Vigo was another virgin port for us, which, as you know, makes me so very happy. It was also another early morning and long day. We were in Snobatini’s when it opened at 7am, and, boy, are we going to come down to earth with a bang when that is no longer.
We booked today’s excursion to nearby Santiago de Compostela through Viator, which is simply a tour consolidator, but they do a wonderful job with their app, emails and notifications, which is a welcome benefit of using them. This morning at breakfast I was greeted with this pop up on my phone (just in case we had forgotten), and the links to the meet up information were definitely appreciated.
Fueling up before a busy day. It’s especially nice to dine in Sabatini’s in such peace and comfort when I know what a zoo the Horizon Court Buffet is on port days.
We walked off the ship about 8:40am, into another large and beautiful terminal at the port for Vigo. The weather was mostly sunny and nicely mild; we’ve been lucky with weather (so far, at least). We were instructed to exit the terminal and look for an orange umbrella with the words “Optimus Tours” on it, and our guide Christina was right there. She checked us in, sent us to the large, nearly new bus across the street and our group of 46 was soon on its way.
The drive to Santiago de Compostela took about 75 minutes, and Christina filled the time first telling us about Vigo and the Galician region, which is a department of Spain, like the Basque Country two days ago. Again, the language most commonly spoken is Spanish, but Galacian is also widely spoken.
As we got closer to Santiago de Compostela, Christina expanded her narrative to the history and religious significance of that site, which, along with Jerusalem and Rome, is one of the three primary centers for Catholicism.
The Church and Convent of San Francisco, founded by St. Francis during his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1214
We had just a short walk from the bus to the Plaza Franco, on which is located the Cathedral de Santiago, the city hall, a former school for boys which is now part of the University of Santiago, and the historic “hospital”, which was more of a hotel for pilgrims. It is also the site of Mile 0 of the Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of St James. The Camino is a network of pilgrimages that have been used for over a thousand years, all leading to the Cathedral, believed to be the burial site of the Apostle James.
Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela
Pazo de Raxoi (Raxoi Palace) today used as a city hall
Another view of the cathedral
The terminus of all the Caminos in Plaza Franco
The scallop is the symbol of the Camino, with its veins representing the various paths to the cathedral. These gold symbols are located all over the streets of the town
Main altar, Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
We had almost two hours of free time before we toured the museum and cathedral, and G and I walked around the narrow city streets (all cobblestone-oh boy!) and stopped at a sidewalk cafe to have beverages. We were served tapas which were kind of a sweet scrambled egg in a square form, not my favorite thing but apparently a local dish.
I had originally wanted to buy a crucifix or cross but I didn’t like the Cross of St. James, which had a pointed bottom, and the one cross I saw that I loved I realized I already had an almost identical one from Montserrat near Barcelona more than 25 tears ago.
Photographs were not allowed in the museum, which was a shame because there were some astounding relics housed there. Walking in the museum was very difficult as it was dark and we had walk up two flights of curving stairs and there were a lot of level changes on cobblestones (so be prepared).
About 2:30pm we returned to bus, and it was a very quiet ride back to Vigo and the Regal Princess. Our weather had been perfect, warm but not too, and we had had a beautiful day of sightseeing with possibly the best guide I’ve ever enjoyed (tied with Steven on our Normandy tour last year).
We did a quick clean up and phone re-charge and stopped in at the PES Lounge before dinner. We were hungry!
Berenice is so kind to us. She has seen me logging my food in the Cronometer app at dinner, and so realizes I track things carefully. In particular, I have to carefully watch my protein, and what I order at dinner depends on how many grams of protein I’ve already had that day. I ordered the seafood bowl last night and then, after logging it, realized I was about 6 grams low for the day. I figured I’d swing into the buffet and get a little something else, but she must have read my mind, because, without me saying a thing, she offered to bring me a little more shrimp. Now that’s a fantastic waiter!!
The Princess Theater entertainment last night was the comedian who missed the ship two nights earlier. Well, we had dodged a bullet that night. He was pretty awful. We sat in the “just in case” seats and there was a regular parade of people leaving almost from the start. We lasted about 15 minutes and joined them.
We sat in the Wheelhouse for a bit to listen to live music before we called it a day. 12000 steps on cobblestones had worn me out.
Next up: We move clocks back an hour tonight and have two wonderful days at sea to look forward to. I might just be lazy and combine them into one blog post, so don’t be surprised.
