El Ferrol, Spain

Our first stop was El Ferrol in north west Spain where we had been before. El Ferrol has always been a maritime town because of its large natural harbour on the Ferrol inlet an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. It was also the birthplace of Franco but they are not very proud of that because he was far too short to be in the Navy! Because we had been before we opted for a trip of just over an hour to the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims walk very long distances to get there and receive a conch shell as a reward as well as the opportunity to pay homage to St James who it is claimed is buried in the cathedral in the city. It was very strange to see hundreds of pilgrims arriving from all directions with wooden walking canes and attached conch shells. We settled for a more leisurely walk around the main part of the city and in particular the Obradoiro Square in which the Cathedral sits. Despite the scaffolding for renovation the Cathedral was nevertheless quite an impressive building and the gold covered alter area absolutely stunning.

As we left the port the El Ferrol pipe group played music more akin to Breton rather than Scottish tunes and from one of the old forts traditionally dressed fusiliers fired muskets and a canon. We had our doubts following Brexit as to whether these would be duds or not. The captain responded with several loud blasts of the horn.