A Coruña was the first port on this short trip. After our bouncy day on the Atlantic we looked forward to some sun and having our feet on land.
Day 3: Wednesday 10th April 2024: A Coruña
Sky Princess docked at 7 am.
Breakfast was in our favourite part of the “empty” buffet.
A Coruña
This is a port that we have both visited many times. Sadly the large shopping mall, a rather ugly block just along the dock, did not look to have survived the Covid inspired recession.
Rather than head into the pedestrian streets, we turned right to follow the quay past the marina. The lamp posts were decorated with banners for an exhibition of Helmut Newton’s work.This meant walking past all the local tour operators offering trips around A Coruña. We stopped and chatted to the guy selling tickets for Hercules Tours to find out more. And plus what time the tour started.
The promenade past the yacht basin was not very busy. We walked past enclosures that were set up for events before we eventually turned back towards the port entrance area.
When it was close to the time for the tour to start we bought tickets and joined the rapidly filling coach.
The Hercules tour of A Coruña
The first stop was next to the Castelo de Santo Antón.
Our tour guide was taking pictures with her smartphone of the wild flowers growing alongside the pavement. She explained to me that she was responsible for generating images for the company’s social media streams. I showed us some of the “tricks” that I had learned from Jet on her smartphone safaris.
These are the images taken on my iPhone at the same time. The coach then slowly made its way around the coast.
The Tower of Hercules
The tour’s next stop was in a car park at the bottom of the hill with the Tower of Hercules at the top. The lighthouse is visible when ship’s are entering or leaving the harbour. This was the first time that I had been up close to the tower.
We had lots of time to walk up the broad road to the top of the hill and to get up close to the tower itself.
Much to our surprise, no one was late back to the coach.
We were told about all the sights as we passed around the peninsular to the next promised stop.
The Octopus Sculpture
On the map this wasn’t a scheduled stop. On one the hills we were asked to be very careful after leaving the coach as we pulled into a layby on the left. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic and we crossed over the road to have a look at the octopus sculpture on the other side.
Soon we were all queueing to have our photographs taken sitting or standing by the octopus. Below us was the sea and we could see the Tower of Hercules across the bay and the Obelisco Millenium.
After taking pictures and portraits around the octopus, we were back on the coach after this short stop.
San Pedro Hill
The last scheduled stop was at San Pedro Hill.
We were dropped off past very dusty coach part and walked through the gates and up the hill. On our right we could see the sea after rolling lawns. Above us on our left was a large glass building, the Cúpula Atlántica.
We kept walking until we came to the gun in placements.
These were strategically placed on the heights above the sea with clear views of the sea below.
At the back of the gun emplacements were the buildings for the gun crewse and where the shells would’ve been kept.
I was fascinated by the machinery carrying plates showing manufacture in England.
The end of the tour
As the coach descended down from San Pedro Hill we passed a building with decorated walls – these shots were grabbed as the coach passed!
Stop 4 on the map was passed by. We were making our our way back to the port and past the local football stadium on the way.
And then once in the traffic on Rua Canton Grande we could see statues in the Mendez Nunez Gardens on our right.
These were all sponsored by a local businessman. This is the one of John Lennon.
As we neared the port our guide handed out calling cards and fridge magnets as we came back into the traffic.
Off the coach, I enquired where the photo exhibition of Helmut Newton was. Unfortunately, it was quite a long walk from where we were now.