This is our first time in A Coruna, and as such, we don’t have much planned today but to explore the city by wandering the town. It is raining as we arrive in port, which puts a damper on the day, but luckily, the rain stops by the time we are off and begin our explorations. Our plans are to go to the Torre de Hercules first, but it doesn’t open until 10, so we have some downtime as it is only 8am, oh, and still pitch dark! Crazy. So, off we go into the darkness, making our way through the winding pedestrian streets of old town, ending up on the loggia at the Praza de Maria Pita, the municipal square. Here we find a little bar with tables outside under the portico where we can have cappuccino and waste some time. As we are sitting there, enjoying the view of the spot-lit city hall, it started pouring. Perfect cappuccino timing. 

As the rain stopped, dawn finally broke around 8:45, and we took leave of our protected spot to meander over toward the tower, passing the Gothic Igrexa de San Xurxo and walking through town, checking out a couple of restaurants we had thought about for later. Of course we arrived far too early for the Tower, but we had read that tickets were available at 9:30, and it is first come, first served with a capacity limit. So we figured with a ship in? Cooling our heels outside the ticket office was our best bet.

Another guy was standing there waiting as well and struck up a conversation. He was visiting from California, but Spanish by birth and was full of all sorts of great information and totally interesting to chat with during our wait. He was in a hurry as he had a bus to another town he needed to catch, and he was getting terribly irritated with the ticket guy who said it would be 15 more minutes of waiting. Ah well, gave us all something to chat and plot about! More people started coming, but no one really got in line with us. When the ticket guy finally opened we all 3 rushed in, procured our tickets – which were free today because it is Monday – and headed up the beautiful promenade to the Tower entrance – stopping along the way for views out over the water and what might eventually become someone’s lunch – caracole!

The guard at the tower actually opened up a few minutes early, which was great for our friend, who immediately ran off and through the exhibits. The guard made sure to tell all 3 of us we only had “30 minutes” before we had to be out – timed entry obviously strict here! they only let 32 people in at a time, so the clock starts ticking right away. have no clue what they would do if we took longer – would they climb up to the top to come get us? Who knows, and we weren’t going to find out! So we sort of speed toured the place too.

Even going fast, it was still was great. The Torre de Hercules is the world’s oldest working lighthouse, built by the Roman’s in the 1st century and restored in the 18th Century, protecting the center core of the original construction. Just amazing to think about. We start the tour walking through the original Roman construction on the ground level, reading all the informational panels about the design, the stones, the windows. Then move into chambers and the stairwells added in 1788.

After this, it is just a climb up, up, up to two levels of outdoor viewing areas with spectacular views.

And we’re all alone up here! Not even our sweet friend is here, as he has totally run through the whole lighthouse to get to his bus.  

After descending to the exit – well within our allotted time limit – we explored the Torre grounds, hiking along these great paths out to and around the coastline. So beautiful and scenic. With the strong surf crashing against the coastline. And because we are forever the early birds, we had the place virtually to ourselves.   

Of course, that was until we finished walking around and came back to the front of the park. Oh my God!  The crowds! Tons of ship’s tours and other random people milling around. Ay yi yi. The walkway up to the Torre, where we walked all by ourselves just about an hour ago is teeming! We were so glad we had our solitary time and were now out of there. 

Skeedaddling back into town, we stopped by the restaurant where we wanted to eat but it wasn’t even 11am yet. Way too early for them to be open – or for us to eat for that matter. So we kept on going, and ended up all the way on the other side of town (it’s actually a really small town – “all the way” is barely a 20 minute walk) to the Domus, a “human body” museum. Thankfully the entrance fee was cheap – only 2 Euros for me, and free for Ed – because a) a lot of displays were only in Spanish and b) its mostly for kids. Hands on types of educational displays that taught kids all about the body – including human reproductive systems. So different than the States! We did, however learn how long our femur bones were, which may – or may not – be helpful down the road somewhere???? There was a really great sculpture of a DNA helix strand, made completely out of books. And a wonderful mosaic of the Mona Lisa – the mosaic pieces being tiny pictures of different people. All in all, not a loss.

We thought about going to the Aquarium next, but it was in the opposite direction of town and the restaurant we had chosen, so we nixed that idea and meandered back through the streets, stopping here and there to peruse other restaurant menus. In the end, we decided our first choice , Pulpeira O Fiuza, was the best. Of course, how could we not go somewhere with octopus in the name? So walked back there, sat in the virtually empty dining room with all the locals and had a fabulous lunch of Jamon, chorizo and, true to their name, the best octopus!  So yummy.

Since it was Monday, every other museum in town was closed. Giving us plenty of free time to just wander. Which is what we did, going back to the Municipal Square, now in the sunshine had stopped for our traditional afternoon drink.

Continuing on, we just sort of meandered through more of old town, enjoying the architecture, the scenery and the now dry weather. We ended up on the seaside promenade opposite the Torre where there was a nice park with interesting sculpture as well as an old Fort that of course, wasn’t open. Monday….sigh.

So, back to the ship we went, hanging out on the balcony with my friend the ladybug, and taking great coastal pictures as we sailed right past the Torre de Hercules.

Normal afternoon and evening ensued with dinner in Le Bistro and then a juggler for the show who actually was quite good and did a lot of different interesting things.

Later at the pool bar, Lonny, one of our fav bartenders tells me he is hiding wine for me because the brand I like is running out and he only has 3 left. Ok, I swear I did NOT drink this ship dry….but….well Lonny has the last 3 bottles hiding in the back of the cooler just for me. Lets hope more gets laid on in Barcelona!