Hola! Still stumbling round Spain - after Finisterre we caught the bus to Coruña - about 2.5 hours. A 5k walk across town (nada) and set up in a nice little hotel in the old part of town. This is all in aid of a poem that Dad got us to learn when I was in his class in 1960 - "The Burial of Sir John Moore at Coruna" by Charles Wolfe.
Not a drum was heard not a funeral note
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried
Not a soldier discharged a farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried
We buried him darkly at the dead of night
The sods with our bayonets turning
By the struggling moonbeams misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning
No useless coffin enclosed his breast
Not a sheet or in shroud we wound him
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest
With his martial cloak around him
Few and short were the prayers we said
And we spoke not a word of sorrow
But steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead
And bitterly thought of the morrow
But half our heavy task was done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing
Slowly sadly we laid him down
From the field of his fame and gory
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone
But left him alone with his glory
So the goal was to find the grave - and we did - in the San Carlos Garden right near the old Castillo on the harbour here in Coruña It is a lovely quiet shady spot, nicely tended garden of about 1/2 acre, camellias and oaks with great view of the harbour below. There is a small tomb marking the spot (unlike the poem) - see pic. Turns out that the Spanish people round here, including school kids, all know about General Sir John Moore - "the British soldier who came to help the Spanish but got killed by the French". Seems like he is much more famous in Spain than in the UK. Dad would be pleased to know all this and that the Grimmett's paid their due respect. Interesting how he (Dad) knew how to fire up the imagination in kids with images that last a lifetime. No wonder so many of those he taught regarded him as the best teacher ever - me included.
Coruña is a busy town of 250,000 with a nice beach and a good port = the reason Moore brought his army here in the 1st place
So it's an R &R day today (we're both still knackered)then off to Madrid