Pontevedra Thursday 20th August

Combarro was in "feira" mode last night, and even the toddlers were out and about until the early hours!

Drizzly start to day, so took the bus to Pontevedra. Compact old historical centre to the town with more modern urban sprawl surrounding it. We had managed to get a map of the town beforehand so were able to watch our route and get off the bus before the main Estacion de Autobuses and save ourselves a 20 minute walk back to centre. It is a great place, some bits still being preserved. The nice thing about it is that it is still a real place, with locals and commerce and normal day-to-day activity and not just a museum piece. We went first to the museum, as weather still inclement.

The museum is terrific, covers three buildings and 1 ruin currently with work going on on two more. It was totally free and we even had the third building, the art collection, opened up for us specially by a guide (it was near lunchtime and they had already closed it). An eclectic mix of Galician remains, naval artefacts, prehistory and renaissance iconography with the odd dash of 20th C impressionism. Oh and the insides of the boat, the Santa Maria and charts of its voyage to the New World.

Sheltered for lunch (pic of R looking blank and museum-ed out) and explored rest of town and its monuments. Back late, grateful for bus, really enjoyed the day.

Should be nice tomorrow, we are setting off, not sure yet to where. We are struggling to get permission to "fondear nas Islas Atlanticos" specifically Cies. Meaning we want to visit the Islands of Cies, they are a nature reserve and you need to get permission to visit and anchor there. We have emailed off our form, but they say it takes 3 weeks! Trying alternative methods...