Our very last port of call was Vigo, situated in the north-west regions of Spain, and turned out be a very splendid place indeed to spend our last day away from dreary wet England.

Walking through the city

When we got off the ship we were faced by an entourage of elderly tourists with Indiana Jones-style hats and comical flowery t-shirts who were coming off a much smaller Norwegian cruise ship, and, apart from the odd family or two it was mainly the elderly that came off the ship. Coming out of the port terminal was a cheery seashore scenery, intact with decks, a shopping centre and Segway rides around the city, which I’ll be talking to you about later 😉

The sidewalk beside the port terminal

Independence of the Seas from the slope, sitting tall and proud! (Or floating, rather.)

We firstly went up a steeply sloped road past the shopping centre which went up to the more rural parts of the town-we explored the higher areas and walked through narrow, crowded cobbled streets with little local shops selling hand-weaved baskets, antique objects and local food, even a specialty Tintin shop! We also walked through a ruined castle and walked up a flowery hill bedecked with tulips and creepers and blooming red roses sweeping over the marble bannisters, where what else but another ruined castle awaited us, hidden inside some hedgerows. Realising the time (we only had a couple of hours in Vigo, the crew by now on ship must have been thoroughly sick of the sea) we headed back down the slope very quickly (not like that was difficult; it was hard to walk slowly without going head over heels) to see if we could grab a Segway ride.

A cross nearing the top of the hill

The view from the top of the hill, on the ruined castle. If you look closely you can see

Segway ride

Luckily, the group had just got back and me, my friend Catherine and Charlie (Lews Therin, this is your last reminder!) all managed to grab a Segway. They’re pretty nifty things-designed for ‘even the most stupid person’, they say, so we should be alright-we rolled off to go for a quick ride round the northern parts of Vigo, studying statues, beautiful drives and the view really, all on two wheels. When we got back, we settled down in the shopping centre for some nicely made paella, although most of the seafood had been gobbled down by my mum, who adores seafood. Then we walked back midway up the slope to one of the roads which were all taken up by seafood restaurants, and to be more precise, oysters! Fresh and raw my mum and dad ate a plate of them up pretty quickly, with a small drizzle of lemon to go on with it as I watched on in discontentment. I did have one though-it didn’t taste very nice.

Lews getting mentored by the girl 😉

Look how proud he is.

Some of the art around Vigo. They had ‘split the statue in half’ then strewn around any empty spaces left.

We spent our last hour rummaging around the shopping centre, buying some kind of hard nutty chocolate flakes in a bakery and getting reprimanded in the sweet shop for closing all the containers (they were quite rude on how they did it, though…). After this we joined the long queue back on board ship, where we all immediately started getting ready for our very last formal evening.

Some of the delicious food on offer at the bakery

Dany!

I once again wore my hair in the Daenerys-style with the two braids holding the hair together, a white flowery Louche dress, my amethyst necklace from Gibraltar and an amethyst (proper this time) heart-shaped ring bought on Independence of the Seas by Lews (thank you J ). Our final proper night was a beautiful one and ended wonderfully.

The next day passed by in a hurry as the ship steered (is that the right term?) its way back to Southampton. For the main duration of the day I played in the H20 Splash Zone up on the top deck, only stopping to eat at the Windjammer Café. As evening dawned and our last night on Independence of the Seas ended me and Lews went round the top deck one last time in the failing sunlight and gusty winds, looking at the many other ships in the distance that were all returning to Southampton.

The next morning passed in a rush and we all made our way off ship at around 8AM, got back on our car (which thankfully wasn’t infested with spiders like last time) and set off back home in silent contemplation of what had happened on Independence of the Seas.

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Hope you’ll be having a very merry Christmas and a happy 2015! Me and the family are going to Athens, Greece tomorrow and won’t be back till the 22^nd, so I’ll have something new to write when I get back! See you all soon!

~Written by MoonlightWalnut, aka Elayne Snowhawk, wishing you all a very merry Christmas! 😉