At about 8 AM on Tuesday morning, the gentle rock of the ship stopped as we docked in Vigo, Spain. Vigo is on the north coast of Spain just north of the border with Portugal. Interesting bit of trivia. Spain, we were told, is the only non-island country in the world that has a coast that faces all four directions.
When Columbus,' ship the Pinta, returned from the new world, the Pinta landed in Vigo because of a storm and as a result, Vigo is where word first reached Europte that Columbus had found what he thought was Asia. Of couse, he was 300 years or more behind the Vikings who had found the new land (Newfoundland) centuries before. As a good Viking, I had to throw that in.
The day started foggy and cloudy so it was bit hard to see what was in store.Vigo is a very picturesque city, surrounding the harbor with low mountains in the background. We were very excited to be able to leave the ship after two days at sea. Well, at least Caroline was. We got our exercise as the city is settled on a steep slope. So from the ship, all directions on land were uphill. So uphill we went. It is an old town with narrow streets dense with houses and stores.
At the top of the hill was a nice park where there was a monument with a cross. It is a beautiful work of art, marred by the policital statements spray painted on the base. The Hortensia (or what we could call hydrangea) were beautiful. You can see some in the picture. From the top of the park we had a good view of the bay and the surrounding towns.
I (Chuck) love going into the local food shops and noting what they sell and how they present it. In a shop that sold cheese and cured meats (ham, salami, etc.) I saw a pig leg clamped down so they can slice off what must be something similar to bacon. In another shop, I saw butcher with a meat saw separating the ribs from the rest of a cow carcas. While it must get done in the US, it has been years since I have seen it done in public view. (For good reason!! Caroline)
We wandered into a little market where we found All Bran, Kellogs Corn Flakes, and Cocoa Puffs among other cereals that were not familiar to me. Table wine, as you might expect, is quite cheap. I saw a six pack of wine for 21 Euros (about $25). That is about $4/bottle.
We found an old fortification as we climbed the hill whcih offered a nice view of the city and a good place for pictures.
As we neared the ship, we found a nice place to have a pizza for lunch. Unfortunately, at least for Chuck, we stopped just a bit too soon. Only a few steps from the pizza restuarant was a small street with several fish restaurants where they were shucking oysters and eating wonder plates of seafood. But, we were to full to sample them. Well, Chuck was too full, and Caroline was not interested.
As we were leaving the dock, someone near us was feeding the seafulls from their balcony. It was a great photo opportunity and I mannaged to capture a seagull grabbing morsel of food.
The show that night was an extended Guy Noir episode. Garrison, Sue Scott, Tim Russell with help from keyboards and sound effects played from a MacBook Pro performed several chapters of Garrison's latest book. While there were many funny lines, it frankly drug on a little too long and would have been enhanced by some musical interludes or something. One great line that made us laugh was Guy (as read by Garrison) describing a pierced person as looking like they had fallen face first into a fishing tackle box.
After dinner, we went to hear Connie Evingson again.