Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable. 

– Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España/Galiza 

Notes one columnist: Holidays to Spain look to be safe from any changes to the UK Government’s travel traffic light system, as the country sees a strong drop in its Covid-19 infection rate. This is now well below the UK’s. 

Changing Spain: Gijon’s annual bullfighting festival has been scrapped. Although possibly only until the courts declare the ban illegal.

Wolves at the door. Literally. Up in the northern Galician village of Ourol, a resident opened her front door to find a pack had injured her dog and eaten most of a pony some 50m away. She and her neighbours are not happy about this.

I remember the town of Ribadesella for an exhausting walk to our hotel at the end of a camino day that was both far longer than the hotel blurb suggested and, in the final stages, steeply uphill. And because we arrived too late for dinner and had to make do with a can of sardines and an apple. Here’s what I wrote at the time. Anyway, it’s now in the news for something of more general interest:- A village in Spain has told tourists who “can’t handle” the noises found in the countryside that they should consider going elsewhere. Details here.

Talking of noise . . .  I mentioned that 2 houses along from mine are rented out all summer via Airbnb. Yesterday, the 2 neighbours between these houses and mine told me they’d both been woken at 5am  the previous night by the commotion on the rear terrace of one of them, after the lady renters had brought some fellow-revellers back from the city. This got me wondering whether there’s any UK-style obligation in Spain to provide would-be property purchasers with a dossier of relevant information. I imagine not. Caveat emptor, indeed. Though lawyers are only very rarely employed here to find things out via ‘local searches’. 

Renfe  is developing a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform. MaaS is said to be a very passenger-centred approach. What could possibly go wrong? 

María’s Not So Fast: ‘Tis the season

The UK

Britain is said by McKinsey to have created – since 2000 – more ‘top high-tech firms’ than Germany and France combined. Albeit particularly in the finance sector, ‘fintech’.

The USA

Late on Sunday a page on the Republican National Committee’s website went missing. It was titled ‘President Trump Is Bringing Peace to the Middle East’, and hailed his ‘peace deal’ with the Taliban, signed in February 2020. The RNC’s answer to queries arising was that it had been “taken down for maintenance” and that its disappearance was nothing to do with the situation in Afghanistan. As if.

Afghanistan

Speaking of the last few decades, Richard North writes today: There’s no shortage of material to guide presidents and prime ministers but most of it seems to have been ignored. Politically, Biden may pay the price, but every leader who supported this mad venture from the date of its inception has blood on his hands. 

Spanish 

Gotele: What it is and what’s happening to it.

Finally  . . .

Like María, I’m having internet problems. The good news is that O2’s computer keeps giving me advice. The bad news is that it isn’t effective. The Reset button, it seems to me, is defective. I suspect I need a visit from a técnico and a new modem/ruter. But this being August . . .

Note: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here.