Day 10 September 26, 2025, Friday

On this day they docked the ship in La Coruna, Spain. Penny, Jen and I sat out early for the Historical City of Lugo. Lugo is the only city in the world that has an intact Roman wall that encircles the old city. The wall dates from the 3^rd century and is mostly original. The wall length is 1.3 miles in length. There are currently 71 towers spaced around the wall. They were designed to be two stories high and allow for lookout spots to keep an eye for folks wanting in the city that the Roman folks did not want in the city. Most of the towers are rectangular. A few are semi circular and built later.

Our guide is a historian and author. He was very entertaining and educational. He did make one tour guide mistake. After we arrived in the city he took us to the top of the wall. He lead us up a set of stairs that were pretty steep and a bit tiring for us old codgers. We walked for a ways and learned of the life of the Romans (perhaps I should say heard of the life of Romans), We did not go very far on the wall and he took us to a ramp that led down to the street level. I pointed out that it might have been better to let us go up the ramp and back down the ramp since we are old. It was still a nice feature.

We had free time to explore the modern shops and business inside the old wall. During the free time I tried to go to the Saint Mary’s Cathedral (Lugo Cathedral)) but my free time and the daily mass were at the same time. So, I was not able to go in. Well technically I could have gone in if I were wanting to worship but my time was limited.

Our guide told us that only about 10% of the city inside the walls has been excavated to see what the Romans left for us to discover. Everyone in the group but me took the opportunity to explore the shops. I went with the guide and he showed me one of the recent discoveries in the city where the owner of a shoe shop was going to build a new shop. As they began to dig the foundation they discovered the remains of a Roman villa belonging to a very wealthy family if the size and decorations were any indication. So they excavated a portion of the roman house and then built the shoe shop above it. so a few modern columns are sunk into the villa to support the new building but you can go into the villa and look at the mosaic floors and other features. The shoe shop also installed a glass floor by the entrance door of the shop where customers can peek at the past occupants dwelling.

Our tour included a stop at a very nice restaurant that was located on the banks of the Minho river. The menu for lunch was a set service and was great. We had a tuna empanada (which was in the shape of a square breaded thing kind of like a hot pocket only bigger and much, much better. We also had fried cheese in the shape of a small sausage. The main course was delicious chicken breast with potatoes and covered in mushroom gravy.

The grounds in back of the restaurant were lovely and peaceful.

A good day out.

The ships entertainment that evening was a nice group of musicians who had individual performed in many shows featuring music from the 1950s and 60s. Right up my alley.