Low-key day in Vigo

We didn’t do a lot today. Some preparation for trip home. Charlie did a self-guilded tour of Vigo’s architecture. I did some shopping and strolling around.

We’ll fly from Vigo to Madrid on Thursday and then from Madrid to Atlanta to Albuquerque on Friday. Delta made some changes that forces us to do an unexpected 24 hour layover in Madrid. We aren’t happy about that but at least it’s a long enough layover that we can spend a few hours in Madrid and sleep in a hotel overnight.

Here are a few photos to tell the story of today.

I snapped this photo yesterday morning when we were walking to the boat. I quite liked the look of this building. Then this morning Charlie showed me a brochure about a self-guided architecture tour he planned to take. I told him about this building I’d spotted on our hurried walk to the harbour and we checked and, sure enough, it was on the tour he took today. (Let me know if you want details.) Vigo has some beautiful buildings.
This is a pedestrian street a block from our airbnb. Some nice buildings here, too, but not quite as striking as the one in the first photo. We stopped to listen to a street musician. We could hear her from our apartment and that drew us out. You might be able to spot her in white blouse with microphone standing against the building on the left. There have been several musicians at this corner. Many are basically singing karaoke. But they have good voices.
This is our new favorite cafe in Vigo: Migas (which means crumbs). We’ve eaten here twice and wish we had more days to eat here again. (Would we be crazy to go back again tomorrow?) We got there just as they opened, so the restaurant was empty when I snapped this photo, but it soon filled up completely. Every table was reserved. When we called for our 1:30 reservation, they apologetically said we could only stay till 3:00. In Spain that’s considered a rushed lunch. We got there at 1:00 and were out by 2:00, despite lingering over coffee and dessert at the end.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vBuiAR4TjhNxANm76
The menu was different both times.
You’ll never drink alone at this bar. (Passed on the way to Migas.)
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MARCO) is nearby so we stopped in there today. There was an exhibit by a Madrid painter, Alfonso Galván, and an exhibit by a political organization of mothers whose children had been or were drug addicts. I didn’t totally understand what they had to do with the art displayed, but the above photos were striking. (I finally realized they are of the same young woman.) I know it is naive, but it hard for me to believe there are troubled kids here. We see so many parents of young children and they seem like model parents. All the kids and young people and adults young and old seem to be content and healthy. But we do see a lot of graffiti. I wonder what percentage of kids are involved in that. Might not take many to make a huge impact.

Excursion to Cies Islands

The Cies Island are a small archipelago off the coast of Galicia, a 50 minute ferry ride from Vigo. They are included in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%ADes_Islands

We did a 8 hour excursion there today with Noah. I’ll tell the story with photos.

Just leaving on the ferry. That’s a cruise ship across the way. Named “Sky Princess”. We were amazed by its size. We looked it up and it is about half as big as the biggest cruise ships in the world.
On the boat ride out Charlie sat downstairs to avoid the sun. Some girls asked if he’d watch their food while they went off somewhere. Left there on seat. Another time, back in Lugo, a young girl asked Charlie to watch her bag while we were sitting near a playground. Charlie must look very trustworthy.
Charlie eventually came up to the top of the boat.
On the island. A big sandbar joins two islands, making them seem like one island. The first thing we did was walk the length of the sandy beach. Maybe 1/2 mile long?
We hiked up to a lighthouse. (Forgot to take a photo of that.) Here Noah and Wynette took a selfie.
The rocks were covered with bright gold lichen. There were some scary cliffs that we looked over on our hands and knees.
Overlooking the camping area. I’m assuming families and groups can rent these tents and stay overnight.
Noah on the hike to lighthouse.
We ate lentils and salads and patatas bravas at one of the three eating places on the island. Then Charlie and I hung out while Noah walked back to this smaller beach (pictured above) that we had spotted on our hike. He went for a swim and sun bathed. He said it’s been very rainy in Madrid and he (a California boy) has been missing the sun.

A few photos from yesterday, Sunday, May 4

Sunset outside our apartment window last night
Inside a dry cleaners’ window
Mexican food for lunch …
… at Sierra Madre Taqueria
Fortress at the top of the very steep hill in park not far from our apartment. We all 3 made it there on solo excursions. Nobody had to wait for slow me.
View from the park
And, of course, there was a bar just outside the entrance to the fortress.
Charlie and Noah chillin’ on the couch. Well, Noah was studying.

Vigo and Noah!

Charlie, Wynette, Noah

Thursday morning we left Melide. Well over 4000 pilgrims reached Santiago on Thursday. We did, too, but we did it by bus. Then, from Santiago we caught another bus to Vigo where we are staying a week in an Airbnb. Vigo is on the coast in the southwest corner of Galicia and is its largest city. Its population is around 300,000 but it feels far larger than Albuquerque which has over 500,000. Vigo is much more dense with lots of tall apartment buildings, typical in every Spanish city we’ve been to.

Charlie’s great nephew Noah is doing a semester abroad in Madrid. He traveled here to spend time with us in Vigo. It’s been great spending time with him. He said his classes are all Tuesday through Thursday so he has a four day weekend every week and has traveled somewhere every weekend: Seville, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Valencia, Paris, Amsterdam, and now he can add Vigo to his list. Of course, he’d never heard of Vigo before this and you probably haven’t either! He’s clearly an experienced traveler and knows how to find his way around the city, transportation, etc. He spent the fall semester in Mexico City and he’s fluent in Spanish. It’s fun to hear him talk with the locals. He loves to play cards. He taught us a new game last night and I have a feeling we’ll play something tonight.

It’s been rainy off and on but we’ve managed to do a few things. Walk around the city and see a few sites. This morning we caught a bus to Samil Beach. Very pretty and Noah got in a good run there. It’s supposed to rain more tomorrow but that is good because next week he has finals and papers due and he needs to spend tomorrow studying. On Monday we plan to catch a ferry to the Cies Islands.

Jules Verne statue
At Samil beach. (It’s a long beach, wish I’d taken a photo of the other end.)
Amy Winehouse drawing in great little cafe we ate in yesterday: Migas
Monument at the beach. It says:
IN MEMORY OF THE MURDERED IN THE FASCIST UPRISING OF 1936
FONTES BEACH, AUGUST 17, 2002
A. VV. OUR LAND
Noah in the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta shirt he bought in a thrift shop in Bilbao.
Noah just got back from hiking up a small mountain in a large park in the middle of Vigo, near our airbnb. He took this beautiful photo from up there, sunset hour.

More storks

When we were leaving Melide Thursday morning, we saw storks on the other side of the cathedral tower. Managed to get a few more photos.

Mates?
Then one of them took off.
I’m pretty sure there is a chick in the nest, his head just popping up.

WynChar Diary, April 30

  • Camino walking: As Seixas to Melide, 9.3 miles in 5:41 hours, moving 3:37
  • Elevation: up 761 feet and down 1243, between 2290 and 1368 feet.
  • 63 flights of stairs up.
  • Last day of April and our last day on the Camino Primitivo. A fairly long day.
  • Melide is where the Primitivo merges with the Frances, which is the main one and is, in some sense, THE Camino, that is, the one everyone knows and the most popular one. Most pilgrims merge into the Frances and walk the last 50-odd km to Santiago. We have been to Santiago several times and so tomorrow we take the bus to Vigo to stay for a week.
  • Frances Freakout: At a bar stop today we talked with a pilgrim who said the Frances is full. He tried to get a reservation for the night every place between Melide and Santiago and everything was full. He said hundreds of pilgrims were lining up at albergues trying to get a bed for the night. We have been reading on the Camino Forum about the crowds and the “bed race” where people get up at 3-4 in the morning in order to get a bed at the end of their days walk. People walking talk of being in long lines of pilgrims.
  • On the other hand we just finished the Primitivo and there were a fair number of pilgrims but not crowds in any sense and we were usually alone on the trail. Many people don’t know how many different Caminos there are.
  • Last night we stayed at an albergue in As Seixas, in a small but very nice private room with private bath. There were only two other pilgrims staying there. The woman who runs the place made us a wonderful dinner with the best Gallego soup we have ever had. We ate and chatted with a man from Australia and one from Germany.
  • We had another cattle incident today, our third, very low key with cattle who mainly wanted to get out to the field and start munching grass.
  • Today was another very pleasant day with a lot of variety. It was kind of sad to know it was our last day but we are ready to move to our stay in Vigo.
  • We finally saw some stork nests and storks, three nests at the top of the Melide Cathedral. Storks really like to next in church towers. We had been wondering where they all were.
  • We see horreos, that is, corn drying structures, all over now we are in the heart of Galicia. I have dozens of pictures of them but I have talked a lot about them in previous blogs so I will refrain.
A typical horreo
The cows mostly stayed to the right.
Walking into Melide. We finally spotted stork nests on the church tower. If you look closely you can see a stork in the next on the lower right.