Unveiling the Delights of Pontevedra: A quaint city in Spain's Galicia Region 

The city is wonderful, but it has a big problem with graffity. My Godness!

I think a saw a spot on a wall where there was room for a bit more graffiti 😂

What about all the graffiti , Stuart, you have not mentioned that, I find it very distressing. El TJR de Canaries.😢😢😢😢😢

If I didn't know any better I would think this was a video about the grafitti capital of Spain.

I’m in Ponte Vedra now…Ponte Vedra, Florida! 😊☀️🌴

Stuart, What I notice is a ton of graffiti, which doesn’t reflect well on the city.

Thanks for showing me Pontevedra. I can now cross it off my list of places to visit. Yuk..City totally ruined by graffiti..

Many people mentioned this below, but the graffiti in Pontevedra, and most of the cities in Spain, is very ugly. It looks to be much worse than anything we see in Portugal. The moment we cross the border in Ourense Province we see the difference. Many of the highway signs originally written in Spanish have been covered with the Galego version or the words "en Galego". I've been to Pontevedra several times, and it didn't seem attractive. Like many Galego towns and cities, the streets are narrow and the five or six-story buildings cut off the sunlight. When the bottom part of an apartment building hasn't been finished or rented out as a shop we often see the exposed brick covered in graffiti. In smaller Portuguese cities, more trees are planted in the urban areas, and the apartment buildings are set back from the streets, allowing more sunlight to come through. Portuguese prefer to live in houses (although many do live in apartments) and you see more open space and more yards. The difference between Verín in Ourense Province and Chaves, in the district of Vila Real, Portugal is glaring. Verín is grey, rather run-down, and congested while Chaves has parks, open spaces covered in gardens and trees, multicolored apartment buildings of different designs, and countless streets with separated houses. But, what we don't have is Mercadona and the delicious octopus that only the Galegos know how to prepare. Sorry if I have offended anyone but these are the impressions I get when I cross the border.

Graffiti capital of Spain 😮

I loved the images and your commentary! I really appreciate your information about languages and geography.

We visited a few years back and loved the City, however couldn't get past the amount of Graffiti everywhere, it was even on the front of a recently restored historic building, every corner you turned you just found more, a great shame.

Hi Stuart, thanks for the video. Glad to hear the progress that Pontevedra has made in becoming a more environmentally responsable town. However it is distressing to see how a beautiful and ancient midsize town in my Galician homeland has fallen prey to criminals with spray cans. This is totally unacceptable and Spain in general must take effective steps to root out this criminal activity that only succeeds in defacing and destroying cities and towns across the country. Very crestfallen to see how this criminality has obliviated the beautiful streets of Pontevedra...

One of my Spanish aunts was born in Pontevedra. Nice to see her roots.

Great video, brings back memories of when I was last around there, back in 1986 I did my first part of military service in Figueirido, Pontevedra. Yes, I´m dual nationality, british/spanish. Must make some time to travel back up to Galicia, haven´t been there since summer 2019 when I went to a wedding, I miss the good food and wine they have to offer!

Lived in Pontevedra about 10 years ago, teaching English. Loved it a fantastic place full of history. Going back for a few days next month after my Camino Walk. So much beauty you can almost forgive the grafitti 😊

The silence from the absence of cars is so relaxing.

My family is of many generations from Galicia. I was born in New York City of immigrant parents from a small town called Marin 9 km west of Pontevedra. I have been back there many times over the years to be with family. I don't share the level of your enthusiasm for Pontevedra, as you do. Marin has all that you describe of the niceties of Pontevdra, on a smaller more intimate setting. A big advantage for me is the proximity to the countryside and its small villages and particularly some beautiful beaches. Yes, the winters can be dreary, but there still is no shortage of many activities. I suggest you take or rent a car the next time you visit the region throughout Galicia and visit the wonderful opportunities.

This is a great video - please continue with these guided visits - cheers

Hi Stu , nice video , been through Pontevedra on a camino de Santiago , great place to walk around

What can be done about the graffiti all over Spain's cities? Since 2009 it's become worse and worse. Would a Broken Windows approach work?

Gr8 video. Yet another fab Spanish city I have to visit. Gr8 intro, I have been looking at this part of Spain to visit soon too. You must be psychic.

This seems to be a very interesting place, I hope I can visit sometime in the future. Seeing and sharing places like this is why I love traveling and make videos so much! And please keep up the great job! Subscribed!!

Thanks for a wonderful tour of Pontevedra's world class graffiti!

Nice city Stuart, thanks for sharing. Perhaps they could let a few cars in to run over the graffiti scrawling scum.

Hi, I'm from Vigo and I love our capital city Pontevedra. It is wonderful that it is a pedestrian city with lots of shops and a high quality of life. We go shopping in Pontevedra very often, we love being able to walk safely through the streets without having to put up with a lot of heavy traffic like in Vigo. We are seriously considering moving to Pontevedra, which is a much more pleasant and nicer city to live in. Pontevedra is truly a lovely city!

Average annual rainfall is around 60% more than Portland Oregon and Seattle - now that is a lot of rain.

It's a lovevly city .. thanks Stuart for showing us ..

Great video about Pontevedra

Thank you so much 😊

the graffiti is terrible

It looks dead even for 10 AM. I remember being there and being underwhelmed. Very dreary place that goes well with its frequent rain and gloomy skies.

Nice video Stuart. Best city in Spain? I think there are quite a lot that might dispute that. What I have to say is that cities in Spain and city life in Spain is far, far, better than cities in northern Europe. WT

The Graffiti really put me off visiting Pontevedra.

Close to the wettest city in Spain too. It's rained every time I've been there.

Looks like they need to outlaw paint.

Distracting use of privacy-blurring. Just the right amount of being able to see someone clearly at first and then they become blurred.

Not impressed all the graffiti we see on the videos, it's everywhere all over the world done by idiots who seem to think they are artists when in reality they are vandal's

Very interesting.

We like the north in Spain. Leon is one of our favorites. The centro is car free with the prominent remains of the city walls that originally marked the permanent encampment of the Roman Legio III. From which the city gets its name.

I hate the graffiti

Muchos gracias

It rains and rains and rains and rains in Galicia. This you must know. And Pontevedra is not unique when it comes to graffiti. So if your idea of paradise is pristine untouched walls and 300+ days of sunshine, you’ll need to look outside of Galicia.

😅Real nice seeing Pontevedra via video. Haven't been there since the 1990's, spend time in Galicia mostly in Santiago and Noya when not at home in Southern California. Interesting note, maternal grandfather born in Pontevedra, Spain in 1871 and came to Florida USA in 1888, set up a beer distributing business in Tampa-St.Pete, Fla and delivered beer in an old horse drawn carriage to a rural area now known as Ponte Vedra, Florida which he was told was the name of the wooded area with one "juke joint" (southern term for a down and dirty bar). The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was said to call it Pontevedra because of the rivers and greenery after one his soldiers who was a Galego said it reminded him of home without the mountains and hills.

Stu I agree with your assessment; the city appears to have a great quality of life. The only thing they need to do now is round up all the graffiti artists and send them to Singapore for a proper education.

Thanks 👍

Seems like the city council are a bunch of blinkered enlightened souls who look upon graffiti as a form of art...but deem the car as evil....but if they ever change their vision they could hire me to bullwhip the "graffiti artists".... and I'll even work overtime.

Muchas gracias por el video Stuart. You are getting around a lot lately nice to get out and about. Our last day in Abulfiera today back to UK 🇬🇧 tomorrow. We went to Silves yesterday really worth a visit if you are ever over this Way. Faro Lagos Loole farragudo and Portimao all worth a visit. I have never seen so many TV screens with football ⚽ on than here in Abulfiera. However the beer is cheap. Can't stand football

Meant to say had really nice plate of the day in Silves 7.50

I love Galician food , I do miss it .

Looks a nice place in parts apart from all the graffiti

Beautiful city, the best in Galicia without a doubt. An international model of urban planning. We love it. The issue of the graffiti is related to the fact that the city is home to the only university faculty of Fine Arts in Galicia and the north of Spain.

Enjoyed the video except for the music at the end. There is so much Spanish guitar music that would better capture the mood of the images you showed. (IMHO). No doubt the city has great quality of life, but I wish Spain could do something about the ubiquitous graffiti.

I’m from Pontevedra,I just miss the fresh and varied fish,I don’t remember all those graffiti

Stuart, I noticed a lot of graffiti in the various parts of Pontevedra that you went by. Is this a regular problem in Spain?

Thank you Stuart. Another great video. We are close to retirement and have been watching your videos quite a bit. We feel like we've gotten to know so much about Spain and Portugal. We are leaning to Galicia as we like the marine climate and seafood. We'll see. Thanks again!

I'm from Vigo, I used to visit a few shops in the centre very often and since they banned the cars I've never came back 😅. IMO banning the cars from the centre sounds great in theory but applied to bigger cities would mean that center of the city is the property of a very little amount of high class neighbors meanwhile lower income people, living on the outskirts would have more difficult access to the historical city. Many administrative buildings and public services are in the centre, so for me, the idea of fixing the traffic just banning the traffic is not the best idea. It works in Pontevedra because it is small and people still can manage to arrive to the centre, but I would hate they do that in my city

Good info on this city. I love the architecture, walkability AND local graffiti. ❤

Great Street art😮. FFS.

🎉🎀

Where did you learn to speak such good Spanish?

That’s awesome there are no cars! So I guess folks just walk everywhere? I wonder about shopping for groceries etc. in the USA we typically need a car to carry groceries home.

As a power wheelchair user I wonder how do disabled people manage?

I loved Pontevedra. Very charming but I don't remember any grafitti. (2005)

Graffiti is unbelievable - what a shame!!!!

What's the nearest airport

A good city to visit if you are a graffiti tourist.

Nice small city . Much easier to ban cars in a city of this size with a small population than bigger cities . Apart from the graffiti which seems to be everywhere ,it looks like a charming little place . . Weather is also very important to quality of life so I’m not sure if it is too unreliable in this part of Spain . Although it wasn’t raining when you made the video , there were some people in the background carrying umbrellas !,

Forget the cars they need to get rid off all the graffiti! Each to their own but nothing I see here is selling this place to me, I think I'll stay where I am 😀

The graffiti really puts one off from wanting to visit. Local authorities need to sort it out.

What awful graffiti Stuart.

can you not blur the pedestrian ? They are what I am interested to watch

Hard to find a really nice hotel because of the cheap skates doing the hike and looking for a place to listen to other people snoring

Huge thumps up for you for blurring inocent passer-by!

My favorite city!

Great loofah producers,great food.,Need to make Graffiti a punishable offence.Not artistic in this instance,but more indicative of crime,and deprivation.

The City has a problem with taggers. I can imagined how bad the rest of the cities must be.

Pontevedra está llena de pintadas y el alcalde no se entera de nada, que curioso.

The best small city without doubts. Family, sports and nice people.

wow, so many graffitis

I thought politicians should do what they are elected to do, not to show that they have 'cojones'.

What a graffiti ridden soulless place, full of empty business premises. The anti car zealots are utterly blind to the devastation they cause.

Looks a bit dirty with way too much graffiti. I am moving to Spain next year and I am leaning towards Andalusia or Alicante.

You have to realise that in the near future you won't be aloud to have a car!! You will have to stay in your 15 minute zone

Region? Galicia/Galiza it is a autonomy state!

All I could see was the graffiti. Here in Seattle a local judge has ruled that graffiti artists are expressing their free speech rights.

We want to move to spain next year, wheres the cheapest rents

Spaniards don't need cars to be noisy!

Hideous graffiti, hideous graffiti, hideous graffiti, that's my take-away I'm afraid.

Interesting, I’m used to an abundance of graffiti to be a sign of low quality of life 🤷‍♂️.

These results aren't "cojones-related" but political sign-related. Progessist/left/liberal which is the situation in Pontevedra. Let's face reality.

Graffiti does not speaks of quality of life.

Unfortunately it looks grubby,grey and depressing....

Not a very attractive city IMO, also the graffiti is horrible 😢

Sullen and scared with graffiti. Poor and unappetizing market compared to France or Italy. The re-conquest from the levant didn't last that long( in the scheme of things) , did it .☹️

How can it have any quality of life with that much graffiti? That means there are a great number of people there who don't respect others and want to make their city ugly. I'm glad I saw the video so I know to stay away from that city.

it will be nicer if you show more of Pontevedra instead of your face

I’d rather have cars than disgusting graffiti. Also, a careless tow. Is only good if you don’t have disabilities. People who are disabled and rely on cars or buses and don’t have families suffer. Not a good perspective.

Very dull and medieval looking, they should really clean up their buildings. Certain parts of the city have a lot of ugly graffiti, maybe if they get a high school involved to paint some murals. Pontevedra surely means Greenpoint, well it doesn't appeal to me at all.

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى (1) وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا تَجَلَّى (2) وَمَا خَلَقَ الذَّكَرَ وَالْأنْثَى (3) إِنَّ سَعْيَكُمْ لَشَتَّى (4) فَأَمَّا مَنْ أعْطَى وَاتَّقَى (5) وَصَدَّقَ بِالْحُسْنَى (6) فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْيُسْرَى (7) وَأَمَّا مَنْ بَخِلَ وَاسْتَغْنَى (8) وَكَذَّبَ بالْحُسْنَى (9) فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْعُسْرَى (10) وَمَا يُغْنِي عَنْهُ مَالُهُ إِذَا تَرَدَّى (11) إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا لَلْهُدَى (12) وَإِنَّ لَنَا للْآخِرَةَ وَالْأُولَى (13) فَأَنْذَرْتُكُمْ نَارًا تَلَظَّى (14) لَا يَصْلَاهَا إِلَّا الْأَشْقَى (15) الَّذِي كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّى (16) وَسَيُجَنَّبُهَا الْأَتْقَى (17) الَّذِي يُؤْتِي مَالَهُ يَتَزَكَّى (18) وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِنْدَهُ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ تُجْزَى (19) إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَى (20) وَلَسَوْفَ يَرْضَى (21) هنيا لمن لديه غدا هنيا لمن لديه عشاء ياتي المغرب ونحن ننضر من الذي يعطينا عشاء ياتي الفجر ونحن ننتضر من يعطينا لقمة العيش هاذا رقمي لمن اراد ان يساعدنا 00967774926188 نستقبل يومنا بالعبرات والدموع حزناً على والدنا المتوفي عليه رحمة الله وحزناً على حالنا اللذي عايشين وحزناً علا بيوتنا الذي تشردنا منها بسبب الحرب يا اخوني ارحمونا حتى بقيمة حبه زبادي انضرو الا حالنا ارحمونا وتعاونو معنا ادخلو الفرحه الا قلوبنا الله يفرحكم بالجنه اعتبرونا مثل اولادكم هل ترضون لاولادكم ان تشوفوهم بهاذا الحال الذي احنا فيه كل وقت وكل يوم وصاحب البيت يدق علينا الباب يشتي الاجار حقه ولا يخرجنا الا الشارع علينا اجار 4 اشهر كل شهر 14الف الان صارت متخرات علينا 56 الف من این ندفع له الاجار واحنا ليس معنا احد غير الله واهل الخير اليوم الغدا حقنا عند الجيران وغداً من اين لنا ماتت الانسانيه من قلوب البشر اصبحنا لا احد ينظر الينا ويمد لنا يد العون اسالكم بالله تنضرون الا حالنا وتساعدنا اخوني الذي بيساعدنا لوجه الله هاذا رقمي واتساب 00967774926188يراسلني اعطيه الاسم الكامل والعنوان الله يجزيكم خيررا😢.ا،😢'$ ،......

I walked in when it was raining and when I walked out it was still raining, almost two days later. Hate the local graffiti artists, much too much vandalism. Pathetic really!