Santiago to Esposende via Vigo

Santiago was not my type of town in respect to how I was travelling.
7pm onwards the bars were heaving with respectably dressed people with money. Not really a place for a bedraggled hobo on a moto.
However I was forced to spend some time there while I sorted out getting the bike going again after fuelling up.
I was lucky enought to finish up in a bar run by two men with a combined age of 130 years plus.
Once the bike spluttered into action I was off in a flash and heading back to the coast.
I was riding in the dark again which I had said I wouldn't do on this ride.
Worse was the fog I encountered of the sea that was clinging to the headlands to the South of Santiago.
I eventually arrived at Villagarcia and once I found a shelter was off to the bar.

A view of the bay from the bar

My shelter this night was by a playground right next to the harbour wall.
The street cleaner woke me early and after the usual half hour of pushing the bike to get it firing I was off along the coast to Vigo, via Pontevedra.

Pontevedra was a difficult place to find a way through but I eventually managed to escape the other side and hit the peninsular to the North of Vigo. The peninsular is home to some lovely beaches and views of the bay.
I have always wanted to visit Vigo since a friend told me of their time there, and it lived up to their description.
It's not a particularly posy city and it's people are very warm. I stopped for a couple of beers and was reminded of the difference in costs between town and country when I came to pay.
I left and rode around the bay on a beautiful sunny day. It reminded me of Mulranney on the West of Ireland but with heat and sun.

The southern side of the bay has some lovely beaches that I imagine are a welcome relief after a hot days work in the city. If I ever had to live in a city then Vigo would be the place.

The road wound itself around the headland and along the west facing coastline, before heading back inland to cross the river Miño that divides Spain from Portugal. This was a fantastic feeling to be taking the bike to another country and a new experience of Northern Portugal for myself

I was heading for a small resort called Esposende. Esposende is a small town on the coast lying on a river entrance that is home to a samll Marina. That is all I saw as I arrived in the dark and it took me a while to realise the street I entered was not the main town and that if I left the town and came in the far end I wiould find the shopping centre and a couple of reasonable bars. The one I settled on was cheap with a small glass of beer at 60 cents. Just across the road was a samll grocers where I went to get my daily tin of Sardines at 67 cents.
I decided not to try and start the bike after my evening in the bar and instead pushed it through the town and eventually the front where I found a covered paved area outside some shops and close to a cafe for my morning coffee.
It was dark as I walked to the Marina and couldn't see what lay beyond, but I could hear the roar of the Atlantic as wave after wave belly flopped onto the beach that lay beyonder the river in the distance. Several tiomes in the night I woke and was terrified by this monster that roared beyond the blackness.