To Aveiro

I was a little worried about this day as it involved moving from Spain back to Portugal. The cross-border train service I used back in 2009 doesn't run any more and in its place is a cross-border bus. I had plenty of time to make the connection at Vigo station but it meant that I had to take an early service from A Coruña. At Vigo Urzáiz is a shiny new shopping centre and combined train and bus stations.

I even got a little brunch because lunch would be delayed.

One thing in my favour was that I would fall back one hour crossing the border because Spain is ahead of its proper timezone taking into account the longitude. Not many people know this was Franco's doing. He wanted to have the same time as Germany.

From the roof of the shopping centre one can see the beautiful Ria de Vigo I had admired from my camino just over a week ago.

The bus service was fully pre-booked and a few people who turned up hoping for a seat on the spot were disappointed to be told solo billetes.

We were off. Progress felt slow compared with a train but it was all accounted for in the schedule. I had a bit of time in Porto Campanha station to grab a sandwich before boarding the train to Aveiro.

It was bright and sunny when I arrived and I just had to take a picture of this beautiful old station next to the new one.

Although I did a bit of exploring in the evening, I left picture taking to the next day as I would have the full day.