Carnival Pride Europe Cruise Review: Day 11 – La Coruñafeatured

The next stop on our European tour de cruise ship brought us further into the northwestern coast of Spain’s Galicia region to the port of La Coruña.

In another stroke of divine intervention, we were forecasted for rain and didn’t see a single drop the entire day. Another day of sunshine and blue skies, perfect for such a vibrant, lively port.

La Coruña is a bustling city, just under 15 square miles, that around 250,000 people call home. It’s not quite a large city, but not a small one, either. There’s a lot to see and do. The ship docks right in town, so the options for the day are decently limitless. There were a ton of excursions — sightseeing and tapas, more trips out to Santiago — but we decided to once again do it ourselves. We had so many excursions planned once we got into our French ports that it was almost a relief to have some free time and flexibility built into our schedules.

La Coruña is a bit more friendly to touring on foot than the other ports we’d visited so far are — it’s much more flat (which isn’t saying a ton: there are still inclines and steep streets). There isn’t a Hop On Hop Off bus, but there are many options for activities. In town, there are a ton of cafes and shops, there’s Maria Pita Square and so many churches. A little further out, there are a number of attractions and museums that sounded fun. But back onboard fell early in this port: we had to be back on the ship by 3:30 PM, so we knew we had to be careful with how we spent our time. We poured over our options with our daily breakfast burritos from the Blue Iguana Cantina and plotted out how we wanted our day to go.

We disembarked around 10:00 AM and made the 15-minute walk into town in search of a bus stop. Much like our other ports, taking public transit in La Coruña was quick and easy. A ride cost €1.20 and buses ran every 5-25 minutes (depending on the line).

Our 11 bus picked us up and we hopped on for a 30-minute ride to Estrella Galicia, a local brewery that Stephanie found because, supposedly, they had this incredible guided tour that garnered reviews that called it the Disney of breweries — pretty high praise!

You can do a self-guided or a guided tour. The guided tour costs €35 and included a souvenir beer glass, a beer pull and a beer and cheese pairing. The only hitch was if you want to do an English-speaking tour, you have to pre-book, and having just decided to do this an hour earlier, we did not. It was fine for us — we speak (or at least for Stephanie, understand) Spanish and our guide, Laura, spoke English and would check in with us to make sure we knew what was going on. The signs in the exhibits were in English, as well, so even though it was a Spanish-led tour, if we didn’t happen to speak Spanish, we’d still be able to follow along.

The reviews that called this the Disney of brewery tours was spot on — the tour was SO informative, fun and interactive. It almost felt like an Epcot pavilion. Each room was interactive — we smelled hops, we touched the grains and rolled them in our palms to feel the texture, we tasted beer at different stages of the fermentation process. Even for someone like me who isn’t so much into beer, I was having a blast.

The tour ended in the tap room, where we were taught how to pour the perfect glass of beer from a tap and got to each do our own tap pull. The tap room looked out on to the Galician countryside, and I just kind of stopped to take it all in. What a special experience in such a special place!

Our tasting continued with a flight of beers with cheese pairings. The cheeses were delicious. The beers — I’m not a beer fan and these were no different, but not because they weren’t good. I just really don’t like beer. Stephanie loved them and they gained rave reviews from some of our fellow cruisers who also took the tour.

Before we left, we were escorted down to the gift shop, where we were given these cute little bags to put our glass in. I really can’t recommend this tour and experience enough — the employees are so passionate about the brand they represent and the tour is fun for all (even if you’re not a big beer person like me!).

It was a bit of a walk to get to the bus that would take us back to the area near the ship. The ride was as quick and seamless as the ride in was, and we were back in the center of town with just enough time to explore before we had to be back onboard.

We were almost overwhelmed by our options. There were dozens of cafes and shops, churches and squares, in every direction we looked. So we did what we do — we randomly chose a direction and opened ourselves up to the cosmos to find what to do next.

It was only a few steps until we found ourselves at Jamón Jamón, an adorable charcuteria. We feasted on cheeses and cured meats that were sliced to order and imbibed on Spanish wine. Having freshly shaved jamón iberico at a meat shop in Spain — it doesn’t get much better.

After our snack, we kept on strolling and eventually found ourselves in Praza de Maria Pita, a square dedicated in honor of Maria Pita, a local heroine who fought for Galicia in the late 1580’s English Armada attack. The square is big, full of sidewalk cafes and ripe for people watching. Nearby, we could hear the loud chants of some football or rugby players watching a game. It was the perfect cap to a great day in a new city.

We cut it a little close to back onboard time wandering our way back to the port. We had just enough time to stop at the terminal shops for (more) Coke Lights (€5 for four cans) and water (€2 for a jumbo bottle of Evian). The lines were long but moved quickly and we were back onboard just in time.

We dropped all of our bags back in the room and headed out to the balcony to watch another beautiful sailaway (this time with MUCH fewer birds). We were having so much fun exploring these new cities in Spain, and we were so excited to sail off to our final Spanish port of call in Bilbao.

Once we hit open water, we siesta’ed in the room with a Food Network marathon for a couple of hours, finally heading out again for dinner. Service was much improved (we were in and out in less than an hour!) and though our server kept insisting the beef fried steak was actually chicken (…it was not), we were hopeful the food and the service were finally turning a corner.

All of these ports were exciting to tour, but left us a little drained in the evenings, and we headed back to the room for a bit after dinner. We got some fresh air on the balcony (truly, is there anything better than fresh sea air on a crisp spring evening?) and mindlessly watched the Travel Channel and just…recharged our batteries a little bit.

Stephanie and I decided to venture out a little bit, down to the Taj Mahal for a rousing round of Name That Love Song trivia, where I, once again, reigned supreme and took home another win. I’d like to thank my six years of show choir and soft spot for the television show Glee for giving me all the tools I need to collect those 24K gold plastic ships on a stick.

We were ready to call it a night after trivia. Not ready to go to sleep. We probably should have but, you know, there’s just always something to do or catch up on. We ended the night with more balcony time, more tv and more excitement for our final day in Spain on this trip!