A Coruña, Spain, 10/4/2017, National Geographic Orion
Aboard the
National Geographic Orion
Europe aboard NG Orion
After saying goodbye to the wonderful Basque country we spent the morning at sea while sailing west towards A Coruña on the Galician coastline. Our historian, David Barnes, gave an informative and lively talk called “The Spirit of Spain.” We learned that there is a lot more to Spain than simply sunshine, beaches, and sangrias as he covered the various religions and borders that have influenced the culture throughout the centuries.
Born under the ever-lingering midnight sun in the Arctic and surrounded by exploding geysers, spewing volcanoes, majestic glaciers, and powerful waterfalls—Dagný is a true Icelandic Viking who firmly believes in elves, trolls, and all the other super...
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Clinging to the steep banks of the Douro River, Oporto is Portugal’s second largest city. Oporto is also one of Europe’s oldest metropolises, dating back to the Roman Empire. Situated strategically between Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean Sea, this northern city of Portugal ended up being a convenient place for sailing ships to catch the easterly trade winds towards the North America. For centuries, the waterfront of Oporto was a major hub of global trade, providing the locals with a constant supply of commodities such as wine, sugar, spices, oils and exposure to the cuisines of foreign cultures. A major export of Oporto was a special fortified wine known as Port, and it is still produced exclusively in this region. This morning, National Geographic Orion sailed up the Douro River as far as the port of Leixoes, one of Oporto’s principal harbors, and we had a full morning exploring the streets by coach and by foot. Among the highlights of the day was a stop at the Lello Bookshop, (which was one of J.K. Rowling’s inspirations for the famous Harry Potter book series), the Sao Bento Train Station to view the huge painted tile entry hall, and a final stop at the Calem Port House to taste some world class port wine. In the afternoon, National Geographic Orion sailed for Lisbon. Tonight we will celebrate our voyage with the Captain’s Farewell Party! Tomorrow we must actually say farewell, and hope that we all meet again someday on another great Lindblad/National Geographic expedition.
It was still dark half an hour into our drive through the “mysterious” (the guides here are very fond of that adjective) Galician countryside on the way to the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela. Galicia is in the northwest corner of Spain, sitting on top of Portugal on the map. However, because it is in Spain, it doesn’t share the more logical time zone of the other European nations this far west like Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. Mad dogs and Englishmen can go out in the middle of the afternoon and still be sure to catch the midday sun. Why so mysterious? Galicians speak a Romance language very closely related to Portuguese but they never felt at home in either Portugal or Spain and have developed a fondness for Celtic roots that give them, apparently, an affinity for superstition and bag-pipes. Certainly, they share high rainfall totals with their distant Celtic cousins on the Atlantic fringes of Western Europe . Today we were very fortunate; darkness lifted and was replaced, after some early morning mist, with glorious sunshine. For some, the destination was Santiago de Compostela, the third most important pilgrimage site in Christendom after Jerusalem and Rome. St. James the Apostle was reputed to have come on mission to Spain and after dying back home in Jerusalem his body was returned to the mission field. His relics are the object of pilgrimage in the great cathedral that bears his name high inland in Galicia. A vision of St. James inspired the Reconquista , the medieval movement that culminated in the expulsion of the Moors and Jews from Spain in 1492 under the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella. A popular image of St. James shows the saint on a white charger slaying a Moor, a thoroughly anachronistic and hardly politically correct image today. The image is known as Santiago Matamoros, St. James the Slayer of the Moors. Some attended mass in the Cathedral and witnessed the swinging of the botafumeiro, the giant incense burner that once fumigated the church during the pilgrim mass. The scallop shell established itself early on as the badge of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. Those of us who did a small section of the camino acquired shell and staff as souvenirs. Others who followed an alternative itinerary during the day visited the ria coastline, drowned river valleys where scallops, mussels and other splendid seafood abounds. We saw mussel production first hand, and had tastings of the local gastronomy washed down with the local albariño wine that makes such a perfect accompaniment to seafood.
