Day 44: A Coruña and Lugo

Busy day today, a UNESCO double header! Today we were heading north to check out the Roman-era lighthouse in the town of A Coruña, then the Roman walls of Lugo. So we had a fair bit of driving to do, and were up and out fairly early by Spanish standards.

First up was an hour-long drive northwards to A Coruña, where we drove through the city to the Tower of Hercules. It's a Roman-era lighthouse on a rocky outcrop facing the Atlantic, and is the oldest still-operating lighthouse in the world. It was built in around 250 AD to a height of around 50 metres, of which about 35 still remains. There was an extension done in the 16th century which rebuilt the height and shored up the stone, and its been standing ever since.

It's very impressive, considering its age! Very dramatic placement as well, with large rocks and waves crashing in off the ocean. Unfortunately for us though, we weren't able to climb to the top as they close it during high winds, and it was howling a gale. Given the location I'd guess it's closed more often than not! But at least the rain had stopped - clear blue skies down here.

Did some video and then headed back down into the town where I found a Vodafone store to top up my Spanish SIM card. It's quite annoying in that you can top-up online, but obviously you can't top-up when you don't have a valid SIM to access the internet! You can call them, but when you don't speak Spanish that's not real easy. I'm sure there are stores where you can buy pre-paid cards, but I don't know where to find them!

Back into the car where I discovered I'd parked in a loading zone, whoops. We then drove another hour-ish south-east to the town of Lugo. The big attraction here are the Roman-era walls that completely surround the town. They're 2.1 kilometres long, 10-12 metres high and about 4 metres thick, so a very impressive stone construction! Apparently the longest Roman walls in existence that still completely surround a town.

Drove into town through an archway in the walls and stopped in a parking lot in heavy rain. Waited a little while for the rain to slacken a bit before heading up on to the walls. These days they're used mainly as a walking and running loop for the locals since there's no lights or other obstacles to get in the way. Unless some crazy Australians bring a dachshund of course! He chased a few runners which was annoying but comical.

We walked a lap of the walls ourselves and enjoyed the loop, though the constant on-off drizzle put a dampener on things. Still very impressive though, I really love seeing old Roman ruins. Once we'd finished with the walls we felt like a hot drink to warm up, but with Schnitzel in tow we only really had outdoor seating options that we weren't keen on. So we just went back to the car and headed for our accommodation.

We'd booked to stay the night in Serria, a small town about 30 minutes drive south of Lugo. There is very little here, though it's mildly notable for being about 102 kilometres from Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims have to complete at least 100 km of the walk to be officially considered "pilgrims", so many of them set off from here to end up in Santiago a week or so later. But otherwise, not much to see.

Our apartment was nice enough - newly renovated and with a roaring fire going already. I made a quick trip out to the nearby Mercadona for supplies (tortilla espanola con chorizo and salad) before we settled in for the evening. Good wifi connection here so I uploaded my next couple of videos and relaxed for the evening. Moving on tomorrow!Read more