Our walk into the large Galician port of Vigo was a long one, especially the rather interminable entry into the city centre. But it was also a beautiful day—that is after the rain stopped. With torrential downpours - and an orange alert in place for the late morning - we decided to linger at our hotel to see if we could avoid the worst of the rain, which turned out to be a good strategy.
Leaving at 11:30, it was a quick walk into A Ramollosa, entering over the 13th century bridge. As the rain picked up, we took shelter in the overhang of a closed tourist information booth. We snacked while we waited for the rain to let up and before long headed out for a delightful day of beach after beach. There were open bathrooms all along the way so that was an added bonus. And the sun came out so our spirits were good.
We had a lovely, dry picnic on a bench facing the water, and then later passed Playa de Patos, which was filled with surfers. So amazing to watch. There were two places where we had to cross beach stretches—in both cases needing to be careful with the waves. One was rocky and a bit of a scramble. At the other spot, an older man told us to be careful but fast. When we reached the stairs on the far side of the beach, I looked back to see if he was still there. And he was—I think making sure we made it safely. I waved to say thanks and off we went.
Another kindly man kept us from inadvertently taking the inland “monte” route, for which we were grateful. It was already a long enough day—we didn’t need extra challenges or more climbing.
Vigo was the first city of any size since leaving Porto, so after passing Samil beach it was still a long way in to the city centre. The route splits and we later wished we’d chosen to follow the river. We thought the route we’d chosen was more direct, which perhaps it was, but it was very tedious.
It was about 7:30 when we made it to our hotel which wasn’t the easiest to find given the direction we’d arrived from. But once we headed out in search in dinner we realized we were at the end of a busy pedestrianized, main street. The hotel (Hotel Alda Puerto Del Sol, €47) was lovely with a great view to the action, but not too loud when the windows were closed.