Located just above the boundaries of northern Portugal, Vigo is a Spanish city originally settled by Celts in 600 BC, giving it a longstanding Celtic tradition that lives on today through legends and the music of bagpipes. Not what we would think of for Spain; in fact, our tour guide today was a local with blonde hair and blue eyes!
Vigo is an important fishing and commercial port. As we left on our tour for the day, we drove along the coast and saw mussel flats, each one owned by a local family. Ropes are hung from the flat to the bottom of the harbor where mussels attach themselves and grow to be harvested.
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| Mussel flats in harbor |
Our choices for touring today were: Santiago de Compostela, with its cathedral which is considered the 3rd holiest place in Christianity behind Jerusalem and Rome. The Apostle St. James is said to be buried there and pilgrams from all of Christiandom flocked to the magnificent cathedral built between the 12th and 13th centuries. It also was featured in the book by Ken Follett, “Pillars of the Earth”.
But we didn’t go there. Instead we took a winery tour and wine-tasting since Vigo is in the heart of Galicia’s (this area of Spain) Albarino wine country for a little variety in our siteseeing and a chance to have a laid-back day. It was a fun day and there was no holding back on the wine—one could have as much as one wanted, along with an assortment of tapas to munch on, and the busload of cruisers seemed pretty happy. We enjoyed the company of another couple from our cruise critic rollcall group. We will be on the same small group tour with them when we are in the Azores a few days from now. It was nice to have a chance to get to know them. They did a 12-day tour in Egypt before coming on this cruise and had a wonderful time. We always enjoy hearing the experiences of travel in parts of the world we hope to travel to someday.
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| The Agro de Bazan Winery |
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| The winery's vineyard |
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| Typical courtyard |
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| Architectural style of balconies |
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| Wine, tapas, and good conversation |
Next up is Lisbon, Portugal
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