Last post from Vigo – for a while anyway!

Well, today what began as THE IDEA one sunny day about three years ago comes to an end. Tomorrow we get on a bus to Oporto and then a plane to Liverpool. The year in Vigo we planned on a train returning from Vigo to Pontevedra while on holiday in Galicia spread into two but now it’s time to head back to the UK to sort out the rest of our lives, decide what to do next and plan our return.

So today has been so far and will no doubt continue to be a series of last this and last that.

There was the last visit to the bread shop and the last purchase of una bolla de la abuela, the wonderful rye bread they sell there. My last conversation with my panadera had her telling me about her grandparents’ house in their pueblo. In the garden is a nogal, a walnut tree I believe, so big and old that it is a protected tree. No one can touch it without permission from the conservation police. Many years ago, well before the preservation order, they had a branch cut off as it was encroaching on the house. This branch was so huge that a carpenter made planks of it, treated the wood and made new window frames for the old stone house. So in a way the house belongs to the tree.

With that bread we had our last relaxed breakfast looking out over Vigo bay. Tomorrow’s will be all in a rush as we leave bright and early.

Out and about I had my last serendipitous meeting on the street with my friend María this morning. And over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a series of farewell lunches with groups of friends. That was, of course, just another excuse to benefit from excellent menús del día.

I’ve had my last swim in the pool. Just as well really as my swimsuit is definitely on its last legs and will need replacing.

We’ve already consumed the last bit of the last batch of Galician gazpacho (yes, I know it's not a Galician recipe but I made it in Galicia) I made the other day. I’ve used the last of my good Galician potatoes – las mejores patatas del mundo, don’t forget!!! – to make a final tortilla de patatas.

Later we’ll pay our last visit to Xadrez Galego, the chess club to say our farewells there.

I will make my last phone call, I hope, to the mobile phone company who provide our internet connection, not to complain about the poor service – I made the last of those a couple of weeks ago – but to ask them for the second time to disconnect us.

And tonight I expect we’ll see our last spectacular sunset over the Vigo estuary.

But though this may be the last post from Vigo for a while, we’ll almost certainly be back. It’s not really adiós, just hasta la vista. Watch this space for further developments.