Day 6 – Vigo
We do not set alarm clocks these days, unless we have to be up at a specific time to go somewhere, but for some reason I am awake most mornings at 07:30am, albeit that I do not usually go to bed much before 1:00am, so, is this not needing much sleep, an older person sort of thing I ask myself 🤷♂️ I wouldn’t normally make Shazza a coffee until nearer 08:30am and, only then if I heard her in the throws of waking up, but this particular morning she too had awoken early. I looked out of the window, the sky and sea were a nice shade of blue, although I couldn’t actually see the sun shining, I could tell from the view that it too had already started to wipe the sleep from its eyes and was starting to rise. So, kettle on, then coffees made and I awaited my instructions from the ‘gaffer’ as to what we would be doing today. she was quite bright and cheerful this particular morning so I guess she was excited about putting her day’s activity plan into action, “Rucksack, Beach Towel, Swimwear, Bottles of water and some snacks” she commanded, “Yes Ma’am” I responded and gave a swift salute, before assembling and packing said items. What I want to know is, who gave her permission to take my former military rank insignia and sew them on to her knickers 🤷♂️ Today, she informed me that we were going on a hike along a coastal path, but to where was a bit of a mystery, “As far as our legs will carry us, bearing in mind that we will of course have to walk back again” she said. “Will we need our walking boots and walking Poles” I enquired of my trip leader, if we had have done, that would have meant a quick trip down to the car to retrieve them from the boot. “No, just our trainers” she said. Now this I was really looking forward to, nice plan Shazza I thought to myself, finally, a proper walk out in the countryside and along a coastal path, perfect, although, whilst I didn’t actually vocalise my thought on the subject, ‘Swimwear ? , this my dear was the bloody cold Atlantic Ocean and not the lovely warm Mediterranean Sea, your having a laugh if you think I will be dipping anything other than my toes in it’ I thought to myself 😲
To get to the start of the coastal walk proper meant having to walk first along the road past the expansive Commercial Port areas, that was a bit boring as it was just one boatyard building after another, huge cranes and behind the tall, row on row, of warehouse sized shipyard buildings, with the occasional sighting of part of a deep sea trawler in dry dock which, in the water, looks very large, but with their huge hulls totally exposed it gave a true picture of their under bellies and massive girth. However, even these large and heavy steel vessels get thrown around like paper aeroplanes, by the sheer power of the oceans, so it amazes me at times how much smaller, and primarily lightweight plastic constructed vessels, manage to sail around the world in these same oceans. We just kept walking, at least there were no hills to climb today, well not yet anyway. To be honest, I don’t actually mind hills, apart from being good cardio-vascular work outs, the biggest advantage for me is that you tend to get great views over the surrounding landscapes, Shazza however, prefers much flatter walks, so it will be interesting to see what we get on this particular walk, possibly a mix of both, but that is the good thing about unfamiliar environments, you just never know what you are going to encounter.
Eventually, after about twenty-minutes of road walking, which felt as though it had been much longer, we crossed a busy road, the views finally opened up and we came to the head of a small estuary on to a very nice, level and wide pedestrianised foot and cycle path. We were just casually chitter chattering away, as we do, and not really taking too much notice of the direction in which we were actually walking, just really following other people who were out for a stroll along the estuary path, with and without their four-legged friends, some on a morning jog. The sun was high in the sky, although their was still a bit of a cool chill in the air, but it certainly wasn’t cold and it was sure to get warmer as the morning wore on, or so we believed looking at the sunshine sparkling off the lovely calm blue sea and the blue sky above us. We passed a small set of moorings with a few boats, the boats themselves were quite small too, nothing for me to get too excited about but I took a photo anyway. As we gazed across the flat calm water we could see, in the distance, across the other side of the estuary, an old looking lighthouse, we continued walking, still miles away in our own little world, feeling quite relaxed and just enjoying the views, then, as the pedestrian walkway started to bend around to the right we had a lightbulb moment 💡 for it suddenly dawned on us that we were actually walking on the wrong side of the bloody estuary !!
If we had continued walking we would have come to a dead end or, fallen into the sea at the entrance to the river 😳 We were both initially a little irritated with ourselves, we just hadn’t been concentrating, fortunately we hadn’t gone too far off the route we should have been on, but it meant walking back to the head of this small estuary. Between us, and that point, was a road bridge, we thought that we may have been able to get up to it, and across to where we wanted to be, a bit of a shortcut, but there was no way to get up to it as it was fenced off by a very large storage area for new cars, Citroen’s I later discovered. Anyway, we walked back and fortunately there was a nice promenade and a handful of Cafe’s in the throws of opening, “May as well stop and have breakfast” I said to Shazza, “I am not hungry yet, but we can stop for a coffee if you like” she replied, then added, “But you can have something to eat if you want to”, however, I wasn’t actually hungry either but I thought that Shazza would have been by now 🤔 “Are you on some sort of weight loss diet ?” I asked her, “No, but for a few days now I just don’t really have my usual apetite” she replied, “I had noticed, and I am getting a bit concerned, this isn’t normal for you” I told her. She told me not to worry and that she was fine and that she would eat if she felt hungry. So we stopped for a coffee, but wished we hadn’t, it was one of those milky dishwater affairs and only luke warm 🤮
We re-started our walk and suddenly, without any sort or pre-warning, a sea mist descended across the mouth of this small estuary, it was really strange, the sun was shining, the sky above this band of mist was really clear and blue, but the mist was rolling in across the top of the water quite rapidly, shrouding the view of some small sailing yachts that were on their way out to sea and, that lighthouse, that we could clearly see just a few minutes earlier, had virtually all but disappeared from view, it was really, really strange to watch.
We continued walking around the estuary, the visibility, in front of this band of mist was still so clear and I stopped to take some photo’s of some resident wildlife seeking out their own breakfast’s. The smell of the algae and seaweed, drying out on the exposed rocks, brought back childhood memories of British seaside holidays
We couldn’t walk the whole way around the estuary wall, Google maps indicated that we would have to walk up a path between some houses, along a road and then swing back in to re-join what then became the coastal path. It was only a minor deviation, perhaps only five minutes, and then we entered what looked like a wooded park which led down towards the sea. As we entered this park there was a large old looking stone blocked wall, a bit like a castle outer wall and there was a large open archway with a wide row of steps inside leading upwards. There were no barriers, or gates or signage, at this entrance so we entered through the arch, this was an added bonus and a bit of unanticipated early exploration I thought to myself. Well it would have been, but just inside the grounds was a large sign indicating that it was a 5* Spa Hotel so we did an about turn and made a hasty retreat 😲 I would have expected there to have been some sort of signage at the archway entrance 🤷♂️
We were walking amongst a forested sort of parkland with a number of footpaths leading off in different directions, but the main much wider path followed the contours of the coastline and, every so often, we would get wonderful views of little sun drenched sandy coves, albeit the band of mist hovered just above the sea a couple of hundred metres offshore.
Occasionally we would find ourselves at some wider stretches of beach, some of which had small hut like cafe’s with plastic tables and chairs set up outside, people sat around them chatting and drinking, we didn’t need another coffee, or anything else, at that stage and we had our own snacks and bottles of water with us, but we had not ruled out the idea of stopping for lunch a bit later in the day, if we came across a nice place. If it hadn’t have been for the lingering mist, some of these white sandy beaches could have had you believing that you were somewhere more exotic 🏝️
If we had have just come out for a beach day then we would have been spoilt for choice, there were lots, but we continued walking and then suddenly, what appeared literally out of nowhere, we found ourselves on a rather nice, wide and well paved promenade with another, but much longer, white sand beach. However, at this point the sea mist had moved inland and with it the temperature plummeted, quite sharply, requiring us to put our hoody tops back on. We decided to keep walking along this very long promenade, which eventually led to what I can only describe as a resort sort of location, we had the wide sandy beach on one side, the promenade and parkland on the other and then, beyond that there was a road with hotels and cafe’s and restaurants running the length of it. Further along the promenade there was a children’s play park, an open air swimming pool and a basketball court along with a number of large car parks and then promenade eateries. It hadn’t been quite the coastal walk that we had imagined, but it wasn’t unpleasant, we stopped and sat on a bench and Shazza checked where we were on the map. We we were quite surprised for we had walked just a little under 6 miles 😲 It certainly hadn’t felt that far ! We drunk some water and ate a piece of fruit whilst we decided wether to just keep walking or turn around and head back 🤷♂️ We both ‘Uhmd’ and ‘Ahrred’ for a bit, each of us not really wanting to be the one to call it a day and not really knowing wether to just keep going, however, we did agree that the sea mist seemed to not be shifting, so we both thought that we were unlikely to get any decent views and it may just get even thicker 🤷♂️ However, the map did reflect that a couple of miles further along there was an Island that jutted out into the sea which was accessible by a bridge 🤔 That sounded quite interesting, but we came to the conclusion that we probably wouldn’t get to see very much anyway, once we reached it, as it would probably be sat out in the sea mist. We had however, a few miles back, passed a ‘nautical’ themed museum earlier on the walk, which advertised that it had a sea life aquarium, so that would give us something else to see and do rather than just go straight back. “What about lunch ?” I said to Shazza, “I thought we were going to try and find somewhere ?” But she once again said that she was not really all that hungry, “There is no ambience, there will be no nice views with this mist and, to be honest, it will probably be a bit chilly as it all looks like all open air seating” she said. She was right, most of the Cafe’s only offered the usual menu’s of Burger’s, Hotdogs, Calamari or ‘Jamon y Queso Bocadillos’ (Ham and cheese sandwiches) and of course the mandatory ‘Patatas frites’ (Chips), which, on another day, would have actually been right up my street 😋 Shazza then reminded me, for I had actually forgotten, that we also had a reservation at the ‘Mexican Fusion Style’ Restaurant again at 9pm that evening, when I would be having my pre-ordered Oysters, amongst other things 🤗 Shazza cannot eat Oysters, or Scallops or Mussels etc. since she got a really bad case of food poisoning very many years ago from shellfish that she had eaten at a Restaurant in Paris, but she was looking forward to trying some different sort of ‘Mexican Fish Fusions’. “We do still have snacks and fruit that we brought with us, I am happy to stop a bit later to have them for a late lunch, but if you want something now that is a bit more substantial ?” She said. However, like her, I wasn’t really all that hungry at that stage, “Let’s walk back and go to that museum, then after that we will find a nice spot to stop and eat our snacks” I said. At least there was one positive aspect to this damp sea mist, she hadn’t appeared too interested in getting our kit off and going for a dip 🤭
As we left the promenade and got back on to the sandy track we both commented again on not believing how far we had walked without realising it, or without feeling leg weary 🤷♂️ Perhaps, we both agreed, that we were either a lot physically fitter than we had given ourselves credit for, or perhaps, it was just because this had been a primarily flat walk, unlike the other day which was a lot of steep uphill walking, we agreed that it was probably a combination of the two 😉 But here is another strange thing, as we returned from the direction we had initially started from, the mist suddenly retreated from inland and once again settled as just a band of mist a few metres out to sea, seemingly sitting just above the water line 🤷♂️ the coves and beaches once again became sun drenched, the water was so clear, like tap water and, the sky above the band of mist was a beautiful shade of blue, the air temperature immediately rose again.
From the outside entry gate, the museum was housed in what looked like an old warehouse building, so we were not sure what this was going to be like, but, once inside we discovered that it was very modern, the actual museum exhibits were contained in two separate buildings, both with ground and upper floors and they were joined via an enclosed glazed footbridge, the actual aquarium was housed in a third, quite separate building. Their was an admission fee, €5 for Shazza and for me, as a ‘Senior’, as they refer to us pensioners, £3.50 👍 There were a lot of exhibits, both to keep children, and us Adults interested, and to my surprise we spent quite a bit of time wandering around the exhibits than I had anticipated that we would, and reading information boards, albeit they were all in Spanish, I must have been so engrossed that I actually forgot to take any photo’s 😲 Now, personally, I had been keen to get to the Aquarium, anticipating seeing big fish, perhaps a small shark, or Rays and Octopus, so I was actually quite disappointed to discover that the actual aquarium was quite small, and that it only contained smaller species of quite uninteresting ‘live’ exhibits of the smaller species of fish, however, overall the whole visit was well worth every Euro, we ended up spending at least an hour or so there.
The inner areas of the museum were nice and cool but as soon as we stepped out into the sunshine, wow, it was roasting hot 🥵 Back on the coast path we found ourselves a bench, overlooking the sea, and sat and ate our snacks and fruit. Other walkers passed by, offering us the usual pleasantries, some were wearing stiff hiking boots and using walking poles, carrying huge rucksacks on their backs so we responded to them with “Buen Camino” (Enjoy your walk) as these were ‘Pilgrims’ on the ‘Portuguese Way’ of the Camino de Santiago. We both used to think that there was only one route on the ‘Camino de Santiago’, probably as it is the most popular and well known, covered by most ‘You Tube’ documentaries, that being the one from ‘San Sebastian’, near the French border, across the Northern Coast of Spain, to ‘Santagio de Compostela’, but in fact we have since learnt that there are several routes, some up through Portugal and other’s up via southern areas of Spain. We had ourselves once considered doing the Camino, a few year’s ago, but to be honest, after watching many of the videos, and reading some personal blog’s, we had to admit that we are just not built of the right stuff and do not have the right sort of motivation, I feel a little embarrassed even mentioning it, but the honest truth is that Shazza and I like our personal comforts too much and real adventures like these are only really in our heads and one’s that seem like a good idea at the time 🤔
Although we were walking back along the same route, you sometimes get a different view or perspective when walking in the opposite direction and at a different time of the day. The tide had now started to ebb in, so small boats that had been secured to buoys, but had been laying on the mud or sand when we passed by earlier, were now floating and to be honest it gave these coves quite a very different look. Although we hadn’t seen them earlier, as they were behind us, now we could see quaint beachfront cottages and houses with small boats parked in front of them, rope lines running down the length of the beach attached to other small boats that were now bobbing around on top of the rising water. We both commented that these cottages may not have been quite so idyllic if you were inside them when the large Atlantic breakers came rolling in and up the beach, we wondered if they had ever been flooded 😳
As we walked back along the promenade that surrounded the small estuary, the one where we had started our walk, their were hoards of people enjoying the sunshine, all the bars and eateries were now open, every outside table was occupied and so those without were sat on the estuary walls drinking whatever Anti-Covid Vaccine it was that took their fancy, from Glasses of beer, or wine, jugs of Sangria and even Cocktails and yes, I could have been easily tempted but, at the pace Shazza was walking in front of me, I could tell that she wasn’t 😕
We got back to the hotel, it was early afternoon and it was good to take our trainers off, Shazza informed me that we had walked just short of 18Km, I think in reality that if it hadn’t have been for the misty conditions that we may have been tempted to have walked just a little bit further, but I consoled myself in the knowledge that there would be opportunities for more walking along other coastal paths in the coming days.
As we had lost a day, due to the previous day’s rainy conditions, we agreed to agree on what we would do on our last full day which, according to the ‘Works of Fiction’, at that particular time, indicated a very similar sort of day to the one we had just had. We looked at Google Maps and identified some villages and towns that we could drive to, but we are not ‘town’ sort of people so we ruled that out, then Shazza suggested that as I had wanted to go and see the Island, with the bridge across to it, that we had decided not to walk to today, that tomorrow, we should drive to the point where we had finished today’s walk, park up in one of the many car parks and then just continue walking, it seemed like a good plan to me 👍
Later that evening we walked to the Mexican restaurant, the waiter who had served us a few nights ago was not there, but the young female waitress who greeted us told us that he had told her that we were coming and sat us at the table that we had requested, which was outside where we could of course enjoy a spot of people watching, it was a Saturday night and so there were a lot more people about. The waitress informed me that the half dozen Oysters that I had pre-ordered could be served in three different ways, usually two served ‘Naturally’, two with a melted cheese topping and two in a fusion of spiced Mexican oil. I said that I wasn’t bothered about the ‘Natural’ one’s so went for a mix of three and three. We both started with the ‘Cerveche’, as we had the first evening, that was again delicious, when she brought out my Oysters, there were seven 🤔 She told me that the Chef wanted me to try one of the natural ones, but this was ‘gratis’, so I wasn’t complaining 🤷♂️ I have to say that they were all delicious, the spiced one did have a bit of a ‘kick’ to it, but not in a bad way. Shazza had half a dozen large Prawns on skewers with a Salsa dip and plain tortilla chips and then we both shared a plate of four, different style, fish Taco’s. Whilst I enjoyed my usual red wine, Shazza tried one of their house special Margarita’s. We both agreed that this second visit had been equally as good as the first and I was also pleased to have seen Shazza eat a proper meal. It was the perfect end to a very nice day.
To be continued………………….
Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena
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