Spanish Rias - & there is more!

Quick hop to Combarro and made the most of the rest of the day relaxing on board, Amanda shattered after busy week.  The next day with great anticipation we went ashore and it was all slightly disappointing. Quite pretty but felt a bit touristy and the main attraction was small building on stilts or saddle stalls as my dad later informed me, these were to keep corn and wheat in to protect from rats but we had already seen this elsewhere in the Rias and although nice enough was not as special as had been made out by customs or on a yachtie website, must just be good at marketing.

Next day sailing round to Ria Vigo, scenery spectacular with background of Isla Cies for most of the journey.

Isla Cies

The islands are part of a nature reserve so our first stop was into Vigo to pick up some sailing permits which we had ordered a week earlier, thankfully they were ready to go and only 1 night in the pricey but luxury marina! Was a surprise in the morning when we woke up to see Independence of the Seas pulling into Vigo, sort of felt like home seeing a cruise ship ! As we left for Isla Cies Independence also left and we established its next Port of Call was Southampton about 36 hours later – we both sailed down the Ria together in different directions for our next stops.

Independence of the Sea on route for Southampton

Isla Cies are part of Atlantic Islands Nature Reserve and 2 of the main islands are located at the entrance to Ria de Vigo.  Rolly night at anchor, but amazing location and we felt lucky to be there.  We managed to get our lazy butts out of bed before 8.30am as we were desperate to get over to the islands before the boat loads of tourists arrived.  Day 1 we walked to the highest lighthouse on the island – Faro de Cies.

But here are some of the views along the way and where you can see a little boat happily sat at anchor that is Magnum.

Magnum at anchor

Views from the lighthouse – it was worth the walk.

We failed to captured the volume of seagulls everywhere which was really nice in one respect as we saw tiny seagull chicks but on the other hand not so great when a seagulls decided to drop it’s load all over Amanda’s head, mmmmmmmmmm not feeling very lucky and Mark not feeling to lucky when he had the job of cleaning from her hair.  Actually not too many people around as still a week day. Weather held out for the entire day and we both even managed a solar warmed shower although as the northly wind was blowing this was still pretty chilly!  Couple of other boats joined us in anchorage for another rolly night, not too surprising when on edge of the Atlantic.

Next day after beaching Daisy dingy on Playa De Rodas (has previously been voted one of the world best beaches by the Guardian) we headed in the opposite direction from the day before; the northern end is more wooded with pines and eucalyptus trees just as stunning. 

First time we had come across any other Brits in some time and looked like boatload of them had been dropped off possibly from cruiseship – quite strange so many speaking English and not Spanish, we have only been away for 6 weeks!  Stunning views again this time from the other side of the island.

We had a third day on the island and another good walk but we were joined with the Spanish weekenders, loads of them! What was really lovely was we saw loads of Seagull chicks, so cute and fluffy! With over 30,000 nesting pairs on the island there were quite a few around.

Ah Seagull chick

We moved over to another island for our final night at the islands the color of the sea was stunning.

Whist in Vigo we have seen some spectacular boats around and although we are more than happy with lovely Magnum we have been thinking about our options …………

We headed up to the marina in Vigo for a couple of nights, first time with the experience of stern to mooring! Not the easiest with only two of us aboard but some friendly French yachties came over to help us out.  Another afternoon of walking!! The old town is really pretty and there are lots of local sculptures which make it really interesting.  On arrival we thought it was really exciting to be in the centre of the town but shortly after we realised we were moored by a busy walkway and we had quite a few spectators! Oh and another cruiseship in port! 

Day 2 in Vigo (still like goldfish in bowl) was a cultured day with 3 art galleries in a day, the first was a bit of a let down as you were not able to go into the gallery but they had 2000 old photos of Vigo on a PC, turn out to actually be quite interesting but not what we thought.  The 2^nd  Marco - The Vigo Art Gallery of Contemporary Art was just bizarre, the main installation was the entire ground floor of huge art gallery with various rooms filled with bright blue balloons, we had great fun hitting balloons at each other but quite unexpected. 3^rd was the Galician Cultural Centre which was only open in the evening but worth a look.

Amanda resisted shopping – lots of lovely, lovely shops!

Final couple of days in Vigo were spent in Bayona, the theme of the week had been rain and it continued! Bayona was actually a really interesting place, fantastic castle with beautiful gardens, they have now built a very nice hotel in the ground but still lovely to take a walk around.

Bayona is supposedly a holiday resort for the Spanish, lots of nice little restaurants and bars. We also went on a replica of the Pinta which is one of the boats that was in a Columbus voyage across the Atlantic, quite nice way to spend 2 minutes in the rain! Rest of the day spent tucked up on Magnum watching a dvd whilst the rain hammered down!

Pinta