Vigo, Spain

---

Day 1 Boarding Queen Elizabeth for her Maiden Cruise.
It turned out to be a good idea to relax at the nearby Hotel with a coffee until close to sailing time. As we were one of the last to turn up we avoided the queues and were whisked straight on board by they friendly greeters (Alex was getting a little concerned about arriving so close to boarding time, within 5 minutes, Ron of course was unconcerned)

Day 2 At Sea
Our first full day as sea was spent exploring the ship and eating delicious food. Alex found the library and checked out two books to read, Ron was pleased to win the trivia competition in a team with our friends Susan, Chris, Gale & Ian. We finished the night by winning another voucher for being brave enough to get up and rock and roll at the yacht club. It was fantastic to be able to put on the TV before retiring and see that all the Chilean miners had been rescued.

Day 3 Vigo
We joined a Cunard tour to the medieval city of Santiago de Compostela to see the Cathedral. The trip to Santiago took around an hour on the bus, our guide gave an excellent commentary all the way. We travelled along the bay of Vigo passing many oyster and mussels farms, seafood is a local delicacy.

We were surprised to see Eucalyptus trees along the way, apparently a priest bought Eucalyptus seeds hidden in a walking stick to the town many years ago with plan to produce eucalyptus for health reasons, the locals soon discovered the trees were a great source of timber and they now can been seen in great numbers, a little bit of Australia in Spain.

The area near the cathedral in Santiago was lovely with many old picturesque buildings and cobbled streets. The cathedral is monument to Christ’s apostle, James, whose relics are believed to have been discovered here in the 9th century. Half a million pilgrims flock each year to this shrine, which was once the third most important place of pilgrimage after Jerusalem and Rome. We saw a number of pilgrims, with backpacks walking into the city. We were lucky to be able to pass the lines of people waiting to enter the cathedral as between certain times tour guides are allowed to by-pass the crowds and take their tour groups through.

We toured the four squares of the town surrounding the Cathedral, our guide explained the four sides of one of the most important square represented, charity - the hotel accommodation for the pilgrims, justice - the law courts, education - school & religion- the cathedral.

We had refreshments at the 15th century Parador Hostal de los Reyes Catolicos, a beautiful hotel with many charming courtyards. Ron and I were happy to be able to sit in one of the quiet courtyards while enjoying our afternoon tea listening to the water trickling in the fountain, a very peaceful place.

On the trip back to the ship the tour guide played some light classical music in the bus resulting in a number of the passengers nodding off. When we arrived back at the ship around 2pm, Ron and I decided to explore the port of Vigo on foot. We walked through the narrow streets climbing towards a lookout at El Castro Mount where we enjoyed panoramic views out offer the Galician countryside and down the bay.

After climbing the hill we decided to find some refreshments, we found a small local café, no one understood English but somehow Ron managed to explain cold beer, which we both enjoyed. We walked around the town until was nearly time to board the ship, with 10 minutes to spare we spotted a hairdressing and using hand signals, as no one spoke English, we managed to get Ron a good haircut and shampoo for only 5 Euros and still board just in time.

---

Comments

[Dee]

i really enjoyed reading that ron and looking at pics keep me informed to were your both visiting next and i look forward to next blog x x