City life

The marina tower

Thursday 12^th July. Galicia is famous for its beautiful river inlets known as ‘rias’. The city of La Coruna is set on a peninsular at the mouth of a ria with its harbour on one side and long sandy beaches on the other. Although La Coruna is a big city with a commercial port, the view from our mooring is of blue sea, wooded hillsides and sandy bays.

The marina is easy to spot thanks to a big modern tower decorated with shiny tiles. I thought it slighty ugly until I saw it from shoreside, and realised that the mirrored tile front had been cleverly designed to reflect the trees and old buildings opposite.

We’ve been exploring the local area - a gentle ten minute stroll from the Marina along the seafront took us to the old town with its narrow paved streets and medieval buildings.  We’ve discovered a huge indoor market with a wonderful selection of meat, fish, vegetables and local bread and pastries. 

Friday 13^th July. The date certainly lived up to its reputation. We walked 3 kilometres across the city to a Raymarine dealer to try and buy a card converter for our plotter after being sold the wrong type of chart software, but they didn’t have them. On the way back I stopped at a cash machine to top up with euros – it took my card, then announced it wasn’t working, and wouldn’t return my card!  The bank was closed, so I will have to wait until Monday to get it back.

Saturday 14^th July.  Jean is leaving tomorrow and I’d seen a ‘typical Galician’ restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor so we booked for dinner. The place was well off the tourist track, tucked away in a residential side street. It was full of Spanish locals and the food was outstanding. We had six courses of local delicacies, including sea food, fish, meat and chocolate pudding

The Torre de Hercules

Peninsular at the mouth of the ria

Sunday 15^th July. Jean had arranged to call a local taxi at 4.30am to confirm collection at 5am. When he called the number it wouldn’t connect. We tried another number and that wouldn’t connect! So 5am saw Jean and Cliff wandering the streets on La Coruna in search of a cab – luckily they managed to flag one down. We both agree that Jean has been excellent company – we will definitely keep in touch.

After catching up on sleep we got the folding bikes out and rode out to the Torre de Hercules, a lighthouse that has existed since Roman times and overlooks the dramatic rocky headland beyond the city. We then spotted what looked like standing stones just below the lighthouse, but further exploration revealed  a sculpture park with a stunning range of work by different artists

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The modern 'standing stones'

Spectacular setting for sculpture

Monday 16^th July. Arrived at the bank and was told they couldn’t give me my card and it would have to be returned to Barclays in the UK. So now I will have to wait for them to send a replacement. Plan to leave for Ria Camarinas tomorrow, a nine hour sail south.

I have just worked out how to upload video to this blog, so have added a short video of the dolphins playing on the bow of the boat (see La Coruna at last).