Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable: Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España

In a bar last night, I hear a customer refer to the Cuban barista – albeit pleasantly – as morena. Or ‘brown girl’. This seems to be acceptable still in Spain, along with rubia, but possibly not negra. I’ve never heard a woman called blanca. Except as her forename, of course.

During the first Covid year of 2020, I had both my sister and a friend staying with me for 3 months. My friend now lives south of Vigo but his bank – Santander – is still sending his mail to my house, despite his repeated efforts to stop this. Santander is, of course, a major bank in the UK as well as in Spain. But not, it seems, very efficient here – except, I’m sure, at levying monthly admin and maintenance charges to your account, inter alia. And increasing them without telling you.

Translating the Carabela menu I cited presented me with some new words, most of them for food items. One was volandeiras which was I told are similar to zambariñas, which in turn look like a small scallops. The zamburiñas are regarded as superior but I’m told – to my not very great surprise – that those I’ve seen on every menu for 23 years have almost been the cheaper vueladoiras. I’m reminded of being told that very little of the fish advertised as being local in a Portugal town really was. It just cost more. But there must be at least one scrupulous restauranteur in the world, surely. Anyway, I now know how to tell the difference between those 2 molluscs.

This is the scene down in O Vao/Bao where we await either for this – re-cleared – side of the road to be re-jungled again or for some sign of construction of the major stores promised for 15-20 years there.

Tomorrow will see the longest day of the year, with the sun setting on our (thanks-to-Franco-too far West) End-of-the-Earth at 22.20.

Germany

There might well have been an important turning point in the modern history of Germany and, indeed, Europe. It seems concerns over immigration, energy plans, Green policies and the costs of Net Zero aren’t confined to the UK . The FT adds that Germany’s far right sees a local election victory as the first of many. Because the ‘firewall’ erected by Brussels against AfD is beginning to disintegrate. Maybe that columnist was right to say the UK Conservative Party will come to love the (changed) EU again.

Quote of The Day

The Wagner coup that went all the way from Rostov on Don to the gates of Moscow in a day and then gave up is so bizarre that it makes even those of us with reasonable knowledge of Russia shake our heads and give up even trying to understand the place.  Prigozhin achieved more in a day than Yemelyan Pugachev and Stenka Razin, the two greatest rebels in Russian history and came closer to overthrowing the tsar than they ever did. But he will share their fate and his followers will share the fate of theirs.

Did you not know?

If you don’t know why it was called Spanish ‘flu, see no. 5 here.

Finally . . .

To amuse . . . Something you might be able to relate to . . .

For new readers:- If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.