Parque do Castro

The Parque do Castro is on a big hill in the middle of Vigo. The park gets its name from a "Castro" or Iron-age settlement located there. There's one part where you can see circles of stones, the foundations of ancient huts. They've also recreated one or two with thatched roofs so that you can see how people used to live. I only saw that part from afar, so no pictures of it.

These are views looking west, out toward the Atlantic. And those little islands you see are the Islas Cíes from last post.

In the photo below, the town across the water (right above the cruise ship) is Moaña, which is where I'll be teaching.

This is where I sat and ate my lunch and finished the "Combray" section of Swann's Way.

This is a kind of memorial to the "Galleons of Rande." The story is that back during the War of the Spanish Succession, an Anglo-Dutch fleet attacked the Spanish flotilla that was bringing back treasure and bullion from the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The treasure flotilla tried to escape into Vigo Bay and unload the treasure as quickly as possible while French and Spanish ships tried to hold the English off. In the end, the English sank most of the Galleons. The anchors in the memorial are actually from the sunken ships (and at the bottom of the picture you can see some cannon).

Here's another historical oddity. This cross is a "monument to the fallen" of the Civil War. Being post-civil-war, it was obviously erected by the Franco government, and so the monumental cross imagery is no surprise. As with all Franco-era relics, you can be sure that the whole area will be covered in graffiti like the following (first two in Gallego, last two in Castellano):
"Abolición da Simboloxia Feixista" = Abolition of Fascist Symbology
"Fora Nacis" = Nazis get out
"Los Anarkistas llevamos un mundo nuevo en nuestros corazones" = We anarchists carry a new world within our hearts
"Ni olvidamos ni perdonamos" = we neither forget nor forgive

Islas Cíes

Today we went to the Islas Cíes. These small islands in the mouth of Vigo River form part of the Islas Atlánticas national park.

On the ferry (Vigo in background)

This is the Praia das Rodas, which the Guardian newspaper called the most beautiful beach in the world. (Maybe on a sunny day...?)

Cruise Ships

Vigo is a major port for cruise ships. Some of the biggest in the world come here, maybe 200 per year. Sometimes tourists visit Vigo, other times they have buses to Santiago or Baiona or do some other daytrip.

Domaio

OK, this map shows the general area where I am. On the bottom, Vigo, a city of 297,000 (metropolitan population half a million). On the north side of Vigo bay you can see part of the Morrazo peninsula. Directly north of Vigo you can see the town of Moaña. The municipality of Moaña includes various towns, including Domaio (to the east). The highway that goes up from Vigo crosses a big bridge called the Rande bridge.

So when I first got here I stayed in a pensión in Domaio. Now I've moved into Vigo. The school is in Tirán which is a western part of Moaña.

This is a "batea" in Vigo bay. It's a floating platform. Long ropes hang down and mussels grow on the ropes. Then they take a boat with a crane and pull up the ropes and harvest the full-grown mussels. In another part of the bay they have kind of floating cages where they raise fish. The cages have guard dogs on them so that people don't steal the fish.

Domaio port

This is the Rande Bridge (photo taken from Domaio)

Photo taken from Rande bridge looking seaward.

Spaniards’ opinions on the US overheard as a flight from JFK landed in Madrid

“I can have my bed again, use my phone again, and have real coffee!!”

“Now we don’t have to tip for every stupid thing and beers will cost 1.50 again”

Mount Hope

I noticed this set first over the winter, when they were partially buried by snow. A really nice design. This one has a poem by Emily Bronte. I must say that Elizabeth Hollister Frost Blair seems like an extremely cold and noble name.

Vi esta serie de lápidas por primera vez durante el verano, cuando estaban parcialmente cubiertas por la nieva. Tienen un diseño muy bueno. Ésta tiene un poema por Emily Bronte. Tengo que mencionar que Elizabeth Hollister Frost Blair parece un nombre extremadamente frío y noble.

This is another from the same family and same set of stones. I searched online for these words and it turns out they are by Robert Browning. The font is really interesting, I don't think I've seen this kind of font before anywhere, especially not gravestones.

Ésta es de la misma familia y de la misma serie. Busqué online para descubrir de dónde venían estas palabras y resulta que son de Robert Browning. La fuente es interesante, no creo que haya visto este tipo de fuente en ninguna parte, en particular en las lápidas.

A detail

This is from another set of gravestones entirely, but I thought it was very striking. What's the symbolism of the clubs I wonder?

Esto es de una otra series por completo, pero me llamó mucho la atención. El texto dice algo como "fiel hasta la muerte." Por la palabra "unto," que es un poco arcaico, y por su brevedad, la frase me suena contundente y trágico. Me pregunto sobre el simbolismo de los tréboles.

This stood out to me. I thought Gestirn meant stars, and I was trying to remember the other words. I thought, Rast, from rasten, to rest, and Hast, like the English word haste. My instincts were sound, this is what it means: "Like the star, without haste but without rest." I was thinking it was Rilke, I must have been thinking of the short poem that begins "Wie das Gestirn, der Mond, erhaben, voll Anlaß..." but actually that poem was written 1913 (anyway, Rilke probably just jumped to mind because Rilke is the only German poetry I have ever read). I searched online and it turns out the lines are from Goethe.

Ésta también me llamó la atención. Creí que Gestirn quería decir estrellas, y intentaba acordarme de las otras palabras. Pensé, Rast, de rasten, "descansar" (en inglés es to rest), y Hast, como la palabra inglesa haste, o "prisa." Mis instintos eran solidos, y esto es lo que quiere decir: "Como la estrella, sin prisa pero sin reposo." Pensaba que era Rilke, debía de estar pensando en el poema corto que empieza, "Wie das Gestirn, der Mond, erhaben, voll Anlaß..." pero en realidad ese poema fue escrito en 1913 (de todas formas, Rilke probablemente me vino a la mente porque Rilke es el único poeta germanoparlante que he leído en mi vida). Busqué online y resulta que las lineas son de Goethe.

This used to be my favorite because I found it in high school and thought "Wow! we have a baron!"

Siempre era mi favorita ésta porque la encontré cuando estaba en cole y pensé, "Wow! tenemos un barón!"

Same here, I was pretty surprised to find Bonaparte connections in Rochester. I searched for this guy on Wikipedia. It seems the Bonapartes have an American branch, but I couldn't find anything really interesting about Blanche & Jérome.

Lo mismo aquí, yo me soprendí bastante de encontrar connecciones a los Bonaparte en mi ciudad, Rochester. Busqué por este tipo en Wikipedia. Parece que los Bonaparte tienen una rama americana, pero no pude encontré nada muy interesante sobre Blanche y Jérome.

The Colonel

His epitaph: "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." If you are seeking a monument, look around you. This is actually the same motto they wrote for Christopher Wren the architect inside St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Not very original, Col. Rochester.

Su epitafio: "Si monumentam requiris, circumspice." Si buscas un monumento, mirar alrededor de tí. En realidad es el mismo lema que escribieron para el arquitecto Christopher Wren dentro de la Catedral de San Pablo en Londres. No muy original, Cnel. Rochester.