A Coruña; Saturday, 22 June, 2024

I had an excellent nights sleep and woke up a little before my alarm was due to go off so I was able to have a little doze before a quick shower, breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then headed out to explore more of the city centre.

I headed down into the narrow lanes and roads of the old town and spent a good bit of time just wandering around exploring before finally arriving at the main square of the city the Praza de María Pita and just nearby the Church of St George, or as it’s called in Galician the Igrexa de San Xurxo – I had a bit of a look around the church, but it was Saturday morning confessions so I didn’t take any photos.

After wandering around the square, I headed through the main gateway at the southern edge of the square and out onto the road by the Marina and cruise harbour which I had a bit of a walk around before following the line of the old city walls back round towards the castle and the ruins of the convent of San Francisco.

Having followed one old wall, I decided to take a walk alongside a slightly more modern and significantly straighter one. The main harbour walk sticks out about 1km out to sea from the land and is open to walkers and cyclists to take in the views back to the city including the castle and, from the end, under the harbour entrance beacon, get to the only viewpoint in the city where you can see both the castle and the Tower of Hercules.

I took quite a few photos out at the end of the harbour and then headed back in towards town taking a circuitous route back up over to my hotel where I stopped for a little while to relax before heading back out again this time back up into the shadow of the Torre de Hércules to visit the Aquarium Finisterrae.

Located on a headland just below the tower and with some stunning views of the Roman lighthouse, the Aquarium is home to a number of exhibits – mostly focused on the marine life in the seas off of the Galician coast and out into the wider North Atlantic. Tropical water sea life is all colourful small fish, the cold depths of the North Atlantic are home to some nightmare fuel which was on full display in the various tanks.

The last part of the aquarium is an outside pool that houses a collection of different seals which were out playing in the evening sun. It’s lucky they are the last exhibit as I spent so much time watching them play that the next thing I knew the staff were coming round ushering everyone back into the building and to the giftshop and exit as the site was closing.

From the aquarium I wandered back through some of the backstreets of this part of the city back to the hotel and after a drink in the hotel bar headed down the street to a tapas bar I’d spotted earlier in the day for a couple of plates of Tapas and then back to my bed.