Our European Adventure: London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vigo, La Coruña to Southampton (Updated 9/14)

[Girl of the South]

I will be in Vigo in November. What is the name of the gelato shop? And very cool about TransAtlantic cables (?)!

 

[greensombrero]

I will be in Vigo in November. What is the name of the gelato shop? And very cool about TransAtlantic cables (?)!

I don't remember the name, forgot to write it down but I looked on Google maps and I'm fairly certain it is La Fabbrica del
Gelato: https://maps.app.goo.gl/sqpRrKDkM9PdpHzp8

Enjoy Vigo!

 

[greensombrero]

Day 14: La Coruña

Today marked 2 weeks since we began our grand adventure. The seas were a little rough since we'd gotten into the North Atlantic, especially the night before. Our oldest woke up not feeling well. We figured a combination of the seas and the fact she was staying out late every night with friends.

I loved the port views. La Coruña has these beautiful white faced buildings all along the port.

My oldest two decided to stay back as we headed off the ship for our first activity in port. We decided to take a quick walk to a beach. It was only a couple blocks from the port. It was a beautiful little beach.



The weather wasn't hot but it was pleasant. The water was quite cold, but the kids didn't care. I waded in just a bit but mainly just hung out while they played in the ocean. It's nice you can get towels as you come off the ship. There weren't any real services at the beach but they had bathrooms and showers. The only problem was they were on either end of the beach and we walked into the middle. It wouldn't be a bad place for a beach day but we only planned to spend an hour or so because we had other plans.

After the beach we cleaned up and grabbed lunch. I found a Segway tour on Viator (Segway Tour Tower of Hercules) during some of my early trip research. It sounded really interesting so I booked it. We ended up having to move our time because the tour operator reached out that Disney Cruise line needed his morning slots. Turns out there was a DCL excursion that did the same thing but it wouldn't have allowed my youngest and it was significantly more expensive.

The tour was at the Tower of Hercules, an ancient Roman lighthouse that was renovated in 1791. It's pretty incredible to think about how old it is.


The one challenge with going on our own was we had to figure out how to get there ourselves. It ended up not being too bad to walk to the taxi stand just out of the port and split into two cabs. They sometimes have cabs at the port but I think they mainly come in the morning. The taxi stand though is only a block or so away.

We got there a little early and got to wander for a bit and see the tower. It was obvious where to meet our tower guide, he had a van that was clearly marked with a sign in the window when he'd be back which corresponded to our tour time. We soon realized he was finishing an earlier tour as they all came back riding on Segways.

The guide was absolutely incredible. He started out making sure we knew the safety rules and gave us the basics. Then he took each of us one by one and made sure we could safely operate our Segways. They weren't too hard to get the hang of. I appreciated though he wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable before we headed out.



Soon we were off to explore the area on our Segways. The views were stunning, photos don't capture how beautiful the scenery was.



The guide gave us information about the history of the area. An oil tanker ran aground in this cove a number of years earlier. It resulted in an ecological disaster that they spent years recovering from. It sounded like it was part of what led to the larger area becoming a park.

He was a great guide. We also learned about ancient history and how the Galician people are connected to the Gaelic people. I found that connection super interesting. We really enjoyed riding around and everything he showed us.



The tour lasted about an hour and I wished it had gone longer. It was a solid 10 / 10 one of the best excursions I've ever done. I really loved riding a Segway, it was my first time, super fun and I was disappointed to learn they no longer make them. It was good I got the Euros out the other day as I definitely wanted to tip our guide for his excellent service.

We debated taking taxis back to the port but the guide told us it was a pleasant walk and we had time. So we took the walk back and go to explore more of La Coruña. It really was a pleasant walk and along the way I found this place.



Argentinian empanadas are something I love and I was definitely up for a snack.



As we approached the ship my daughter wanted to do more shopping so we split off and I went with her to find a souvenir shirt. Along the way I found another empanada place. I wish I had gotten more than one at the last place so I decided payment for the extra shopping time would be swinging by and getting another. Both empanada shops were really good and she found a shirt she liked.

I really liked La Coruña. Of all the places we visited on this trip it was probably the place I'd most want to live. It was a beautiful city and I loved walking through it. We also loved Lisbon and Barcelona but I'm partial to smaller cities. Not that I'd ever likely move there but maybe in my dreams.

My wife and I sat on deck 4 to watch sail away and were interested to see the characters came out to wave goodbye to the locals. I don't think Disney ships visit this port often and there was quite a crowd to see the Fantasy off. I thought it was awesome the characters came out to wave. We also got another photo with Donald while he was there. He was happy to see all his fans including me!



That night we had Chris Cox the mentalist performing in the Walt Disney Theater. He was so funny and such a performer. We really enjoyed his show. I even got to participate a little bit. I thought maybe I'd be called up on stage at first but I got selected to select the unlucky victim for the show. It was one of the best variety acts I've seen.

I don't remember what else we did that night but dinner was good. We were enjoying our servers, they had figured things out by this point and we enjoyed them. This had been a really good day! We were starting to feel ready to go home but also sad things were wrapping up. Fortunately we had one more sea day to go!