Avalon Christmas update from Jim and Rose

The weather as we left our boat in the marina of the small fishing village of Portosin was beautiful.

We had a very pleasant journey back to UK on Friday Dec 15. First a 20 min bus journey along the ria from Portosin to Noia, then a quick change to the bus for Santiago de Compostela.

This part of the trip was through thick fog in the valleys, although the wooded mountain tops were clear. Once we had left our luggage at the bus station consignar we went walking into the ancient pilgrim city: whilst wondering which way to go, an old man directed us by pointing his stick - we were obviously foreigners! We went as indicated up the hill and had a glorious view of the city in the valley with mist and mountains behind. We were able, in the limited time available to us to go round an art exhibition of the Galician artist/writer/politician Castelao in the Igrexia de Santa Domingo da Bonaval . And so to the airport.

The flight back with Iberia was very smooth and in less than 2 hours we were back at Heathrow. Of course it took us longer than that to get to Gatwick where brother-in-law Michael picked us up.We have waded through 2 months correspondence (Jim), eaten very well, walked the muddy byways of Surrey, and undergone some retail therapy in Corydon (Rosemary) where our photos were developed. We can now reveal that our crew (Lance - the brains and Arthur - the looks) were right to be worried about leaving La Coruna and the passage around Cape Finisterre.

On Sunday Cassandra arrived from Exeter with the car, and Barnaby should be joining us tonight (Dec 20) to celebrate Yolande's Birthday. Tomorrow we head west to the Gower for Christmas at sister Jean's: Alexander is to join us there. So we have pleasure in greeting you.