Part 12: Vigo and Cambados

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The Trip

We left Porto and continued north to Vigo. Our objective for the day was the Parador at Cambados for a couple of nights to allow us to recoup and recover from Porto.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

We traveled the toll road to Vigo and decided to check out the Fortaleza on the hill overlooking the city. The fort has been converted to a very nice city park. Parking was free and it took as awhile to find an open spot, but it was near the top so the hike up was not so onerous. From our parking spot we could see the seaward side of the fort.

Across the street from our parking area was a view point that offered a great view of the harbor at Vigo.

Further up the trail we could see another portion of the harbor. Note the islands in the distance.

An area of the harbor was converted to a marina for private boats.

Further up the trail we could see to the east and more of the downtown area of Vigo.

While we were watching, a car carrier left port and headed out to the Atlantic.

Vigo was much larger than I expected. Tall apartment buildings were common in the area.

Directly to the east were dense residential areas.

At the crest of the hill was a nice flat area surrounded by the old stone walls.

From the top we could see the islands in the Atlantic to the west of the city.

To the southwest we could see the commercial shipping area and a tall apartment building on an island connected to the mainland via a causeway.

Like many similar structures, a ton of man power was expended building static fortifications.

Most of the trees in the park had some kind of belt to prevent squirrels from climbing the tree trunks. I question whether these were actually effective. That said, I did not see any squirrels.

Spring was in full swing and there were many bushes in bloom.

Our walking path took us past many nice flowers in bloom. The insects were out in force to gather pollen.

After suffering the traffic in downtown Vigo, we headed north to our hotel in Cambados. This hotel is a "parador" and is a refurbished old structure that has been converted to an upscale hotel. Every Parador that we have stayed at has been very deluxe with great food and super amenities.

Across the parking area from the entrance to the Parador was the small town of Cambados. Cambados is popular with the tourists and has many regional restaurants and shops. Buildings in this area are made of stone blocks.

We hiked into the village for dinner on the first night and found few places that were open. Basically, we chose to eat at the first place that was open. It was raining and rather windy, so our selection criteria became quite loose. We had "regional" food and it was pretty good, albeit rather basic. Specifically, the dishes were exactly as described. For instance, I ordered the Galician octopus and what I got was exactly that and nothing more. No veggies, no bread, just a plate of octopus legs in oil with paprika. The octopus was good, not overcooked and the spices were excellent. A focused dinner, for sure. The second night we had dinner at the Parador and were more pleased with the result. While still serving regional menu selection, the portions and selection of items on the plate were more in line with our expectations.

Next up: continue north to Santiago de Compostela and then on to the Atlantic coast.

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