria de Muros where we sailed to from La Coruna. Portosin is a small seaside town with a pretty active fishing fleet. The marina is not all that large and ... read more