La Coruña

Internet was pretty non-existent yesterday.  As we were about to leave Bilbao, a giant storm blew in.  I'm thinking El Capitan would have preferred to stay in port, but he really had no choice but for us to travel onward.  It was like we were on the ship of the damned. Crashing waves, shuddering sliding doors, and sloshing bodily fluids.  It was not fun. I sincerely doubt we'll be doing anymore Spring cruising in the North Atlantic. 

About 2:00am we sailed out of the storm and into much quieter waters...ahhhh so time to sleep!

La Coruña isn't Bilbao, but it does have its charm.  Long boardwalks, lovely beaches, ancient buildings, and fabulous food! 

We started our day with a long walk around the plaza before turning in to the old city.

Lovely fountain

This is the castle at the beachhead - it's now an architectural museum.

We found a pretty garden path and headed into the centre city.

So many beautiful old churches - every corner revealed another masterpiece.

This is Maria Pita Square. Maria was a Galician heroine who defended La Coruna against the English in 1589.  She fought alongside her husband, but when he was struck down by a crossbow bolt to the head, she stepped up to the top of the wall and shouted, "Whoever has honor, follow me!" and led the defense to beat back the English forces.

Here she is with her slain husband at her feet.

Yet another beautiful church.

At the other end of the city is the Tower of Hercules.  Built in the 2nd century and renovated in 1791, it's the oldest Roman built lighthouse in use today.  I passed on climbing it.

This is Bregoan...he is a character in medieval Christian history in Ireland.  The story is an account of how the Gaels descended from Adam and ended up in Ireland.  Blah blah blah...  He apparently built a great tower, and now he stands on the path leading to Hercules' tower.  No matter the stories they were trying to link - this is a pretty cool statue.  

We took kind of a wild ride on the way back from the tower.  We'd taken a public bus to the coast, the number 5 bus - easy enough, right.  Buses run on a loop, so we took the number 5 bus back  - except the bus kept going farther and farther away from our pick up point.  The neighborhoods were changing (and not in a good way), and finally the bus stopped and everyone got off.  WHAT!??  A kind bus driver told us in broken English that the bus was now out of service.  Uh...  But no worries, there is another bus.  "There are schedules to be kept...even in Cartagena" was all I could think of.  Turns out it was siesta time for the previous driver.  Our new bus finally got us back to port.  Whew!  

Rewarding lunch for a long walk and an adventure.  Arroz de Maricos.  Yum!!