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

Given the massive price hikes, it’s not terribly surprising to read that the sales of olive oil in Spain have fallen by more than 40% in recent months But, on a 10 day tour of Aragón, such everyday cares are absent for a while.

Today we’re leaving Jaca for the Pyrenean villages NE of that pleasant town and its astonishing fortification, designed to keep the French of of Spain. Or at least the kingdom of Aragón. My old friend asked why the French couldn’t just go round it and further South but I failed to come up with an answer to that. It reminded me of a wonderful cartoon I saw many years ago on the failure of a China’s chief engineer to note which side of the Great Wall of China the Mongol hordes were on before he finished the Wall. Probably works better in pictures . . .

Yesterday we visited the magnificent, thousand-year-old Loarre castle, which some say is the best reserved fortress in Spain, if not in Europe. But we found it impossible to get a guide in audio form, either as a handset or on our phones. Luckily, I heard a family listening to a video and the father was kind enough to send a copy to me via Wotsap. In the process, allowing us to laugh at his son’s unmerited/arrogant accusation that his Old Man wouldn’t be able to do that.

There’s quite a lot of French folk in this Norther Aragón area. It’s good to be reminded that not all French women are svelte and elegant. None, in fact, in the last 2 days. Quite the opposite. This must be even more comforting for non-French women, constantly assailed, as they are, with fotos of beautiful Parisiennes who eat like a horse and look like a clothed stick.

Travelling from Loarre to Jaca yesterday, we noted that the monastery of San Juan de la Peña was 25km off our road. Several kilometres later we saw that it was still this far away from us. When this happened for a 3rd time, we guessed – correctly – that we were driving in an arc which had the place at the centre. Anyway – being all-churched-up – we gave it a miss.

This article highlights the claim that Coca-Cola was invented in Spain, down in a Valencian village. I suspect that Lenox Napier will have something to say on this, as I think his growing-up place of Mojácar lays claim to this distinction. Or am I thinking of the suggestion that Walt Disney was born there? Anyway, Cristopher Columbus was certainly born in Poio. I’ve been to his birthplace and adjacent museum, sometimes finding it open.

Here’s a report on Coca-Cola’s reaction to this alleged calumny.

Portugal

The port wine industry is on a roll – not having been hit by extreme heat this year – but industry leaders are concerned that century-old ‘creaking’ regulations are choking the Douro’s wine industry. Let’s hope they win their fight with Lisbon on this, though personally I don’t go for any of the port variants.

English

A sign about language courses in Huesca that got us laughing . . .

Finally . . .

Isn’t it annoying when, having paid for a decent hotel room, you then can’t get the internet there and have to go down to the lobby at 6am? And when car parking spaces are taken up by motorbikes attending some BMW event nearby, forcing you to look for a free space on nearby streets? There should be discounts given for this sort of thing . . .

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.

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. Which is possibly why, I’ve just belatedly realised, his nom-de-plume is Johnnie Walker . . . And I’d thought he was a big whisky fan.