After such a meaningful day in Santiago de Compostela, our next day in Galicia took us somewhere completely different. We spent the day exploring Betanzos, a historic town that I honestly don’t know if I ever would have discovered on my own. And that ended up being exactly what I loved about it.
One of my favorite things about this Disney Cruise Line itinerary was that it didn’t just take us to the places everyone knows. Barcelona, Granada and Santiago were incredible, but then there were days like this one, when we got to experience a smaller town, meet local people, learn about their traditions and eat our weight in cheese. You know I was ALL IN.
Spain with Adventures by Disney and Disney Cruise Line
Day 1: Arriving in Barcelona & Welcome Dinner
Day 2: Gothic Quarter, Park Güell & La Sagrada Família
Day 3: Montserrat, Flamenco & Viva Espana!
Day 4: Farewell Barcelona, Hello Disney Dream
Day 5: Cartagena
Day 6: Malaga & Granada
Day 7: At Sea
Day 8: Santiago de Compostela
Day 9: Betanzos and A Coruña
Day 10 & 11: At Sea
Exploring Betanzos
We headed into Betanzos, a beautiful historic town in Galicia situated between the Mandeo and Mendo rivers. It was once an important political center in the region, and its medieval center was filled with narrow streets, stone buildings and Gothic churches.
Our guide led us through town and shared some of its history as we walked. After several days of visiting major destinations and spectacular landmarks, I really enjoyed the slower pace here. We weren’t fighting crowds or rushing from one must see attraction to another. We could simply wander, listen and take in a completely different side of Spain.
Making and Eating Galician Cheese
One of the highlights of our day was visiting a local cheese tavern, where we were welcomed by the sounds of a traditional Galician bagpiper. We learned about local cheese making and then actually got to try our hand at making it ourselves. Naturally, the best part was getting to eat the cheese we had made.
Honey left the experience with a bee in his bonnet about making cheese at home, so apparently our souvenir from Betanzos was not simply cheese. It was the possibility of a whole new hobby. We’ll see how that goes.
We also sampled several local cheeses along with Galician wine and bread. These smaller food experiences ended up being some of my favorite memories from Spain because we weren’t simply being served a meal. We were learning about what people in the region made and ate, meeting the people behind it and then getting to taste everything ourselves. We were given the little wine bowls to bring home and have already used them so many times to serve snacks and dips! A sweet memento of our time in Betanzos.
A VERY Old Oven
During our free time in Betanzos, we stumbled across Panadería Rabizas, a bakery with an extraordinary old wood fired oven dating back centuries. We didn’t speak the language, had absolutely no idea what we were ordering and basically just pointed at things that looked delicious. This is one of my favorite things about traveling.
Honey spotted a basket of cookies and bought an ENTIRE BAG despite having no clue what they were. They turned out to be almendrados, traditional Spanish almond cookies, and they were divine. We fell completely in love with them, and naturally they went straight onto my list of things I wanted to figure out how to make once we got home. In fact, we loved them so much that while we sat on a bench eating our lunch, Honey ran back to the bakery to buy the rest of the tray. Between Honey’s plans for homemade cheese and my plans for almendrados, Betanzos was apparently sending us home with hobbies instead of souvenirs.
We walked out carrying bags of bread, pastries, almendrados and who knows what else, and somehow all of it cost us less than $10. Everything we tried was delicious. There is something so fun about walking into a tiny bakery in another country, not speaking the language, not recognizing half of what is in the case and just GOING FOR IT. Sometimes you end up discovering something you love so much that years later you can still remember the first bite. For us, that was almendrados.
Lunch in Betanzos
We eventually settled in for lunch at a local tavern before continuing our day.
By this point in our trip, eating our way through Spain had become an important part of our cultural education. Between the cheese, bread, wine and everything else we had tried that day, Betanzos certainly did its part.
After lunch, we had some additional time to enjoy the town before continuing on to A Coruña.
A Disney Photographer in Betanzos
We also happened to cross paths with one of the Disney Cruise Line photographers while we were exploring Betanzos, which always made me happy.
I loved finding the photographers out in port because it gave us another chance to get photos of all of us together in the places we were actually visiting. I’m always a little leery about handing my phone to a stranger in a busy city and hoping both the phone AND the person come back, so when I spotted a Disney photographer, we stopped.
It’s one of the reasons I always buy the photo package. Of course I love the character photos and pictures around the ship, but some of my favorites from these European cruises are the family photos Disney captured for us in port. Years later, those are the pictures that bring me right back to the trip.
A Coruña
Before returning to the Disney Dream, we spent some time exploring A Coruña, a city famous for its distinctive glass enclosed balconies and galleries. There are so many of them lining the waterfront that A Coruña has earned the nickname the “City of Glass.” And it truly SPARKLES.
As we made our way through the city and back toward the ship, sunlight reflected off all of those glass façades along the waterfront. It was absolutely gorgeous and, to this day, I think A Coruña is the most beautiful port I have ever sailed into. That is saying something after 21 Disney cruises and ports throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas, Alaska and Europe.
I loved the contrast of this entire day. We had spent the morning wandering the medieval streets of Betanzos, making and eating cheese, buying mystery pastries from a bakery where we didn’t speak the language and discovering almendrados. Then we returned to this glittering waterfront city with the Disney Dream waiting for us in port.
A Coruña hadn’t been one of the places I was dreaming about when we planned this trip, but it became one of the places I could still picture perfectly afterward. And THAT is exactly why I love these European itineraries.
Back Aboard the Disney Dream
After our day ashore, we headed back aboard the Dream and settled into another wonderfully relaxed evening. There was a little solitaire mahjong, because apparently I had found my perfect cruise hobby, and we watched The Rescuers. After days filled with cathedrals, historic towns, local guides, food tours and long excursions, I loved that we could come back onboard and immediately shift into vacation mode.
We enjoyed another beautiful sail away and eventually ordered supper to our suite. There was no getting dressed for dinner and no schedule we needed to keep. We simply ate in, watched a movie and enjoyed being together while the Dream carried us toward our next destination.
I even managed to fit in a bubble bath before bed, which was a pretty wonderful way to end the day.
The Places We Never Would Have Found on Our Own
When I think about why I loved this itinerary so much, Betanzos is actually a perfect example. I knew I wanted to see Barcelona. I knew about the Alhambra. I knew about Santiago de Compostela. Betanzos? Not so much.
And yet there we were, walking through medieval streets, listening to a Galician bagpiper, learning to make cheese, drinking local wine and discovering a centuries old bakery that I never would have known existed.
That’s one of the things I think people sometimes overlook when choosing a European cruise itinerary. Of course you want to look at the marquee ports, but some of the most memorable days can happen in the places you knew almost nothing about before you arrived.
The Disney Dream gave us a comfortable home base while introducing us to one completely different destination after another. We could spend our day immersed in Galicia and then come home to Disney, play mahjong, watch The Rescuers, eat dinner in our pajamas if we wanted and wake up somewhere new the next morning.
That balance continued to be one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.
Planning a Disney Cruise in Europe?
By the time we took this trip, I had sailed with Disney Cruise Line 21 times, on every Disney ship at least twice and in Concierge on every ship. Those cruises have taken me everywhere from the Bahamas and Caribbean to Alaska and Europe, and they’ve taught me that choosing the right Disney cruise involves so much more than picking a ship.
The itinerary matters tremendously, especially in Europe. I help my clients look at where the ship goes, what they can realistically experience from each port, which Port Adventures make sense for their family and how to balance those big touring days with time to actually enjoy the ship.
My planning services are complimentary when you book your Disney cruise with me, and my recommendations come from firsthand experience actually sailing these ships and itineraries.
If a Disney cruise in Europe is on your family’s bucket list, I’d love to help you find the itinerary, stateroom and experiences that are right for you.
Up next: another day aboard the Disney Dream as our Spanish adventure continued.
