A Coruna Town Hall

We left camp with very heavy cloud cover, threatening rain and a forecast of continued misery. It was 170 km to A Coruna, our first stop on the way to Santiago de Compostela. About half way we hit a fog patch that demanded 50 km/h speed on the freeway and went for about 30 minutes. It was solid fog. The viaducts felt like they were floating on cloud.

We eventually made it to A Coruna to find a surprisingly large city with a mass of tourists and traffic chaos. It took about an hour to find a park then we hit town for the highlights. This is a fabulous city and deserves a good explore. Unfortunately we had to just do the highlights.

Monastery and Church of Santo Domingo Once

Stunning organ.

This is a Jamoneria, a specialist supplier of hams.

We think this is the parliament building.

The guard couldn’t care less about us. Obviously no threat to national security, and besides, a chat is far more important.

Church of Santiago.

Wedding rehearsal taking place.

Saint James in full action mode.

Cassa Rey

Town Hall Square

You don’t often see a heroine with her own statue.

Maria Pita was a heroine in the defence of A Coruna against the English Armada in 1589. This weekend there is a Festival Maria Pita.

A Coruna is known as the glass city for the extent glass was used in construction.

A dance group from Angola, here to participate in the Maria Pita festival.

International traditional dancers on the way into city hall for a performance.

Church of Saint George.

Another beautiful old church.

Saint George doing his thing.

Can’t interrupt a budding photographer.

Two big cruise boats in so tourists everywhere.

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

Bit hard to see but all the verticals and window edges are different coloured stained glass.

Torre de Hercules, the oldest known Roman lighthouse and still in operation, built in the 1st C. Would have been great to climb to the top but booked out. Weather was still lousy anyway.

The lighthouse road littered with tourists.

General Directorate of Merchant Marine, Maritime Captaincy of A Coruna, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (with apologies from Google Translate)