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

I might have already said that Spain has asked the EU to add 3 languages to its (already very long) list of 24 official languages. This is a reflection of the current PM seeking to do a vote-getting deal with the small ‘nationalist’ parties so that he can stay in power. It might well work for him but I can’t see the EU taking much (real) notice of the request, as Brussels would need to translate hundreds of thousands of pages of EU law into Basque, Galician and Catalán, adding to the strains on Europe’s stretched translation service.

Things between Spain and Morocco haven’t been hunky-dory recently. Which might explain why Morocco’s Madrid embassy has published a map which shows Spain’s North African enclaves –not colonies – as belonging to Morocco. Which they eventually probably will..

Not very interesting, I fear, but I did promise fotos of yesterday’s Feira Franca. Which in Spain is 2-3pm, of course . . .

One of the numerous places getting ready for the midday masses, which is 2-3pm in Spain, of course:-

A table in ‘Tapas Street’:-

The main square on the verge of becoming busy:-

A medieval wood-carver:-

A medieval blacksmith:-

A medieval potter and child slave:-

A medieval tile-maker:-

As I wandered around, I got to wondering if the initiator of this event back in 1999 ever imagined just how huge it would become, with new – ‘genuinely medieval’ – attractions every year. In this, it resembles the camino and all its ‘authentic’ – and, coincidentally, money-making – new pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela. Now approaching 50 in total.

The UK

An interesting observation from Jeremy Clarkson: I was talking to some twentysomething people on holiday in France and when I asked at one point what, in their minds, was good about Britain, there was an awkward silence. Followed by one of them saying: “Nothing.” I gave this discussion some thought in the subsequent days and I think I can see what caused such a weird response. It’s because all the stuff that made my generation proud to be British is now something to be ashamed of. The Spitfire caused global warming. Winston Churchill was a racist. The British Museum is full of stolen artefacts. The empire was wrong. Our famous comedy is misogynistic. Our stiff upper lip causes mental health issues. Kenny Everett was transphobic. Led Zeppelin were guilty of cultural appropriation. And we were only able to give the world penicillin and the internet and television because of slavery. Which we invented. And which we only dropped after pressure from Abraham Lincoln. The kids genuinely believe all this stuff, and they were therefore happy to be in France because the French have never cut off anyone’s head, they welcome immigrants and, like every other country in the world, they’ve already achieved carbon net zero. All these things are also facts in the heads of the nation’s Gen Z people. I wonder what the young of, say, Poland think about their country. Or Spain’s, for that matter.

Is nothing sacred? . . . HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for the news that, according to Tapas magazine: the history of the the British staple fish & chips began with the persecution of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, in the 16th century. Those who went to the UK took with them the concept of battered fish. Specifically, it was a Jewish fishmonger from Eastern Europe – Joseph Malin – who was the first to marry fish & potatoes together in London’s East End. Nice story. Wonder if it’s true. Wiki endorses it, at least.

The Way of the World

The future of transgenderism?

English

I read that someone was ‘badger-eyed’. What on earth does that mean? How many of us now what a badger’s eyes look like.?And are they any different from, say, a fox’s. Or a stoat’s?

Finally . . .

I’m off now on a 6 hour drive to Soria, as prelude to 10 days in Aragón and, possibly, Navarra. A second attempt to see the beautiful villages, towns and cities of this part of Spain.

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 – updated a bit in early July 2023