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Lunchtime arrival at Vilagarcia de
Arousa (Galicia) & a visit to Pazo De Rubianes
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We still had half a
day of sailing left on our 68 hour (836 nautical mile) voyage
from the Azores to the north of Spain. Fortunately, the
sea had turned very calm in the last 18 hours, after being
rather lively before then! We enjoyed our morning, especially
seeing land ahead and we were looking forward to stretching
our legs ashore in the afternoon. |
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There was still no land
in sight as we had our breakfast on deck, but we did enjoy
looking at the sea, the sky and this rainbow. |
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It was late morning when
the coast of Galicia came into view. |
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Calm waters meant that
the kitchen staff could do a special barbeque on deck for
lunch... |
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| ...accompanied by some
beautifully sculptured carvings... |
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| ...and equally skilled
pastry designs! |
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Port formalities were
light here. Clearly they don't cater for large cruise ships! |
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Our afternoon excursion
didn't involve a long drive - only 5km each way. Within
15 minutes of disembarking, we had arrived at our destination... |
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...the elegant Pazo
De Rubianes, where we would explore the beautiful gardens
and then sample their wines and other produce. |
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At the end of the guided
tour of the gardens, just as it started to rain, we were
led into a reception room, where we were treated to a selection
of wines, cheeses and olives. |
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The wines were very
good. Naturally, we had to buy some! |
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Driving back to the
port via the centre of Vilagarcia de Arousa, things looked
rather quiet. Perhaps it was because it was Sunday afternoon.
The work of art is the "Porta da Luz Salgada"
which translated directly is "Monument to the Gate
of Salt Light". (If that is accurate, it probably loses
something in the translation!) |
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...and soon afterwards,
we were on our way again, this time a relatively short trip
(147 nautical miles) to La Coruna for a full day tour to
Santiago da Compostela tomorrow. |
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We think these were mussel
rafts. |
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We even got to see a
few dolphins! |
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It was a Cosmopolitan
sort of evening... |
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...as the pilot departed
the ship. |
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After another lovely
dinner, another delicious dessert (frangipane tart, we think). |
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When we researched our
147 nautical mile overnight sailing route from Vilagarcia
de Arousa to La Coruna, we were puzzled as to why we would
be driving to Santiago de Compostela tomorrow from La Coruna
when the route from our starting point appeared to be a
shorter one. We never got an explanation, but we thought
perhaps La Coruna had proper border/immigation facilities
and we would need to check out of the Schengen area formally
before sailing north to Guernsey the following day. (As
it happens, there was a problem with that anyway... more
about that on the next page when we did leave La Coruna). |
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