A respite in A Coruña home of the Tower of Hercules

So, after an enjoyable evening in Muxia, the Salvinos and I hired a car (thanks Mike) to carry us roughly 60 miles northeast to the city of A Coruña, a port city of just under 300,000 people located on the Atlantic. A Coruña is an ancient city which at one time was the capital city of the kingdom of Galicia and is home to The Tower of Hercules the oldest operating lighthouse in the world and a UNESCO world heritage site. But, we will get to that later. First we made a sortie into the City of A Coruña itself that beautiful Saturday afternoon and visited the port and the fort which guards the entrance thereto.

Our hotel was very close to the commercial/port section of the City and was a little on the touristy side as A Coruña has recently become a port of call for several cruise lines which was fine with me because it meant that Cuban cigars were readily available, not cheap but available lol. As we worked our way into this area we immediately came across the local church.

• 

• 

• 

The port area was very busy as the afternoon was lovely and there were many street vendors and activities. As we passed through this area we moved along to the port and fort.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

An interesting thing that we discovered while wandering through the facility was a cistern dug out of the rock to supply the fort with water.

The castle was worth the walk and soon we were headed back to the square where city hall, the former palace of the kingdom of Galicia, was located for a little lunch and libation.

Just out of range of the picture above was a little outdoor cafe where we enjoyed a glass of Estrella Galicia a very popular local brew by the Estrella Brewing company. In the states Estrella Jallisco, comes pretty close to the flavor profile of Estrella Galicia. I have also had Estrella Madrid but for whatever reason it wasn’t as good. Anyway as is often occurs when one orders a drink in Spain, a small bit of food is brought out, similar to a cup of nuts or popcorn in the states, but can be much more substantial. In this case we were given small bowls of lentil soup that were delicious.

Our next event was dinner that evening I used Yelp to find a Tapas restaurant/Bistro nearby. I asked the desk clerk if it was a good restaurant to which he replied that it was very good with a tone of “good luck getting a seat”. When we got there the place was packed but Melanie and I found a high top outside with only one chair which we immediately staked out and shortly the table next door was leaving so we snagged two more chairs and we were in business. This seemed to be the program for table acquisition at this restaurant so, when in Rome……

The place was delightful.

We finally toddled off to our hotel well fed and ready for a good night’s sleep…..that did not happen because right across from our hotel was a nightclub which opend at 11pm and closed at 5am. How do I know that? My room was literally one floor up and directly across from the night club. The club itself wasn’t so bad but smokers had to gather outside and there always seemed to be one senorita who must have been born in an anvil factory she spoke so loudly.

Ok, Tower of Hercules tomorrow. This enough for one post.