Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 17

Yesterday, we had the full day to explore, so we decided to head out in the morning for a long walk along the coast. Our Airbnb host had said that there was a nice beach 7-10 km away, and that most of it could be walked along the shoreline. She said there was a river, which we could just wade at the mouth of, and some rocks that we'd have to go up and behind to pass. The day started a bit cool, especially with the almost constant wind, so I had on heavier pants, sweater, scarf and my rainjacket. We started out along the beach. After walking awhile, we came to the river, which was about mid-calf to wade through, and continued on our way. The beach stretched on forever, and was very wide. The ... read more

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

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

Today us our last sightseeing day, we’re in the morning flight home tomorrow. We don’t get up early as we could not secure tickets for the cathedral until 11.20am. I expect it will be thronging but it can’t be helped! A leisurely breakfast in the kitchen where I meet a couple of Danish people who arrived last night. they also had difficulty working out how to gain access to the building…so it wasn’t just us then! they are on their way to Marbella (can’t think of anything worse?). We set off and find ourselves at the cathedral an hour early. Unlike the Alcazaba there are strict queues so there will be no sneaking in early. We go for a wander around the shady streets of the Santa Cruz area. Ian is amusing himself mocking the tour ... read more