Day 84 La Coruña, Spain

 After the last couple of days visiting small colourful villages, it's almost like a slap across the face to be back in a large city, but here we are in La Coruña.  Our tour today is a walking tour of La Coruña and Tapas.  I have mentioned the friends whose company we have enjoyed throughout the cruise, however the six of us have never actually done a tour together.  Imagine our surprise (none of us knew the others were doing the same tour) when we all rocked up together on the pier to start our tour.  It made a somewhat boring tour so much more enjoyable.  When I say boring, the walk was enjoyable but the tour guy just rambled on and on, making us stand in one spot for up to twenty minutes.  He must have surely known that we were all bored with his talking, as people started peeling away from him until he started walking again.  When he eventually gave us free time it was for five minutes!  It would have been better if he cut the talk in half and gave us an hour of free time.  OK.  Whinge over…..

La Coruña has a wealth of history with some historians saying that Hercules himself founded the city.  Spain has a history of expedition sailings and in the 16th century La Coruña was the departure point for the Spanish Armada and later endured an assault fly Sir Francis Drake.  Urban modernisation swept through the 19th and 20th centuries, leaving a legacy of elegant squares and modernist architecture.

Our walk began down a beautiful tree lined boulevard with parkland on our right and some elegant architecture on our left.  These white buildings, with their distinctive enclosed glazed balconies known as galerias, are a key signature of La Coruña and have given it the nickname of "Crystal City"

Our tour guide leaves the waterfront and we head towards the town square where, once again, the town hall takes pride of place.  It is a magnificent building with its three distinctive towers, one of which is the clock tower.

We now make our way down narrow streets with such a variety of shops.  I am always interested in the food that is on display.  The Scampi that I photographed are still moving.  Now that's fresh!

After two hours of walking, that included two ABC'c, we finally reach our first tapas restaurant where we are served a frittata, green chillies and mussels.  I love mussels and ate mine and Philips share.  The chilli I chose from the platter however, was extremely fiery.  Nobody else's was so I was just unlucky.

We spent less time here than we did outside one of the church's!  It was a bit of a rush to get to the next tapas place apparently.  At this one we were served Jamon (ham) with two cheese choices plus a delicious tuna slice, all washed down with a glass of white wine.  The ceiling of this restaurant was lined with legs of cured Jamon (ham). There would have been at least 50.  These are not good photos as the lighting inside was terrible, but you get the idea.

Our friends and us decided to leave the tour at this point.  It was almost the end of the tour anyway but we wanted to go exploring on our own. 

This evening we are all meeting in our suite for "sail-away" drinks.  We depart at 5.00pm.  A photo of the group.