A trolley car ride to The Tower of Hercules

A soft grey morning, thick fog out in the bay. "Grace", with a Swedish couple onboard, ties up near us after a good 4-day sail from Kinsale in Ireland. The sun has broken through when we take a ride in the antique wooden trolley, with open, glassless, windows. The trolley tracks snake along the waterfront, by museums and long Copacabana beaches that surround the city center. It costs 1 euro a ride!

We get out at the enormous Roman lighthouse, Torre de Hercules. It's a short hike up to the huge antique tower. Then a steep climb up this unique working Roman lighthouse. The fog-horn is signaling now, out into the still-foggy bay.

The area surrounding the tower, 47 ha, is an enormous outdoor sculpture park. Bronze, granite sculptures, a huge blue compass and other modern installations. It would take a couple hours to walk through it all.
After our lighthouse visit we hop on a new trolley, and get off at the beach. It's a nice sunny day, perfect for a stroll along the walkway and the sandy beach. Then we take a 90 degree left. It’s a short hike back through the city, to the harbor and “Babette”. But if your curious about the ancient lighthouse, here’s the story:


TORRE DE HERCULES: The Legends:
There are legends written in the chronicles of Alfonso the wise that tell of the terrible giant, Gerion. Luckily for the giants neighbors, some poor villagers, Hercules, son of Zeus, comes to their rescue. In a mere three days he conquers and beheads the giant. The head is buried at the site where a tower is erected.

There's also a Gaelic myth about the Lighthouse. According to the 12th century Irish monks' chronicles in "The Book of Invasions" a huge tower is erected by King Breogan in the city of Brigantia. Ith, one of Breogan's ten sons sights Ireland from the tower. And no sooner seen, than off he goes to conquer Ireland. But fate would have it that he gets killed there, and his body returned to Brigantia. His brother, Mic, swears revenge, a not uncommon force in the history of nations. And off he goes and conquers the Thuatha-de-Dannon peoples of Ireland.

History books now describe an older Celtic settlement, "Brigantia", which the Celts called Artabros. During the 2nd century the Roman Emperor, Trajan decides that ships bringing iron and copper from the British Isles need a guiding light and has architect Lupo design this huge tower and dedicate it to Mars. It still lights the rocky and windblown coasts north of Finisterra (which means World’s End) till the Normans invade in the 5th century. It isn’t lit again till it is restored in 1791.

It's still working today.


Today:
This evening we have a 4-star meal onboard, ingredients provided by the La Coruña Mercado: lots of good fish and fresh vegetables. Just add saffron-yellow Spanish-rice and a good Ribeira red wine. Then eat it, out under the Bimini, lantern swinging in the breeze.

The night is still young in Spain and we take a jaunt into town, to a little Jazz pub in Rua Orega, Jazz Filloa, There's a good ambience in the tiny room with five little wooden tables, modern cd-jazz playing. At the bar there is a little model, shoebox size, depicting the interior of the bar, down to the red fire extinguisher! The pub is invisible by day in a graffiti- filled alley, the metal roll-up front wall pulled down like a window-shade. It comes alive at night.

We stop at a Celtic (Gaelic) pub, too: A COVA FOLK. A lively, younger crowd is listening to cross-over folk-rock, similar to Danish "Instinkt". Guinness on tap. On our way back towards "Babette" we stop again, this time outside a student pub and listen to some jazz-guitar jamming through the open door/window.

We take a cobblestone swing in the dark lane, before heading back to "Babette".