We hadn’t done any advance research on the Port City of ‘Vigo’, primarily because we didn’t know that we were going to come here 🤷♂️ The only research we had done, once we knew that we were, was to look for accommodations and then, once here, to look for somewhere to eat dinner that first night. But, now that we are here, and me being a bit of a night owl, after returning to our hotel after our ‘Mexican Style’ fusion dinner 🤭 I started to gather bit’s and pieces of information about the things that we could possibly see and do, in and around the city. It was only when I started doing this research that I came to the realisation that, if we had arrived just a couple of weeks earlier, when the weather had been a lot better, and the main tourist season activities would not have been starting to close down, as they now appeared to be doing, that even two weeks here probably would not have been enough to do it justice. Of course their would be nothing actually stopping us from extending our stay here, but the changing cooler, and high possibility of wetter weather, would prevent us from doing a lot of what would normally have been possible in warmer conditions and when there were more gentler sea states. One example of what we were to miss out on was as a boat trip to the ‘Cies Islands’, or visit some of the 119 beaches along this coastline, many of them being of fine white sand, other’s were smaller sandy coves, whilst some were rugged rocky trajectories that, at low tides, revealed hundreds of rock pools. Additionally, their were lots of coastal footpaths and hill walking trails, visits to several other Coastal villages and towns and a couple of sightseeing opportunities right here in Vigo itself. I remember thinking to myself, no wonder many Motor Homers from the UK, who travel to Spain for their 90 day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ period, never actually get beyond Galicia before their limited time runs out. So, and for the second time already on this road trip, I found myself thinking about the possibilities we were missing, ‘If only we had chosen to import the ‘Little Fokker’, now we would, as residents of Spain, not have been under such time restrictions and limitations to visit such places 🤔 Sometimes, this damn ‘Hindsight’ stuff can get to be a right pain in the proverbial, I thought to myself 🙄 So, albeit we would not get an opportunity to do the ‘Cies Islands’, at least not on this visit, they themselves would be worthy of a return trip at some point in the future. I also thought that if anyone reading this was planning on coming to Vigo during the Summer months, that I would take the liberty of perhaps pointing you in the direction of one of the ‘must do’ things to put on your itinerary:
Cies Islands
The Cies Islands are an archipelago off the coast of both Vigo and Pontevedra, in the mouth of the ‘Ria de Vigo’ and were declared a Nature Reserve in 1980. They consist of three separate Islands, ‘Monteagudo, ‘‘do Faro’’ and ‘San Martin’. The underwater area surrounding the ‘Cies’ forms one of the richest ecosystems on the Galician Coast, the perimeter of the islands have different types of environments, the cliffs which are exposed to the waves are populated by barnacles and mussels, in its very rocky underwater areas there are crabs, spider crabs, lobsters and octopus, numerous molluscs, turbot, plaice, sole and sea urchins, all of which play a role in Galicia’s gastronomy, but fishing in the waters that surround these Islands is not permitted. On the Islands themselves are forests, so the area is a haven for birds, Seagulls, Iberian Guillemots, Birds of Prey, Pigeons, Petrels, Doves, Woodpeckers amongst other much smaller species. These abundant waters are rich in biodiversity and attract Whales, Dolphins, Blue Sharks, Basking Sharks and Turtles. In the Summer months, boats from nearby Ports, including Vigo, take visitor’s from the mainland to the ‘Monteagudo’ Island where there are nine separate beaches and lots of walking opportunities, although you do need a licence to visit which some day boat trip booking agencies will organise for you, or you can obtain one yourself from the Port at Vigo. Tent camping is also permitted in a camping area, a licence is required for that too and has to be reserved ‘in advance’, again from Vigo Port. There is a Supermarket, Visitor Centre and Restaurant on the island for visitor’s but there are no litter bins, so this has to be taken back by visitors and disposed of on the mainland.
As it was, we had currently only allowed ourselves four full sightseeing days in Vigo, this ‘all day’ Island trip would have been high on both of our ‘To Do’ lists, however, this is where a bit of advance planning, and not ‘Going With The Flow’ would certainly have proven to have been a distinct advantage, as now, on checking the boat trip websites, all the dates were fully booked for the coming week 😢 After that, the Islands would be closed to tourists, as it was the official end of their Summer Season 🤷♂️ But in our defence, we didn’t know that we were coming here, so there was no point in me being disappointed, after all, there was still plenty of other stuff to do, although selecting what, could be our biggest headache, as their were still so many possibilities available to us, as long as we took some precautionary rainwear in our rucksacks, as the ‘Works of Fiction’ were beginning to be as reliable as a chocolate fireguard, messing around with the forecasts that they were issuing, on a daily basis 🤷♂️ Ideally, we wanted to use our legs, rather than a motorised means of transportation to get ourselves around, although we wouldn’t rule out using the car if necessary. Anyway, I came up with a sort of a plan, which I would of course share with Shazza, when she awoke the following morning, but she would already have been anticipating that I would 🤭
Day 4 – Vigo
As is usual I was awake first, or at least I was the one that got up first and made the coffee’s. I think Shazza just pretends to be asleep, until I get up and make the coffee and then put her cup on her bedside locker when, conveniently, her eyes suddenly open 😉 We then held our morning conference, although it did seem a little bit unusual not conducting this on our own balcony, but as we currently didn’t have one 🤷♂️ I have to admit, it was rather a pleasant change laying in bed with my coffee having our discussions, “Don’t get too used to it though” Shazza had said, with a mischievous smile on her face. I ran through my burning the midnight oil research results from the previous night with her. I had been correct with thinking that she would be just as disappointed as I was about the boat trip, but we maintained our philosophy of ‘not worrying about things that we can neither control or influence’. She actually liked my idea about our next four days here, I suggested that perhaps we both select things that we each want to do, and then conduct our personally selected choices on alternate days, as quick as a flash she says, “Okay, you go first, we will do what you want to do today”, but I of course realised that that was because she hadn’t yet had a chance to look at things that she may want to do, which I guess was fair enough, but, as she would have already guessed anyway, I had already made ‘a plan’ for my first activity choice. I wouldn’t make my second choice until I had seen what it was that she had in store for me the following day, I was already hoping that it may have been an Anti-Covid Vaccine Pub Crawl, although I knew that in reality that that was just wishful thinking on my part 😂
Now, just in case, like us, you have never visited Vigo before. When you look at any road map, electronic or otherwise, everywhere just looks flat, and so sometimes it can come as a bit of a surprise when you think, because you are going to a coastal location with a large Port, and your brain naturally tells you that it is of course going to be at sea level, but then, when you actually see it with your own eyes, and realise that actually it isn’t quite as level as you believed it was going to be, well………. Bienvenidos a Vigo ! (Welcome to Vigo)
Now I am not stupid, irrespective of what other people may tell you about me, so of course I realised that going to visit my first choice activity, which was to the ‘Fortaleza O Castro’ (Castle), or at least the remnants of one (two actually, Eric !) was going to be a bit of an uphill walk, but what I hadn’t realised was the amount of uphill effort that would be required 😲
But first, now that I am getting into the inclusion of some of this ‘History’ M’larky in these current rambles, although please don’t expect this to become a habit after this trip, so, without further ado, take it away Mr Google, …………….or was it Mr Wickapedia this time 🤔
The O Castro mountain is the point of origin of the city of Vigo, the place where the first settlers settled. Here we can find remains of military buildings dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. Today, some 45 stone constructions are still preserved on the right side of the mountain. In the Middle Ages, the O Castro Castle was built, which was erected at the same time as the San Sebastián Castle and the fortress that linked the two. The O Castro fortress was made up of three walled enclosures. Today, only the first enclosure and part of the second remain; the third, which was the city wall, has completely disappeared. The first enclosure is the fortress that crowns the summit of O Castro, now converted into a viewing point. The second enclosure is the fortress of San Sebastián, currently occupied by the Plaza del Rey and the town hall. Passages and tunnels have been found that connected the castles to each other and to the city. On the O Castro mountain we can also find the monument dedicated to Curros Enríquez, the greatest representative of Galician literature of the 19th century; a monument dedicated to Martín Códax (medieval troubadour); the Galleons of Rande – a monument dedicated to the Battle of Rande in 1702; the Cross of the Fallen (a monument in honour of those who fell during the Spanish Civil War). O Castro is also a magnificent botanical park, with a great variety of native and foreign species.
So, as you may just have gathered by now, Vigo is actually built on a hill, a really big hill as it happens, although I am not sure that I would call it a mountain as ‘they’ describe it. Now, from the Port, which is of course at sea level, and where our accommodation is located, each upper level is formed by differen streets, running parallel with each other and many of these streets are their own quite unique smaller suburbs of Vigo city, with their own rows of retail outlets, Cafe’s and Restaurants and, if like us, you happen to have chosen to be on foot and walking, to coin the title of an 80’s UK pop hit, ‘The Only Way Is Up’ and to do so means traversing long and steep steps to get up to each level, their are ‘at least’ ten different street levels 😲 to be honest we lost count when we quickly started to re-prioritise our focus on breathing, rather than counting streets 😮💨😮💨 However, their is not a straight line of steps up each level to get to the top, so you have to zig zag your way up, sometimes walking fifty or so metres along a street to locate the next set of steep steps up to the next level 😲 But there are opportunities, if you are so inclined (excuse the pun), to stop at some levels and look back and admire the views over the rooftops to the rest of the city and down towards the sea. You may not be surprised to hear that we stopped to admire the views, quite frequently as it happens 😂
After completing our third lot of steps we crossed the road and you know, when people talk about nearly dying of thirst in the desert, then they see an Oasis which saved their lives, well we unexpectedly came across our own version of such an oasis, it came in the form of a glass elevator, one, that on closer investigation revealed that it would, free of any charge, raise us effortlessly up a further ‘two’ street levels. As we exited the elevator, almost directly across the street, on a corner, we saw a Cafe and agreed that it would be a good time to stop for a spot of breakfast, we stuck with our usual traditional Spanish Fayre, but if I am completely honest, if they had have served a ‘Full English’ I would have most certainly have gone for it at that stage, and very much the ‘Muchas Grande’ version without any doubt 😂 Unfortunately though, they didn’t, so Tostado it was 😕 But such stops provide the opportunity to relax, people watch and take a look around at the immediate environment, sometimes you just happen to see things to your advantage ?
They say, and exactly who ‘they’ are, I have absolutely no idea, but anyway, ‘they’ say that timing is everything, and there is some truth in that, for had we have not stopped on this particular level, at that particular time, and at that particular cafe, and outside on a pavement table as opposed to inside, then we would have failed to observe, whilst we were eating our breakfast’s, that set back from the road, very discreetly, was a ‘Funicular Rail’ type mechanism, one that once again, completely free of charge, would take us effortlessly up another street level, although only one this time, but it meant one less set of steep steps to climb, so perhaps ‘fate’ was also lending us a hand too, for had we not have seen the ‘Elevator’, or the ‘Funicular’ mechanism we would have had to continue climbing up long steep steps to the top, or decide to give it up as a bad idea and go and spend the day on an Anti-Covid Vaccine pub crawl, you know that ‘hindsight’ thing I often keep mentioning………. 🤔 Even with mechanical assistance, we were still not at the top, once we had alighted the funicular mechanism, we still had to ascend another four street levels and then, unfortunately, once at the top street level, thinking we had reached the summit, we discovered that we still needed to walk ‘up’ a long winding pedestrian pathway in a park to get to the actual ‘Fortaleza’, but, eventually we made it 🥳🥳 It was only once we got up to the top that we discovered a large ‘free’ car park, or that we could have purchased tickets for a city bus tour that stopped here for thirty-minutes to allow people to get off and have a look around, I think from the look on her face, if Shazza had been presented with an opportunity to push me over one of the castle walls she may just have been tempted 😲 “But think of the calories we have just burnt off and the exercise we have just had” I said, albeit I ensured that I spoke those words from a very safe distance, and with several witnesses close by 😂 God help what she may now decide to have in store for me tomorrow 😳😲
I found the Forteleza quite interesting and, thankfully, after Shazza had got her breath back from the walk, and climb, she did too, so I live to visit more castles another day, although our method of transport up to them may require a little more consultation with my beloved in the future 🤭 We actually spent quite a bit of time wandering around, Shazza and I going off in different directions to each other, she just lookin at the views from different vantage points, whilst I explored every nook and cranny. After a short break for a refreshment stop, just bottles of water to re-hydrate, although we could have purchased a Sandwich for lunch, Shazza said that she wasn’t feeling hungry at that point, which was a bit unusual I have to admit, but I didn’t think anymore about it as she would be sure to let me know when she was. “So, is that it, is that all you wanted to do today ?” She asked inquisitively, “Well, actually yes and no” I responded, she looked confused, “I do have another part to my day’s plan, but actually part two is actually more for you than me” I told her. I then went on to explain that there was a Museum, located inside an old ‘Stately House’, one that you could walk around, this house was located in a massive public park, which I imagine would have originally been the grounds belonging to the Estate once upon a time, but there were also large private gardens at the back of the house that you could walk around too and, the entrance to the house and gardens was actually ‘free’ of charge. “I know that you like looking around old houses and all that sort of stuff, so I just thought we could kill two birds with one stone, Castle in the morning, Stately Home in the afternoon, what do you think ?” She thought it was a great idea, “Where is it ?” had been her obvious next question, and the one I was now a bit concerned about 😳 I got out the street map, with having just walked to the Fontaleza, I was now better able to judge the distances a bit more accurately, it was only then that I realised that it didn’t look as close as I had initially thought 🫣 On Google it indicates a forty-minute walk to the other side of the city”, I said hesitantly, but I don’t know if that is uphill or downhill 🤷♂️ “That’s okay, it isn’t really that far, and I don’t think that it is likely to be any higher than this is” she responded fairly cheerfully, “We could always grab a taxi if you want” I suggested, “No, lets walk, we have been sat in a car for the last three days, so the exercise will do us good” she said. Remember a comment I made earlier about ‘Hindsight’, and in an earlier ramble about ‘Google’ maps, in relation to its ineptitude when it comes to walking directions ? Well, on this occasion, perhaps we should have gone with the taxi suggestion 😳
But Shazza was right, and to be fair, occasionally, she is 🤭 But other than for exercise purposes, sometimes it is also good to walk because then you get to see a lot more that’s around you, just keep telling yourself that Eric 🙄 But thankfully, the walking route took us in a downward direction, although not back down as far as sea level, but down through part of what we discovered was the central area of the city, along, and across, wide and busy traffic filled roads and of course we passed lots of typical globally recognisable branded high street stores, this area was modern Vigo, but it could have been a high street in any number of other Spanish, or European, cities as far as we were concerned, for they all tend to look, and sound, much the same, noisy and crowded. The suburb that we are staying in is considered as the waterfront area, the more touristy area, and where the cruise ships moor up and ditch unload their passengers, so not the ‘real’ Vigo.
Google directions then took us down several side streets and back roads, it was like going back in time, from the very modern noisy traffic congested roads to very narrow roads with some beautiful old stone rows of terraced houses, with small, but very pretty, flower adorned postage stamp sized front gardens with low stone-walled entrances and wrought iron gates, then there were the very much larger residences, partially hidden behind their tall thick stone walls and thick tall and solid, wooden entry gates. So we had gone from the sounds of the modern world with its noisy traffic, and all the hustle and bustle of city life, to now being transported into a world of peace and tranquility, one that was filled with colour, tree’s and birdsong, we soon began to forget the burning sensation on the soles of our feet, and the slight tightness that we were beginning to feel in our calf muscles, for we had already walked a fair distance already since leaving the hotel earlier that morning.
It was only when we came to a junction in the road, and crossed a hump backed bridge that crossed a small river, that we could see the forested park on one side of us, but it was bordered with a waist high dry-stone wall and we needed to find an entrance. It was by pure chance that for some reason I had looked behind me as we crossed over the bridge and I saw a path, on the opposite side of the road, that switched back and down, under the bridge, and which gave pedestrian access into a corner of this massive public park. Once into the park itself there were wide dirt paths leading off in all directions, their were joggers, walkers and dog walkers and cyclists, fortunately we came across a large board with a park layout map, I say fortunately because Google maps was having a bit of a nervous breakdown at this point, the blue direction arrow just going around in circles and jumping from side to side 🤷♂️ so, from the park map we were able to get our bearings and head towards our ultimate destination, the ‘Pazo Quinones de Leon’
We didn’t know what to expect, I mean in the UK, ‘Stately Homes’ these days are usually managed by the ‘National Trust’ or ‘English Heritage’ Organisations and, generally speaking, they have long tree lined avenues leading up to them, and the houses themselves were generally pretty big and very impressive from the outside. There would be a car park somewhere along the entrance road, where you would ‘Pay At The Meter’ the parking fee, before proceeding to the main entrance, where you would then pay the appropriate entry fee, to visit the house, unless of course you had joined and paid the annual subscription fee to whichever Organisation that managed it, although to just visit the gardens and grounds were usually free. So, before I add my own personal photographs, and for those that are interested in this sort of stuff, I hand you back over to Mr. Google to provide you with some history of the place……………
I was quite impressed that entry to something like this was provided to the general public ‘free of charge’, and not even a cheeky little ‘Donations’ box at the exit. As this is something that interests Shazza, I would have been more than happy to have paid an entrance fee or given a donation, although of course, I wasn’t complaining that I didn’t have to 🤭
I hadn’t expected very much before we entered, but even I was very pleasantly surprised, the house was on four levels, although the basement, where presumably the kitchen areas on the lower ground floor were located, and the fourth floor, were not accessible to the Public 🤷♂️ But the Ground and first floors were accessible, and you could wander at your own leisure, there was artwork and furnishings from the period on display in most rooms which made it feel still lived in, although areas were roped off to prevent people from sitting on the furniture or touching ornaments and such like. I left Shazza to just wander around at her own pace, like she had done with me at the Forteleza. She was probably imagining living in such a place during the period, as I do with Castles and old Lighthouses, although she did say that she was a little disappointed at not being able to view ‘below stairs’, mainly the Kitchen and Scullery areas. Once she had seen everything in the main house we wandered into a separate ‘museum area’ that contained archaeological pieces that were discovered probably during the renovations of the house and grounds, again, not really of interest to either of us ‘History Heathens’ 🙄 But we were now both looking forward to getting into the gardens, we like parks and gardens, although I couldn’t tell you the names of most of the plants and shrubs, but private gardens like this, from earlier times, can usually be very interesting. Unfortunately, much like we had already come across on this road trip elsewhere, and probably due to both the drought conditions and the time of year, this garden wasn’t quite as impressive as we had hoped or expected that it would be, it could all have done with a lot more TLC 🤷♂️ Nevertheless, we wandered around anyway and, at one point, Shazza froze in fear on believing she had seen a snake right at her feet 😲
We had enjoyed our bit of a more leisurely walk, but time was now knocking on, it was already mid-afternoon and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast 😲 Now that is not unusual for me, I can usually go all day without food if I have eaten a late breakfast, but for Shazza !! well that is totally unheard of, but not once during our time out had she mentioned food. “Are you hungry ?” I asked her, “Not really, but if we find a Cafe on the way back I would probably stop and have a sandwich” she replied. Now for anyone who has been following these rambles from the beginning, since our motor-homing days, you will recall how, if we hadn’t stopped to make, or purchase, lunch by 1pm, at the very latest, Shazza would go exceptionally quiet and get very grumpy, she was a three meals a day sort of girl, but for several days now she has kept saying that she has not been hungry, I have to admit that quietly, I was beginning to get somewhat concerned although, whenever I asked her if she was alright, she would say that she was fine 🤷♂️
We re-traced part of our route back the same way we had approached the park, through the nice quiet streets, but when we got to a certain point, Google directions instructed us to head in a different direction, which made sense as we were now across the opposite side of the town to where the ‘Forteleza’ was located and we were heading back down to our hotel from a different point. We had expected to continue in a downhill direction, back to sea level, so we got a bit confused when we started to climb up hills again, our calf muscles didn’t like it very much either. We were relieved though when we returned to civilisation, another very busy suburb of the city, which part though we didn’t have a clue and didn’t really care 🤷♂️ but we saw road signs pointing towards the Port. We saw several ‘fast food’ establishments, Pizza’s, Burgers, Kebabs etc. but not one Cafe/Bar that sold either sandwiches, or Tapa’s, and wether it was just the thought of food, or the smell of fat, but I was beginning to feel quite hungry myself, but I didn’t want ‘Junk Food’. We continued walking when it suddenly became quite noticeable that the sky had become much darker, cloudier and grey, and we had come out without rain jackets 😲
We could see the Port, and the sea, so our legs, although feeling pretty weary now, picked up the pace. When we got close to the hotel, having not found a suitable place to eat, we decided that we would go into the supermarket just a couple of minutes walk from the hotel and buy some food to take back to our room. Shazza grabbed one of those ‘Poke Salad Bowl’ things, a bag of crisps and a banana, I grabbed a couple of packs of sandwiches, crisps and also a banana. It was around 4:30pm when we got back to our room, feeling totally knackered, we had been out for the best part of seven hours, walking for the majority of that time, a lot of it uphill, so we both sat on the bed devouring our food, with a nice hot cuppa. I was glad to actually see Shazza eating something at last. Although tired, we had both enjoyed our day and we had both seen things that were of interest to us both, I would call that a successful day out 🤗
We didn’t leave our room again that evening, neither of us wanted to go out to eat dinner, we were still full after eating what was supposed to be lunch, but so late, and our legs were still feeling a little heavy. So we both took steaming hot showers, flicked through all the channels on the TV although we couldn’t find anything that we could easily understand, well not sufficient to watch a complete programme, so we sat in bed watching something or other on Netflix, on our iPads. Wether Shazza had got a plan for the following day I didn’t know and I didn’t ask, as I would of course be doing whatever it was that she chose to do 🤷♂️
I awoke in the early hours to the sound of pitter pattering of rain on the windows, this obviously the rain that had not appeared anywhere in the day’s ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast 🤷♂️ But as we know by now, Meteorology is not an exact science now, is it 😉
To be continued……………………..
Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena
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