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

This is an article on Spain’s best ‘hidden’ islands. It says this about the one near me, and after which my street is named.*: Tambo island is one of the most particular hidden islands in Spain. It’s in the Ría de Pontevedra and actually belongs to Poio, even though its access is managed by the Naval Military Academy because of its military origin. It’s a pyramidal-shaped island, surrounded by trees, especially eucalyptus. Tambo’s past is full of stories: originally, it was inhabited by Benedictine monks and attacked by pirates**; later on, it became a prison, and after that, it was home to a leper hospital. After the arrival of the Naval Military Academy in 1943, the island became an arsenal and a gunpowder store. During the 50s, there was even an attempt to build a landing track for military planes. On the island there are 2 beaches: Area da Illa, where there’s a picnic area that belonged to the Army; and Andreirá, where Protestants were baptised at night in the late 19th century.

• * If you put only Isla/Illa de Tambo into Google Maps, it’s the island you’ll be sent to, not my street.
• **The much-hated Francis Drake and his mates

I had a delicious plate of zamburiñas yesterday. Or, rather, I didn’t. For, as this article says, there is widespread fraud around this bivalve in northern Spain. If I understand things correctly, there are 3 common scallops:

• Vieira: (P. Maximus). The biggest and most expensive
• Zamburiña: (M. Varia)
• Volandeira: (A. Opercularis). The cheapest.

And then there’s the ‘aquacultured’ Peruvian scallop (Argopecten purpuratus). The cheapest.

Here’s a foto of the second 2, with the real zamburiña on the right:-

Essentially, the volandeira and Peruvian scallop are fraudulently passed off as the superior zamburiña ‘in large supermarkets and small shops, as well as in restaurants’. Here’s a Spanish article on the subject. Where it’s said: En cuanto al sabor, el criterio es subjetivo y hay quienes aseguran que la zamburiña es más sabrosa, pero también quienes afirman que al paladar ambas son simplemente deliciosas. Incidentally, the (alleged) zamburiñas were un-cheap, at €18.50. Not so long ago, they were around €12.

I can’t recall the last time I re-read a book but I’ve just started to do this with Roads to Santiago by the Dutch writer, Cees Nooteboom, whom I (mis)quoted the other day. I first read this back in 1997, before I came to Spain, and was knocked out by its beautiful writing and, I guess, by the emotion he displayed when writing about the Spain he loved so much. As is my wont, I marked the bits I particularly liked and am doing that again now, 26 years later. I plan to append the best bits to my blog over coming days/week. Three noteworthy things:-

• By pure coincidence, Nooteboom starts his book with Soria and Teruel, just as we did with our recent road trip through north eastern Spain.
• Nooteboom cites Gerald Brenan and his 1940s book The Spanish Labyrinth, another must-read, even though – more so than with Nooteboom – some of his acute observations are no longer valid.
• I haven’t read any of Nooteboom’s novels but I recall that my highly intelligent and much-lamented late Dutch friend – ‘Dutch Peter 1’ – was a tad sniffy about them. Giving me an excuse not to bother . . .

Here’s today’s bit . . . Anyone hoping truly to understand Spain should read Gerald Brenan’s ‘The Spanish Labyrinth’, in which the importance of local sentiments is so lucidly expressed: “Spain is the land of the ‘patria chica’. Every village, every town is the centre of an intense social and political life. As in classical times, a man’s allegiance is first of all to his native place, or to his family or social group in it, and only secondly to his country and government. In what one may call its normal condition, Spain is a collection of small, mutually hostile or indifferent republics held together in a loose federation. At certain great periods – the Caliphate, the Reconquista, the Siglo de Oro – these small centres have become infected by a common feeling or idea and have moved in unison: then when the impetus given by this idea declined, they have fallen apart and resumed their separate and egoistic experience. It is this that gives its spectacular character to Spanish history.”

A foto of the Spanish chap who self-identified as a woman after being arrested for violence against 2 partners:-

The UK

A new book on the theme de jour – Broken Britain.

But someone is positive about the state of the state: There’s a reason to be optimistic about Britain. The nation is completing a 7-year therapy treatment that worked. True, it’s been an expensive exercise in wrecking relationships. But at last, the UK knows what it is: a small country that needs immigrants, high taxes and European allies. Perhaps 60% of Britons now share this view — not a consensus, but a majority. 

Germany

More on the allegedly ailing economy there.

The USA

Are the Republicans as mad as the Democrats?

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

This challenge seems to me to involve a massive problem of ‘the burden of proof’, though I don’t suppose it’ll be thrown out of court for being frivolous.

Quote of the Day

We should expect the media to keep us better informed about African affairs. If they cut back the torrent of mindless tat, celebrity gossip and trivia that passes for news, there should be plenty of space and resource to do a half decent job.

English

Add the same three letters, in order, both before and after the following to make a familiar English word: ERGRO.

Solution tomorrow

Did you know? . . .

I’ve stressed how careful you have to be about tyre pressures in Spain, where all talleres over-charge them. Before our recent road trip, I checked mine and confirmed they were at the right pressure. So, I was surprised to get a screen warning to check them. At a petrol station, the machine purported to change all of them to the right pressure but I later found it had lowered them all to well below Honda’s recommendation. So, be careful of machines as well and men.

Finally . . .

I occasionally read restaurant and hotel reviews and have decided that, even if there were a place given 5 stars by everyone else, there’d always be one person who’d adjudicate it Terrible. Presumably a sad soul who’s never remotely happy with anything. Here’s one example:-

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.

Which, it turns out, he really is . . .