Vigo Spain to Cascais Portugal

One of the pretty bizarre  sculptures and monuments in Vigo. The city had many eye catching exhibits which captured the imagination. This one was pretty out there.

 These photos are all out of sequence. This is a pretty average night shot of the Rock of Gibralter taken last night. It was pretty impressive and we were very happy to see it as last year there was thick fog through the Staits and we saw nothing.

 We took a city tour of Vigo on the double decker open bus. Surprisingly the bus managed to turn into this very narrow and pretty street without any problems.

 This lovely little lady was making her way to the beach in 30 degree heat dressed in heavy layers of clothing and hauling her trolley complete with beach chair and sun umbrella. She must have been a real beach lover but I hope she took a few layers of clothing off or she would have cooked.

 A restaurant bordering a pretty little park where we managed to get a table and had dinner. It didn't open until 8.30pm ( most didn't open until 9pm) We were the only ones there eating until 9.30pm even though most of the tables had a reserve sign on them. We left about 10.15pm and the people were starting to pour in then. Bit different to our life style at home where most people would eat by 9pm. We had a really beautiful seafood meal after trying not to be put off by the terminology describing some of the dishes in English. Funniest example was  Hake loins with Pil Pil sauce served with his Barbels and roasted garlic slices and ginger. I didn't know that fish had Loins and goodness only knows what Barbels are but it didn't sound very appetising.

 Sea water swimming pool on the beach at Cascais Portugal.

One of the many beaches in beautiful Cascais .

Missed the best of the sunset last night. It was really beautiful with all the very small fishing boats dotted around. Most seemed to have only two to three people to a boat with no life jackets to be seen and they were right in the middle of a very heavy shipping channel which is quite dangerous especially as it was coming up to darkness and we were passing many large freight ships. Apparently our ship took out a set fishing  net which the people in the boat were not happy about.


22 July.

Vigo was on the whole fairly unremarkable being a large Port and heavily populated city but we did enjoy a very nice walk up around cobbled narrow streets in the old part of the city during the siesta time so it was lovely and quiet. The city did have some amazing architecture and monuments. The mix of modern and antique in the city centre gave a few surprises. Unfortunately I missed a good photo opportunity when we passed a magnificent and colossal monument of horses. We were going to take a walk back to photograph it after we got off the Bus but got side tracked with other things.

Our last stop before our two days at sea on route to Palma de Mallorca was at the beautiful sea side town of Cascais. We remembered it from last year so were very excited with the opportunity to go back again even though it was only a 36 hour stay this time. The people are very friendly and helpful. Its a very popular holiday spot because of its beautiful and numerous beaches. Even though it was busy it was nothing like San sebastian in Spain where the beaches were so overcrowded that people were almost on top of each other, the beaches in Cascais were not over crowded. We had a long walk along the sea front and past numerous golden sandy beaches. It was very hot but the sea breeze gave us a little respite which kept us going.

Tomorrow we arrive in the island of Mallorca which is sixty miles off the coast of Spain, where no doubt we will find some more walks to expend a little more energy after having two days at sea.