Another rough night and the sea was still high this morning although it calmed as the morning progressed and as we approached Villagarcia up the Ria de Arosa. J had his much-favoured kipper and haddock breakfast whereas I stuck with fruit and toast. We took the morning quietly in the cabin, resting and preparing for our first shore excursion to Santiago de Compostela. This is known as the third most famous place of pilgrimage for Christians, the first being Jerusalem and the second being Rome. We'd done the first two and were eager to visit the third. It was the main reason for our undertaking this cruise. At 12 noon the Captain broadcasts to the ship on the public address system, the current weather conditions forecasts etc. Today he announced that the Black Prince was running late because of the bad weather. Instead of docking at 1pm it would be 3pm. All trips were cancelled as we would only have 3 hours in the port. We are gutted! Bitterly disappointed.
We went to a higher deck in order to observe our approach to the port and took a few photos. There were hundreds of what looked like long flat boats which we thought might be used for transporting wood as Galicia provides most timber used in Spain. Then we realised they were not boats but kind of mooring platforms, some of which had boats alongside. Someone said they were to do with oyster catching, but we didn't find out for certain. They were certainly very strange. I took these four photos with the zoom function, of our approach to Villagarcia. They seem somewhat out of focus. This may be due to combined factors of zoom, mist and dirty windows!
Our only options, once docked, were to stay on board or go on the shuttle bus into Villagarcia. We took the second option but, being afternoon all the shops were closed. We wandered around a few streets, sat in the sun for a while, it was a pleasant sunny afternoon.
Then it was back to the bus to return to the ship in time for an afternoon cup of tea and cake. We took our books with us and read for a while. I was dropping off to sleep! The sea-sickness tablets make me very drowsy. So back to bed for a proper rest.
It was not a formal dinner tonight. On the way to the restaurant we bought our photo taken with the Captain together with an album and a photo of the Black Prince. I will be able to put some other photos in later, if I take any worthwhile! Dinner was enjoyable as usual. I had a salmon salad with caviar, followed by soup, Coq au Vin and fruit salad with strawberry ice cream. J passed on the first course but otherwise had the same as me. During the meal I lost a bit of filling in an upper right tooth. It didn't bother me much, just a bit rough. We retired to the Neptune lounge for coffee (tea for me!) and the evening's entertainment. First there was a "What's My Line" game with volunteers from the audience and questions from the audience which was a bit of fun. Next was a Magician, Philip Hitchcock who had earned all kinds of awards for his performances - and he was good. Then we had Ron Dale a Scot who played the bagpipes and entertained us with great humour.
Following that exciting evening's entertainment it was back to our cabin a bit later than usual. Our day-time rests had stood us in good stead. Having put our watches forward an hour today for Spanish time we have to put them back an hour tonight ready for Portuguese time tomorrow which is the same as British time. Then it will be forward again when we are back on Spanish time in Cadiz. What confusion!