In late June Teresa, Clara and I took a road trip from Granada, through the Rio Douro valley of Portugal and up the coast of Galicia to A Coruña on the northeast corner of Spain.

There are so many interesting places to see in Spain (and the rest of Europe) that it is hard to make up one’s mind where to go.  One way we do it is to see what the cheapest airfare and auto rental options are — then go to those places.

For some reason, it was extremely cheap to get a one-way auto rental from Granada to Vigo — but very expensive to drop it off in A Coruña.  Also, for returning to Barcelona, airfares were only about 20 euros from A Coruña, but much more expensive from Vigo.  That’s why we decided to drop the car off in Vigo and fly out of A Coruña.  (Bus/Train fares are also quite inexpensive in Spain, and the hop between these cities only took an hour or so…)

That’s how we ended up on a train to A Coruña on a Saturday morning in late June.  Our plane back to Barcelona was scheduled for late in the evening.

Our plan was to drop our suitcases off at the luggage locker near the train station and spend the rest of the day sightseeing.  Oddly, there was no locker at the train station.  The info booth at the train station informed us that the bus station had a locker — so we hiked 15 minutes to that station.  We found the room for left luggage — could see suitcases piled up in there — but the sign in the window said “Closed on weekends”!!  It had never occurred to us that the stored luggage facility might be closed several days during the week, but hey! — we’re in Spain — just go with the flow and be happy you didn’t have an urgent need for any items stored there!

So … what to do in A Coruña all day when you are carting around your luggage?  First, go visit a couple of cheap hotels in the area and see if they will retain your luggage for a few hours…  That didn’t work either so we gave up on ditching the luggage for the day.  Instead, we took a taxi to the seashore where we could visit the oldest functioning lighthouse on earth.

It was a fair hike from the road to the lighthouse and we decided to go in shifts, with one person hanging out at a cafe, guarding luggage and sampling the local Albariño while the others went sightseeing.

The Tower of Hercules is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Originally known as Farum Brigantium, it has been in more-or-less constant use since the end of the 1st century AD.  This makes it the oldest lighthouse still in use.  With an original height just over 136 feet, in its day it was probably also one of the taller free-standing towers on earth.

One of the myths surrounding the tower is that it was built by Breogan.  One of his sons climbed the tower, sighted Ireland, sailed there and took the isle from the Tuatha De Danann.  Interestingly, a 2006 study from Oxford University concluded that a majority of the British Isles population are descended from the coastal north regions of Spain.

That evening, as we flew back to into Barcelona we could see the fireworks displays celebrating the Feast of Sant Joan, aka Nit del Foc (Night of Fire).  Got back to our (normally quiet) neighborhood at 1:30am and there was an enormous neighborhood party still going strong.  Fireworks, live bands, drum circles, bonfires — it’s quite a lively evening! It did start to quiet down by about 3am or so, and the day after was very quiet indeed…