Discovering Vigo, Spain

At first glance, we left behind the very Spanish architecture that Lisbon, Portugal had and instead Vigo looked a little more modern/industrial… something like that.

We also opted to explore Vigo on our own, none of the excursions really stood out to us here.

Right off the ship they have a big mall that is clearly new and very modern, so we walked through that for a bit though nothing specifically called out to us.

Our first stop was the Jules Verne monument. He wrote 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, which included a chapter all about Vigo Bay.

On our way to the monument, I noticed that along the water walkway there were tons of benches with natural shading. You could tell which trees had been there longer, but I thought it was genius way to provide natural shade.

We also found this cool building, with what looks like a dragon egg on top! Unfortunately we couldn’t find any explanation or name so it was just a cool thing to see. 😂

As with many of the small towns, the key places to visit are just nestled into the middle of city streets. That was the case with this local, very old, church that was on the list of places to check out. We were wandering these narrow streets and all of a sudden we ended up at its doorstep in this cute little courtyard.

This turned out to be a perfect place to stop and look closer at our surroundings. Not only was it fascinating to see the buildings right next to something historical like the church but I noticed a candy store in the courtyard. Since we missed our last chance, we knew we had to stop in.

Immediately I was so impressed with Sabor A Espana (website here) because everything had allergen labels and even better 50% of their store, at least, had options for me to choose from! Between having options to choose from and being a little sick of cruise options, we loaded up with everything I could eat and Nathan got plenty of treats as well. The roasted peanuts were definitely my favorite!

We then ended up on the main shopping street. Both Nathan and I felt like we were back in Chicago on the Mag Mile with how everything felt. Plus they still had tons of Christmas decorations still up, even though it was the middle of January.

Funny enough, we were trying to find an Apple Store to get me another international converter. So ending up in the shopping district was perfect! We quickly found an Apple reseller and went to go in but it was closed… in the middle of the day.

We thought it was strange and moved onto explore other areas, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that everything seemed to be closed. This was the middle of the week, so I wondered if there was a holiday we didn’t know about or something. A quick google search later and we learned that this is totally normal for Spain.

They literally have afternoons scheduled off for a siesta! Generally 2-5pm and majority of business, especially local ones, all close down for an afternoon break.

I still don’t know if I like the idea or not, but Nathan was convinced it would be perfect! 😂

Thankfully, not everything was closed and we were able to find a cafe to grab some lunch at.

One of the food recommendations I had found was a Spain churro which is similar but not quite what I would normally think of as a churro. While this restaurant had a big sign out front for them, they didn’t actually have any so I didn’t get to try one. 😥

However, Nathan had an incredible lunch that well made up for it.

They actually had a latte for him, though it was small compared to our standards and then he got a crepe and cheesecake, which he said were some of the best he has ever had!

After lunch, there wasn’t much else to see so we made our way back to the ship to relax for the evening.

Vigo was another excellent stop on our journey! While I don’t feel the need to go back, it was still a great city to explore and I am happy we were able to visit!