The Spirit of Discovery finally arrived around mid-afternoon on the previous day and we had stayed overnight in Vigo. The plan was for a lunchtime departure which allowed a morning of sightseeing. For me, a second walk around Vigo didn't have the same appeal, as a walk around Santander or La Coruna would have had: they are both more attractive cities. Instead, I booked up for the Saga coach trip to explore the nearby town of Baiona. Chris and Fiona had been on that trip on the previous afternoon and said it was a nice-looking place to explore. It was a good recommendation and Baiona is well worth a visit.
The ship is a replica of La Pinta. She was one of the three ships in Columbus's fleet that discovered the New World, after first visiting the Canaries to reprovision as they sailed West. The largest ship was the Santa Maria, but she was wrecked in a storm in Haiti in Dec 1492. As she couldn't be salvaged, Columbus transferred to La Nina, which with La Pinta, returned to Europe at the start of the following year. The two ships lost contact in an Atlantic storm and La Nina put into the Azores, before reaching Lisbon and finally Palos in Southern Spain. The La Pinta made its first landfall in Baiona.
The most obvious landmark in Baiona is the stunning Monterreal Castle. Construction took place between the 12th and 16th Centuries. In the 19th Century, the Marquis of the Pazo de la Merced bought the castle ruins to build a beautiful Neo-Gothic palace. This was declared a National Monument in 1950. It was restored between 1963 and 1966 and transformed into a stunning-looking Parador hotel. I spent an enjoyable forty-five minutes wandering around the castle grounds.
After walking around the inner Castle grounds, I had chance to have a quick walk around the rest of the waterfront. Next to the car park outside of the outer walls, is this decorated wall which commemorates the five hundred anniversary of the departure of Columbus's ships in 1492. On the other side, is a tiled mural celebrating the arrival of the La Pinta in Baiona in 1493.
The waterfront has a number of historic buildings and sites of interest.
About eleven, we were heading back to Vigo.
We were all back on the Spirit of Discovery for twelve and after about thirty minutes, we were heading out to sea. After lunch, we headed out and found the top deck was open. It was good to be able to survey from the top deck, but it was windy. After a couple of hours, the wind strength was increasing and just as it was getting to the point where we were thinking of finding a more sheltered position, the top deck was closed by the Captain. Fortunately, we were still allowed to watch from the more sheltered side of the next deck down. This viewpoint was about halfway along the side of the ship, but it had a better view than the back deck.
We still had one more day at sea off the French coast and the forecast was for the sea and the wind to moderate. I will cover that in the next Blog Post.