Galicia : San Cibrao, Vigo and Ourense

Another road trip day.  I like architecture and history so as usually there is a theme.  Our first stop is a huge town that use to be, San Cibrao.  It was originally Celtic but then later was taken over by the Romans.  They adjusted smaller houses to larger ones.

 The old roads are still there and just as bad a many of the new roads and walk ways they have around here made out of rocks.

This town was located up on a hill like everything else.  It is still an active archeological place that I think when they get funding they unearth another section.  The first picture you can see the rocks are white.  They did this section the most recently.  Its kinda fun as you walk around you see a mount and wonder what could be under all those weeds and dirt.

Next stop was a larger city in the area we are in called Vigo.  This place we went to see the main castles ruin that of course was way, way up top.  Its always fun taking the old stairs, but watch your step they are not level.

 Views from the top are very nice.

Not much left of the original castle but a lovely park to sit and relax after the climb.  Reminds me of a recent climb up in San Francisco to a little park.

 This has to be one of the strangest and ugliest (in my humble opinion) statues I have seen in quite a while.  Its just plain weird.

Another town we hit is Ourense.  It is on some thermal bed area that has lots of hot water around it.  In town they have turned one of the host springs into a public pool.  Not real big but you just walk through the gate and your there, no ticket no nothing just enjoy.

So all I can think for this next bridge is people must like their exercise.  Not sure why else you would go so high to cross the road or so low to cross the bridge.

Church we stopped into had a very ornate alter.

Galicia : Monte Aloia & Castelo de Sobroso

This part of Spain reminds me of Oregon.  Everything is green, which also means everything is humid and wet.  Trying to dry cloths or get rid of the musty smell just isn't easy.

This was a road trip day.  We started the day with lunch up on top of Monte Aloia.  This is a forested national park area for picnicking, hiking and all that out door stuff.

Up on the mountain was a church and shrine area that was in good condition but I don't think used very much.

In the states where there is an abundance of land and trees we make a lot of things out of wood.  Here there is an a lot of granite.  This particular picnic bench was longer than I am tall.

The next set a pictures where from a less wooded hill top where there was a Castle called Castelo de Sobroso.  It was nicely restored with a cute little chapel inside its stoned walls.

Galicia : A Guarda

 So this trip we are spending our time on the western most coast of Spain and northern Portugal.  We are staying in a small town called A Guarda.  One thing about staying near the coast is the humidity.  I would say at least 50% of our days have fog.

Like many towns before a washing machine there was the local laundry mat.  I missed it but when we walked by here in the afternoon there was a lady washing something in it.  Might have been a pilgrim,  this section of Spain is part of the Portugal Coast Camino that goes to Santiago.

Above the town on a hill there is are some old Celtic ruins and other newer things like stairs.

The Celtics really knew how to pick their views.  Below is what is left of their city.  On the left is what it would have looked like if the walls and roof were in tacked.

  

Our place of residence was a 2.5 mile walk from A Guard along a nice board walk on the rocky seas.

They had a lobster festival over the weekend.  This guys is peeping the octopus we ordered.

 

We also ate had some lobster.  There he is planning his escape right before the guy cut him in half and put him on the grill still twitching.

Along the beach you find random ruins.  This one I think was for catching some sort of crustacean.  I have another picture later of a place they would collect sea salt from.

Day 15 : Stockholm

Beautiful city is all I can say.  The buildings and the water are just so well laid out.  Both during the day and evening it was amazing.  One of my favorites at this point.

Started the day off to see the famous Vasa Museum.  Didn't know anything about it but it was the top place to visit.  One the way we ran into some Santa nomes playing the trees.

There was also a giant bird feeder on the river.  There were two different types of swans and who knows how many variety of ducks.

Found out the museum is all about a ship called the Vasa.  One of four commissioned by a long ago king.  Of the four 2 were big and 2 were small.  Not much is know about the small ones but the 1st big one to be built the Vasa was on display in the museum.

 

It was the first of its kind to have two decks of Canons and was totally preserved.  It was under water for I think at least 200 years but supposedly the water around here doesn't have much salt in it and they use to dump all kinds of sludge in there so basically the environment was not susceptible to things that liked to eat wood.

The funny thing about this ship however is it wasn't stable it ended up being top heavy..  And they knew it but since no on really wanted to give a king bad news they thought they would try it out.  So the Vasa made it about 15 minutes before some wind caused it to start tipping sideways and the canon doors that were open started taking in water.  So it sank, but it sank in the bay and it didn't even make it fully under water they ended up cutting the masts so it wasn't in the way.

Some people did end up dying from the ship wreck.  There was little documented history of the people on the boat.  Guess it was part of the main crew and their families.  The families were suppose to get off before it really hit open water.  They found I think it was about 30 bodies.  In the museum they had information they figured out from teeth, injuries to the bones, where they were found and the items found near them.  It was really fascinating the little stories they would tell about old injuries or the the glass buttons defining their class or how much money they had in a purse.

Next stop wasn't nearly as interesting on the inside.  The outside was very nice.  We went into the Nordic Museum.  This had a history of Sweden.  One floor had a lot of furniture.  But one the main pieces I noticed were chairs.  In all shapes and sizes.

Another area had information on the indigenous people of Scandinavia.  With that information was hats and shoes and other home made goods

From here we had a little Mulled Wine.  Lots of cinnamon, very sweet and warm but great on a chilly wet day.  From the Vast which was on an island about three over from downtown we headed to downtown.  I guess Stockholm is made up of a bunch of islands, the only bad part is there is no really short cuts to get from one place to another.  but at least they make the views and the walks very pleasant.  We saw some giant Moose.

There was a very busy ice rink in the middle of the city.  It was created around a stature in the middle.

Oh and believe it or not this is a mens public bathroom.  Looking inside there is just a hole.

Another church as we were just strolling along.

We finally made it into the old town is your typical beautiful skinny streets with cobble stone.  

We went to the Noble Museum.  I never realized there was a Nobel peace prize (which is out of Oslo) as well as Nobele prices for literature, Physics and others. I read though some the the winners for Literature many of them had real life experiences to write about.  Weather it was Apartheid or some other segregation or discrimination they had experienced it.  In some cases many were even threatened after they wrote there opinions.