April 27 - Ferrol, Spain

Today we are docked in Ferrol, Spain which is at the far northwestern corner of the Iberian peninsula on the Atlantic coast.  My father came here often for work when we lived in Spain and I remember coming here once.  Ferrol is in the autonomous region of Spain called Galicia.  Unlike the southern half of the peninsula, this area is lush and green.  The place has been inhabited for millennia.  In writings from ancient historians there are references of Phoenician and Greek settlements.  (Those Phoenicians were everywhere which I find amazing.) The Romans, Vandals, and Moors all occupied the area.  Because of its location it was important to the Spanish as a center for its navy, especially during the era when Spain had so many colonies in the New World.  Now it is primarily a port for exports of seafood, corn, wine and other products grown or manufactured in this part of Spain

I had nothing planned for today and as it turns out all tours were canceled because there was supposed to be a bus strike.  I went ashore with a friend and we decided to walk around a little and then perhaps take a taxi for a little tour. The shuttle dropped us off right in downtown and we headed first toward the market (I love markets!).  On the way we passed a shoe store with some nice-looking shoes.  We both wound up buying a pair.  The market was winding down when we went in but there were still some stands with produce (the biggest white asparagus we’d ever seen), plenty of seafood and meat and cheeses.  The market was in a very clean and modern pair of buildings.  

Aren't these gigantic asparagus?

Upon leaving the market we walked up a couple of blocks to what must be the main shopping street.  It’s pedestrian only and there were cafés with tables in the walkway.  It was too early for lunch; here in Spain lunchtime is more like 1:30 or 2 PM and this was noonish.  Along the way we passed a store that sold candies and chocolate palmieres.  They looked so good, and after all the ship barely feeds us 😀, that we went in.  We bought one of the chocolate  things and I bought a box of traditional Galician almond cookies.  The street brought us to the main plaza which has a very large and imposing city hall dominating one side and some nice trees and benches along the others.  My friend went into a pharmacy to look for something and I sat in the shade and people-watched, one of my favorite things to do.  One thing I observed was the Spaniards really like dogs.  There were many people walking along with their dogs.  As in other European countries, people can go into shops or sit at cafés with their dogs.  Think what would happen if we tried that at home in the US.

Not sure what this was but it was about 4 feet tall and in the middle of the street

The City Hall on one side of the Plaza de Armas

We decided to head down the hill toward the waterfront and we came to a lovely little park with a monument to people from Ferrol who were killed during the era of Franco.  Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War, was from Ferrol, but there is evidently no love lost for him now.  There was also a very pretty fountain.  I’m always impressed in cities like this how many parks and green spaces there are particularly along the waterfront.  We had walked several miles and decided to head back to the ship.

I forgot to mention that today turned out to be a glorious day weatherwise.  We have a beautiful blue sky and the temperature is close to 70°.  I hope it stays this way for the next few days.

I also need to tell you a little about yesterday’s sea day.  It was chilly and dreary, but the seas were smooth.  That was fortunate because the Bay of Biscay, which we were sailing through, has a nasty reputation.  We had our first trivia session.  I’m on a team with several friends from previous cruises and our name is Abandon Ship.  Wonder of wonders, we won yesterday!  In the evening I had dinner with the captain who is a delightful Yorkshireman.  He was very engaging, which is more than I can say for the gentleman sitting next to me on one side.  That man when I introduced myself to him didn’t tell me his name he just turned his place card in my direction and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the dinner.  He spoke to the lady across from him about his wine cellar.  The funny thing about that was I knew some of the wines he talked about and some of them are wines that are on the included wine list on the ship.  They are nice wines but they are hardly ones that I would brag about if I was a wine connoisseur.

And finally, we had an afternoon trivia game just a little while ago and TA-DA we won again!  If we keep this up, we may be the most disliked passengers on the ship.  Tomorrow we’re in another Spanish port, Gijon.  Until then…

Some Serrano and Iberico hams

Salted fish anyone?