The best part of making a new port is I get to have a really long ‘guilt’ walk. My humans feel guilty that, despite the fact they have to play and entertain me on the boat during passage, I don’t really get to go for a ‘walk’. So the first day into port I always get a really long walk.
Today it was up and down the huge main beach here at Ria de Cedeira. The calm North Easterly winds have brought low lying clouds and British style misty rain. The high hills surrounding the inlet are all densely forested. We met a French man from Audierne, where we just came from. He said hello to us in English as we were dingying to land. He told us to tie up to the boat yard pontoon for free. The poor guy needed an engine rebuild and was heading home leaving the boat behind for repairs.
After my ‘guilt’ walk we went to explore the town. There was a main promenade, obviously the tourist centre of town, with lots of cafes and bars just off the beach. Everything is in Spanish and Ohla, Cee and Mucho gracious is about the extent of my human’s understanding. Luckely they found an English to Spanish translation page in the back of a cruising guide. Unfortunately they can now only talk about the boat and the parts of. Bilge keel is Quillas de balance, cee.
We then followed the steep narrow streets up to the Church to find the old centre of town.
Here there was a lovely town square boarded by tall narrow packed houses. Each house shares walls with its neighbour is at least four stories and some no wider then a single door and window. The upper floors have balconies and lots of windows that are divided up into small square panes.
It looks like the old quarter has suffered from the recession and some of the houses are empty.
The small windy streets are only a car width wide and some of the steeper roads have steps up the side.
The door of the homes opens straight onto the street and, although cars move slow and carefully through them, if I lived in one of the homes I would listen carefully first before sticking my head out. Little butcher, fruit and veg stands and convenience stores appear suddenly in little residential areas.
Being a British dog I am just getting a handle on something completely new to me. Flies. Yes, growing up on the shores of Britain I have never seen flies before. I chase them all over the boat to the great amusement of my humans.
We came back to the boat for a lunch of tuna sushi and sashimi. We are going to head back to town to find an internet cafe so we can get some pictures on old emails and post you this new only. Then the humans are planning to tire me out so they can go out for tapas tonight. We were told to start following the locals around town about 9pm.
