Vigo

We had been forewarned that there isn't much to do in the town of Vigo itself beyond shopping, so we pre-booked the ships tour to Santiago de Compostela.  In medieval times, this was the 3rd most important site of Christian pilgrimage after Jerusalem and Rome, being the final destination of the Way of St James.  The whole city centre is now designated a UNESCO World heritage Site.

Santiago is the best part of 60 miles from Vigo, so the tour started with a 75 minute coach journey.  When we arrived, it was absolutely bucketing it down with rain, so most of the guided walking involved a brisk dash from shelter to shelter, a lengthy explanation of what was around the next corner, followed by another brisk dash!  Eventually we made it inside the magnificently gloomy gothic cathedral of St James.  Inside there are some impressive artworks and decorations, while the outside, with it's gothic styling covered in moss, reminded Dave of a ruined elven palace from some fantasy film ...

Whilst we are not usually a great fan of ship shore excursions, finding them to be typically overpriced, overcrowded merchandising trips, this tour actually was reasonably good value, involved no compulsory shopping experiences and was probably the easiest way to see at least a little of Santiago in the short time we had available.  Recommended.