Tower of Hercules

We slept in and then found a high speed train to A Coruna, the large Galician town just north of Santiago. We were whisked there in just about a half hour. The "a" in A Coruna is the Galego article "the" and nobody seems to know what Coruna derived from. There's a rocky peninsula on the north side of town with the Tower of Hercules, a lighthouse/fort from the Roman era. We found a bus to take us towards it but got off beforehand to walk through parts of the old town.

Our first stop was the local art museum. It's free and there was a temporary exhibit on Sorolla, one of Spain's favorite local artists. We've been to his house/museum in Madrid and love his stuff. There were only a few originals in the exhibit, but there were many photos of his visits to Galicia where he painted a few times. There was also a nice permanent collection.

A Coruna has a port on either side of the peninsula, a rare thing. We found a pulparia, a local restaurant that specializes in pulpo, or octopus. We lucked out using Google maps, because this was highly rated and inexpensive. We ordered the half rations of pulpo, a local farmer's cheese, pimientos de padron, and some cured ham. It was a feast for two people. And we tried the house wine, simply because it's served in a white pitcher and the wine cups are small ceramic cups with no handles. The cheese was some of the best I've had, and I've had a LOT.

We then walked out to the Tower of Hercules and took photos. We also walked through the park to another area that has large granite sculptures. We could have taken a bus back, but we decided to hoof it. We ended up walking 11 miles that day, a record for us on this trip. We made it back to the station in time for our 6pm train back to town. It was a long day and I wish we had more time to explore A Coruna, but at least we saw it.

Next up is Oviedo where we booked another 3 nights along the northern coast of Spain.

More photos and videos are here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/xV9JczxhnbjDj6FW8Läs mer