Exploring lovely A Coruña

- July 02, 2019

A Coruna from the Castillo Museum

We had no idea A Coruña was so big. Our impression before coming here was that it was a small port with large resorts and people sitting around pools sipping drinks with umbrellas. Maybe we'll find that on the other side where the beaches are. We haven't made it that far. Both of us immediately had the impression that it was more akin to Lisbon in flavour than Spain.

The first night, we got as far as the street festival along the harbour. We ate pizza and listened to live music. That was the extent of what we could muster. We were dead to the world, yet we were both kept awake with horrible cramps most of the night.

Yesterday, we went on walkabout, met a few Irish crew, and contacted a few OCC boats in the harbour. Alex surmised that the cramps occurred because we did not drink wine the night before, only beer. So we made sure we had plenty of Albarino last night. A lot of the restaurants were closed on Monday night, including the ones recommended by Anna in the office. But there were plenty that were open and we needed only some tapas. We had a marisco soup, Zorza and calamari. Off to bed. We went into a deep sleep.

I awoke early, jumped out of bed and ran out to do the laundry. The day before, the laundry pile up was horrendous. Several new boats had come in and I expected worse today. I arrived just in time to take both washers. By the time I was done with my shower, there was a pile up behind me. Laundry strategy worked. The drier once again didn't work and my laundry was hot but not dry after an hour in the drier. I gave up and hung the clothes on the lifelines. The wind almost blew a few shirts away but we saved the lot in time. Twice now I've had laundry issues in paradise. Will they ever go away.

The winds are northerly and plan to stay that way for a few days. So we are metering out the sightseeing. Today we rode our bikes to the excellent museum of archaeology in the fortified Castillo in the harbour. It was very interesting. Well organised and lots to see from various historical periods. Most interesting to me were the Celtic finds and Roman remains.

Later this evening, we're planning to meet up with OCC folks in the RCNC restaurant for cocktails and perhaps dinner. We'll see. Most are moving south, but TinTin like us is moving north. They are in the other marina which looks rather empty and is far removed from the centre of town.

It looks like we may not get favourable winds for a passage through Biscay until next Tuesday. The Swiss boat next to us that came in this morning apparently got beat up out there on passage from Cherbourg. We don't want that. There would be worse places to spend a week. I am rather looking forward to it.

Cheers!