The Spain Chronicles - Day 10

Apologies for the massive delay in finishing this travelogue! Now that I’ve made a commitment to write about every day of the trip, I want to finish writing about every day of this trip.

Thursday was a very iffy day in our trip. We had wanted to go to the beach that day, but the weather report was showing rain so we knew that wouldn’t be any fun. When we saw the night before that it would rain, our original plan was to rent a car to visit Portugal. (Vigo is not that far from the border of Portugal.)

Renting a car proved to be a bit difficult. On the way home from Santiago, we stopped at a number of rental car places. The main difficulty was that we would need an automatic car, as neither Justin nor I can drive a standard and Enrique can’t drive at all. Enrique’s mother and sister were also busy, so we couldn’t ask them to drive us. Anyway, the rental car places didn’t have any cars, automatic or otherwise, as it was the beginning of the heavy vacation season in Spain. So we decided to put off the Portugal trip and go to Baiona instead.

Before that, though, the boys claimed that they desperately needed haircuts. We went to Enrique’s favorite hairdresser, and the boys convinced me to get my hair cut as well. I’m not incredibly thrilled with the result, primarily because I’m not very good with haircutting vocabulary in Spanish. Girls need to worry about things like layers and roots and hydrating conditioners, while boys for the most part only want it shorter. So the boys got the haircuts they wanted (shorter) and mine took twice as long, cost three times as much (€27 compared to their €10) and looks like a cross between a mullet and Jennifer Beals’ hair in Flashdance. Oh well.

After haircuts, we took a taxi back to Enrique’s house, since it was pouring and we didn’t have umbrellas. We had planned on taking the bus to Baiona, but the taxi was fairly reasonably priced when divided three ways, so we decided to have the taxi take us all the way there.

We got to Baiona a bit early for lunch, so we walked around for a bit before heading to the restaurant to eat. Enrique’s mother booked us a reservation at this place called “O Pote” (“the Pot”) and even placed a food order for us: tuna empanadas, razorback clams, and lobster with rice. A M A Z I N G ! ! ! I think it was one of the best meals I had during my time in Spain. Justin and I decided to treat Enrique for this meal, since he had been such a gracious host and tour guide thus far.

In addition to being the place where Enrique spent many childhood summers (and where his siblings now take their kids), Baiona is the home of two cool sites: it has a huge parador (government inn), and it is the first place that heard about Columbus discovering the New World (the Pinta made its way back there after their journey to America).

We wandered around some winding roads and then made our way to the Hotel Conde de Gondomar, a famous parador built in an old fortress (with canons and everything!). We walked all around the outside, which had the most amazing views. While we were exploring the parador, Enrique received a phone call with some exciting news – he got a London job! So, we left him to call everyone he knew while we took mountains of pictures.

I don’t know enough about the inn to explain it, so I’ll let some lovely photos do the talking:




After we made the loop, we stopped for a quick drink at the hotel’s restaurant, then made our way to the bus stop to head back to Vigo.

That night, Enrique cooked for us, Justin went for a run and we had an early night.

Next up: The Cíes Islands.