A Coruna

Our one port of call in Spain was in A Coruna in the northwest corner of Spain. The region is called Galicia and they speak Galician (Spanish being a second language). Coruna is not far from Santiago de Compostela – the alleged burial site of the remains of the apostle St James, and destination for many “pilgrims” who walk there from wherever they live.

Here’s how the town looks from the ship. Our tour was a walk from the ship to the old part of town which is off to the right of this pic.

It happened to be cool and rainy for our tour.

We find more narrow pedestrian-only streets. That’s Marty with the pink poncho!

Many of the old buildings had high-end remodels over the years.

Here’s a restored 12th-century church.

And one other restored 12th-century church with a nativity scene over the front door including the three wise men.

Here is City Hall on Maria Pita Square.

A statue of Maria Pita graces the square. She was famous for inspiring the local defenders from the attacking “English Armada” of 1589, the year following the defeat of the Spanish Armada. She apparently killed an English Captain, presumably Francis Drake’s brother and led the charge to force the retreat of the English.

Here’s a poor-light photo of the statue of Maria with a dead soldier at her feet.

Our tour guide highly touted the local beer, Estrella Galicia, so we had to try one at our snack break.

Here I am with Alabama Rex at our snack break.

And back on board for our final sea day as we move from Spain to France we have a farewell and “thank you” get-together for our bridge group. The white-shirt fellow is George, our fearless bridge instructor and leader for four months along with his wife, Anne. Rami in the blue tee shirt had a heart attack in Morocco but quickly got a new stent to fix him up and is back on board.

We know all of these folks and lots of their particulars. Good fun.

We’re now off to France.

Cheers,

Charlie and Marty