2010 Travels with Jack and Leslie in Spain

30 June, 2010 Vigo to July 1 Atlanta

Well, we are sitting at the airport in Viga with almost 2 hours till our flight leaves for Madrid. We wanted to have plenty of “cushion” in case there were travel snafus…like the taxi didn’t arrive to take us to the airport, or there was confusion about where to go or problems with our ticket. As fortune has it, when prepared with plenty of time, none of that happens (thankfully).

At the other end of the flight, we waited for our bags that they insisted we check for close to an hour! Then we found the shuttle to the closest hotel to the airport is rather erratic. So we took a taxi whose driver was obviously unhappy about the short fare. It may have been our imagination, but he drove way past the hotel and took a rather circuitous route back to it….when we finally got to the hotel they said the bar and restaurant were closing in 10 minutes, so we better rush if we wanted anything(we were surprised; most restaurants in Spain don’t even open till 9PM and this was only 10!). We went there and saw them serving for at least an hour (the time it took to get service and eat) and still going when we left. Chaos at the end of this transition.

It was sad to leave Skip and Linda as we won’t see them until December when they return to the states. We left them to celebrate their 43^rd wedding anniversary all by themselves. What a concept! They would be back to a more normal pattern with us leaving, of boat maintenance (Skip was working on a pump as we left) and stocking the pantries (below foot in the galley and main salon). Skip had a problem with his AES radar while we were there and rigged a temporary antenna while we were there. He had to strip and refit one he could find locally while he awaited the right part. It’s amazing the skills one has to have to keep the boat running!

While taking our tour of Vigo, they were able to spot other resources they needed.

And we all learned a lot about the town from our guide, Maite Gestido Garcia (www.senderosdegalicia.com). Maite, a woman who originally came from a town across the river from Vigo, spent her high school years in Baltimore, Md. She was surprised that we had already visited the Castro at the top of the city and the Museum of Traditional Arts. She said we had hit a couple of the usual stops for her tour. We went instead to a fascinating church from the 12^th Century. She said most Vigo residents don’t even know about this church as it is not on the usual paths of travel.

What is special about this church is that it has not been altered very much during the centuries. A special feature of the architecture was the round windows.

We also visited the church’s cemetery across the road.

















Our guide shared that typically once/week families visit their relatives in the cemetery and care for the site. This cemetery had crypts stacked pretty high. The “high rise” of the crypts was reminiscent of the skyline of Vigo.

Just below this church, one could see a fence surrounding a park of some type. This area was to be our next stop. Our guide shared that this wonderful park, Castrelos Park, was a donation from a noble family, Quinones de Leon, of Vigo. The nobility would marry other noble people and consolidate their holdings. What fabulous gardens! As we drove through the park, there was a large amphitheatre for summer performances, a play area for young children, fields for European football (aka soccer), beautiful areas for picnics, etc.


Then we arrived at the home and gardens and saw even more manicured gardens (including French and English gardens).

The manor house, Pazo de Castrelos, was built in the 17^th century but was “upgraded” by the marquesses over the centuries. The last family made it an even more “aristocratic palace” for their residence.


We spent almost no time inside the building, as the gardens were so compelling. The walkways were lined with stone carvings of the coats of arms of the families who dwelled here (quite a few!).











One of the first tennis courts in Galicia was in this yard and is still used by the city when it entertains dignitaries at this facility.

In 1924 the senior marquess, Quinone de Leon, decided to donate the house to the local government as his son died without heirs. The city created The Museo Muncipal de Vigo, “Quinone de Leon” that houses an apparently great collection of European art and a wing (formerly stables) for archaeology.





















If I were to return, I’d spend more time there! This is a great example of leaving a legacy of great wealth to a city for many people to enjoy.

Linda showing how big the trunk of this tree is!



We drove through town, seeing beautiful suburban neighborhoods that we would have otherwise missed. Many of the streets in these neighborhoods had cafes, trees and flowers in the middle of the streets and large single-family homes. We past several sports stadia, several active with kids playing soccer and older folks playing tennis. We past many fountains with wonderful sculptures.

We came to a beautiful white beach that was filled with people enjoying the summer.

Just past the beaches, we came to a park with Roman ruins which we were eager to see. This archaeological site, “Tor Alla Villa Romano” was excavated privately by the folks whose home adjoins it. We had a young guide who is studying history at the local university. She acknowledged that the archaeological technique was a bit amateurish. But, she had a lot of knowledge and was eager to share it. The only challenge was that it was in Spanish and we had to rely on our guide to translate. Her English was not that good to be able to rapidly translate new knowledge into another tongue.

The Romans settled in this part of the world in 1-2^nd century BC and this site probably dates back to 5^th century AD. The compound probably extended across the bay to what is now a private island where more of the finds are unexcavated. The interesting part of this site was the fact that it was a “salt mining” facility. In addition to a villa with hot baths and steam heating (that went under the floors of the house) and a room that housed the figures of the gods, there were salt flats where there were a series of steps where the water would come in, be directed with shoots and pots and in effect, sieves that would allow the salt to be separated from water and other particles and dried.


Salt, in those days, was used not only for seasoning, but also as a sign of wealth (“white gold”), a base for sauces, to preserve fish and meat and as a currency.

Another interesting phenomenon is the graffiti. It is sometimes political commentary, sometimes “tagging,” and other times old fashion acknowledgement of love. Some is more artistic than others as well.

Well, it is now July 1 and we are on our way home. The 10 days went very quickly and we enjoyed the leisurely vacation one has on board a yacht. My style of packing in as much as possible while traveling is contrary to the way Skip and Linda travel. Thus, they saw more than they usually would and I slowed my pace quite a bit to match theirs. Once again we enjoyed the privilege of hanging out with family and cruising new waters with them, seeing the world from the sea. Skip and I jumped on deck regularly when a well-lit scene appeared that might be good fodder for a photo.

He coached me on using f-stops and iso levels. Linda and Jack were patient with our obsession! We are coming home a bit more rested, with 1000 more photos and a better understanding of Galicia.

27 June 2010 Bayona Spain

We are about to leave the dock and head up the Rio Vigo and visit a few other spots before we head for home.

This has been a relaxing spot with good resources for yachts, but it is time to explore other places.

We were surprised by the lack of arts in this community other than the loud music that booms over the water at night when we are trying to go to sleep. The bay really carries the sound. As we walked from the Yacht club last night (after 12:30 A.M. mind you!) the music was just ramping up. The fireworks across the bay had occurred well before then.

The arts that we did enjoy were the "public art" such as architectural detail and some sculpture. Below is Linda waiting for Skip and Leslie to take photos of the church. The old churches are of most interest. One, pictured below, is of the Church of St. Liberata.

This chapel is associated with a woman who was supposedly the first to be crucified (second century A.D.) in this region. The stories associated with this woman all seem to include her holding on to her Christian faith despite the tests of pagans. In some stories, she was promised in marriage by her father, the local governor, and she refused so he crucified her. In others, she was given away by her mother and raised by Christians and because of her beauty, some pagans attempted to rape her. She resisted and later was killed by other Roman officials for not renouncing her religion. Some websites refer to her as the Patron Saint of Bad Marriages!

"This chapel honours the martyr daughter of Baiona and first woman to die in the cross in the World, St. Liberata. Italian plateresque in style, it was started in 1695 thanks to popular donation. In the main façade two elegant towers can be seen and right in the middle, above the lintel and escorted by the ancient coats of arms of Baiona and the Kingdom of Galicia, a niche with the crucified saint appears."

July 20 is the day of the festival honoring this Saint. After the mass and the procession with the Saint's image, St. Liberata Sq. becomes a dance floor for locals and foreigners, who dance to the music of bands and Galician bagpipes with "Giants and Bigheadeds", the popular carnival dancing figures.

We also saw this disk on the old Hospital de Caridad.

By evening (at least time wise-not sunlight wise) we cruised across the mouth of the VIgo River
to the northern bank and anchored off a point that is covered with trees and is hilly. To our right ia a wide-open beach. Even though it's 8:00 PM there are still beach-dwellers enjoying the sun.



After anchoring, we had a delicious dinner of steak, ratatouille, fresh vegetables and potatoes. We topped off the evening with a few games of Rummy Q...my favorite!
The anchorage is much quieter than the dock in Bayona, but we did have to put out our "flopper stoppers" to slow down the bit of swell here and consequential roll....it will rock me to sleep. Good night!

Off of the boom on each side of the boat is a "flopper stopper" which helps reduce rolling

June 28, 2010 Ensenada de Barra

We are anchored East of a wooded point called Home-Costa Da Vela which is a protected nature area. There are some intriguing artifacts and buildings which make us curious about the history of this area. There are steps carved in stone that are underwater, an abandoned old stone building or two and next to them several seemingly occupied buildings with an elaborate boom to lower a dinghy (which is attached) down to the water. The lower building looks like it could have been a barn converted into an art studio (with big windows)...there has been a car there so it appears to be an occupied complex. But it is part of the protected nature area.

The beach is quite long and has had many people there off and on during the day. The cruising guide informs us that it is "clothes optional" and Skip's very long telephoto lens confirms that.

We hung out on the boat today and headed over to a town just a few miles from here called Cangas. The sea was pretty rough and it would have been challenging to leave the boat and go into the harbor so we decided to have lunch on the boat and then return to our peaceful spot. Linda whipped up a beautiful lunch, as usual and I took a 3 hour nap (not very usual)! I awoke to the sound of the dinghy being lifted off the boat for a late afternoon photo excursion. We cruised along the coast of the natural park, the beach and the next community over.To complete our "expose" on nudity in Spain, we noticed that the captain of the sailboat we were passing was pulling up his anchor "au natural!"



Tonight we enjoyed dinner on the "upper deck" (the flying bridge) with a lovely breeze, a bottle of wine and another beautiful dinner. Here we are about to dine!






Skip and Linda on the Bridge




Linda topped it off with one of her beautiful (and delicious) fruit tarts.

Tomorrow we head to Vigo for our last stop before we begin the trek home.

29 June 2010 Vigo
We started off the day in our anchorage off Barra and cruised across the river to Vigo to find a dock at which to tie up for our last night. As usual, Skip hit his computer and went to work on his website and his new boat design.

Skip at work in his office designing a new boat!


We hoisted anchor and headed across the river. We saw boats picking up muscles at the "muscle farms" (Spanish gyms?), fishing boats,and all kinds of traffic in the river.

Vigo is the biggest city we have seen for a long time with probably 300,000 residents. Somehow, it looks even bigger with many high rise buildings along the shore. There were several marina and yacht clubs, but also much congestion. We ended up going to the west end of the city to a much more quiet marina.

Once we found the desired marina, we were met by a marina worker in an inflatable dinghy who escorted us to a "premier" spot near the front of the marina which was very convenient for us and probably fun for them to show off such an unusual boat. We had to complete the usual paperwork of registration and get the boat tied up and hooked up to power on the dock (and of course wifi!), check e-mail and do a few administrative tasks. Then it was time to figure out how to get into town and to the airport tomorrow. The yacht club was closed and I found the yacht brokerage to be very helpful, even while his english wasn't much better than my Spanish. He told me he would arrange for a taxi tomorrow for the airport. Then described how we would need to walk to get the bus into downtown and the tourist area. As I left, looking at the mountain we would have to climb to get to the bus, another gentleman with better English suggested that I have a taxi get us..it was mucho callores (too hot) for the hike! I liked his idea. So I gathered up the troops and we headed to town.
We walked through the old town, Saw "les gatos"
















visited the Museum of Traditional Arts,
Museum of Traditional Arts

and took the long upward hike to the highest "castro" (castle) in Vigo...hundreds of steps!! But a beautiful park and a great view, in addition to seeing some of the ancient fortifications and sculptures honoring different people and events.
Fortification at top of Mountain

Saw some interesting sculpture up there as well.

Tres Caballos










On our way to find the Museum of Traditional Arts we went through areas undergoing much reconstruction. There must have been a program for handicapped people in the area as we "heard" deaf people and others with handicaps in this small neighborhood.


I may have been the only one in our group who found these renovations of interest...and they all questioned my navigation as we went past it to the museum!

We headed back to the boat after our hike and committed to seeing more of the city "manana."