Baiona

I paid a short visit to Baiona (or Bayona, in the Castilian spelling). It's a small coastal city not too far from Vigo. I think for a long time the two were pretty similar in size and character, until Vigo became more industrially developed, and Baiona settled down into its present status as a tourist town. One interesting thing about the town is that it was the first port of call for Columbus's ships after discovering the New World.

This is the Parador or luxury hotel of Bayona.

Note the mussels clogging every crease in these rocks

Lady, whose shrine stands on the promontory...

Here on the ocean-facing side of the promontory, waves are stronger than in Vigo, since in Vigo we are sheltered by the Islas Cíes and also farther into the ría (ría= bay or river-mouth, evidently the word ria is used in English too, it's a geographical term). You can see the wind picking up water from the crests of the waves.

You may need to expand the picture to see it (right-click), but there are figures out on the rocks, I assume collecting mussels.

No, the weather wasn't the best... not too long after this it began to pour... that's Galician weather for you

This is the inner side of the bay. If you expand the picture you can probably spot the replica of la Carabela Pinta, Columbus's ship "Pinta." You can visit this replica although I didn't. I have to say, it's really tiny! It seems unbelievable that a ship so small crossed the Atlantic when they didn't even really know if there was anything to be found.