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.
IN MEMORY OF THE MURDERED IN THE FASCIST UPRISING OF 1936
FONTES BEACH, AUGUST 17, 2002
A. VV. OUR LAND
