July 2012 - Spain
Spain | Santiago de Compostella
July 28, 2012
Hi everyone,We've been busy cruising and sightseeing since last I wrote. The weather has been pleasant sunny but not too hot so great for hiking and sightseeing. We stayed a couple of days in Vilagarcia so we could take the train to Santiago de Compostella. What a fantastic city to visit and a Pilgrimage sight for those interested. Hikers walk hundreds of kilometers following St. James path where he landed in Spain (in a coffin by a stone boat)to Santiago de Compostella. Very impressive Medieval town, one of oldest universities in Europe and swarms of pilgrams arriving daily. St James feast day is July 25th so lots of activity. Highlight of our day was a tour on the rooftop of the cathedral. Unlike other rooftops we've visited we actually walked all over the roofs of the massive cathedral. They were built so that the soldiers could easily travel over them. Rather daunting to stand next to some of the massive steeples some 6+ stories up!
Spain | Muros | Old Roman Road hike
Last Saturday we hiked in Muros (Artemis anchored there). Great fun day. 6 hours up and down the mountains surrounding Muros. We accidentally fell upon an old Roman Road that was marked from the town but we came upon it as we travel back toward the sea. It was rather concerning as we viewed
Artemis in low tide at the mouth of the river. She seemed mighty close to being a ground but was fine.
Spain | Finestere | Cape Finestere looking west across Bay of Biscay
Sunday we were anchored in Finestere (translates end of the earth). It was named such by the Romans as it was thought of as the ending of the Earth as it dropped to the sea. We walked over 2 miles out to the lighthouse and enjoyed the views. We had a couple of nice anchorages Camarines and Corme.
We reached La Coruna on Wednesday. We met sailing friends not seen since 2008 on "Twixter" there. We enjoyed an evening catching up and visiting the Medieval Festival in town. La Coruna is a fun city with a neat old town area. We hiked about on Thursday.
Spain | Lugo | Cathedral Santa Maria
Then Friday we took the train to Lugo, Spain another Medieval town founded by the Romans in the First Century. We enjoyed walking the pedestrian friendly city walls. The cathedral alone made the trip worthwhile. Today we picked up supplies and said our good-byes to Rob and Cathy (Twixter). Special thank you to Rob who fixed up a wifi antenae for our use in London:-) Tonight we are anchored off the small town/beach of Ares and will continue north and east tomorrow. Hope everyone is enjoying summer and all is well. Love and God Bless Sall
July 17, 2012
Hi everyone, We've been back in Spain for a week now. We stayed in Vigo resting up and doing some boat projects before leaving yesterday. Our new mainsail and jib fit wonderfully and we seem to be sailing faster in less wind. We also installed AIS transponder. Now we can not only identify other vessels but they know who we are and can track our position, speed and heading. marinetraffic.com has live tracking of vessels and if we are moving or have moved it'll show our track and current location. You type in Artemis, sailing vessel and we see three that show up. We are in the North Atlantic.
We sailed about 20 of our 30 nm journey yesterday from Vigo to Cambados in Ria Arousa, Spain. The weather is sunny and hot but much cooler on the sea. We wore pants and jackets when sailing. This morning we launched the dingy and visited Cambados. Very cute fishing village. Lots of neat buildings including two 1500's churches and the ruins of Santa Marina built in the 1200's declared a National monument in 1943. The streets are cobbled and narrow. Most of the buildings are granite with red clay tile roofs. Very picturesque and wonderful stone work. We had mussels for lunch. Galicia is the biggest producers of mussels in the world. They were fresh, large and prepared in a wine sauce with tomatoes, onions, peppers, and feta served on half shell. Lovely to see and delicious to eat.
Spain | Palmiera |
We motored across the bay and are now anchored outside of Palmiera. Looks like another cute fishing village resort town as there are many people on the sandy beach. Very few people swimming though. The air is hot but the water is very cold. Tempting but maybe it would be better to wade in rather than actually swim in. We plan to visit in the morning and then move on into the Ria to Pobra do Caraminal. Hope all is well. Love and God Bless Sally and Al
July 4, 2012
Hi everyone, Happy Fourth of July! We are experiencing very hot weather in the Midwest this past week, 104 in Lake Forest, IL today. Justin, Chris and baby Sara came to spend the afternoon. We went swimming at Grammy and Grandpa Donovan's house down the street. The pool water was 90 degrees but felt very refreshing. Maddie decided to show off for Sara and jumped off the diving board for the first time this season. We had lunch back home and Uncle Justin and Grandpa Pribyl made rootbeer floats! YUM! Too hot to grill so pizza is on order for dinner tonight then we plan to go to the Lake Forest fireworks. Kenny Loggins is playing.
Al's been busy this trip home to USA. He is finishing projects before we head back to Vigo, Spain next Wed. He replaced two skylights and washed and stained our deck rails and lattice at our Burnsville, MN home that is rented out. He helped our son Patrick with his new bar top. He also stained Maddie's playhouse in Lake Forest and is now repainting our old toybox for Sara's room. I've done nothing but play, play, play with my grandbabies! Not true as I did stain a lot of the deck and changed a few diapers:-)
We were able to see a lot of family while in Minnesota. A special treat was my Dad visiting in MN while we were there, my brother Mike flew in from Texas and my sister Brigid drove up from Florida with her kids. We celebrated Great Grandpa Tom's 90th birthday, Father's Day and brother Pat's birthday with a family picnic at Pat and Nicci's in Cottage Grove Minnesota. We had Al's Mom down to Patrick, Nicci Josie(5) and Emma's (2)house for a week and then we took Great Grandma Annette down to Chicago to see the other great grand kids Maddie (3), Jack (1), and Sara (6 months) for a week. She flies back to Minnesota Friday and we fly back to Spain next Tuesday. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July! Love and God Bless Sally and Al
