Spain and Portugal

The first two stops on the cruise were Spain and Portugal. They were quite similar in some respects, but we spent so little time in each that I feel I have little basis for comparison. Our very first stop was Vigo, Spain, a port-town that has remained a fishing village for thousands of years.

Pretty statue of the Spanish wild horses

The men go out to fish, and the women stay home and grow crops - not on what we think of as farms, though, the land is too scarce. They grow their food in their own backyard. Their own livestock too. I'm trying to picture what the neighbors would have said if we'd tried to swing that one (honestly, he's just a really big spotted dog, I swear......). And their properties are hardly half the size of the whitebread suburban americans' yard. They store their corn and grain in interesting temple-shaped structures that show a certain celtic influence.


I have nothing too much to relate about Portugal - we stopped at various monuments to Christopher Columbus and the "new world," saw a tower that was once used as a prison, and was then located in the middle of a river, and did a little shopping. Lisbon, where we stopped, is apparently the "sister city" of San Francisco, because the architect who designed the golden gate bridge also designed this one: I guess you'll have to visit it some time, Elizabeth. :-)
We also visited a museum with various interesting pieces of artwork from around the world.