The galerías of the Avenida da Mariña

The galerías were a practical answer to Atlantic weather: glaze the balcony, keep the rain and wind out, let the light in. Built through the nineteenth century along the harbour front, they now form a continuous white façade several hundred metres long, four storeys of small panes above a ground-floor arcade — the reason A Coruña is called the glass city.

The front faces roughly east across the harbour, so morning is when the glass lights up and the whole wall glows. From across the avenue you can fit a long stretch into one frame with the boats in the foreground; from underneath, the arcade gives a dry, shaded corridor of columns that works in any weather, which matters here.

Behind the façade the old town starts immediately: the Praza de María Pita with the town hall and its three domes, then narrow granite streets down to the Praza de Azcárraga and its stone fountain and plane trees.

This is a working street with traffic and buses, so wide shots need a moment's patience for a gap. Sunday mornings are the quietest. In rain, the arcade and the reflections on the wet stone are the shot rather than the problem.