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

Politics: The PP leader is said to be planning to break off relations with Vox, because be believes that associating with its far-right views cost the PP party the recent general election. A tad late for that dawning realisation, it would seem.

My thanks to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for these 2 items:-

• An artist called Erik Harley has set himself up as an expert on speculative and corrupt architecture. Here he shows visitors the Madrid’s white elephants and vanity buildings. He has written a book which explores similar constructions in a dozen Spanish cities: ‘Rutas por la España del Ladrillo’
• One man’s experience of Spanish bureaucracy, to which we can all relate.

Café para todos . . . The 2030 football World Cup will held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco with 3 matches to be held in South America. The 2026 event will be held in the UK, I believe, after other candidates dropped out of the running.

Very locally . .

• Four times a day, I pass a field near the driving test centre, which is full of a wide variety of cars. This week I learned that these have been confiscated from criminals, especially narcotraficantes – and are sold by auction. Possibly to relatives of their previous owners. I wonder how safe it is to counter-bid at these auctions.
• I’ve mentioned the ever-larger groups of tourists being given a tour of Pv city’s old quarter, most of whom seem to give no thought to the possibility that they’re blocking the street where they pause awhile. To listen or chat. Here’s one such group – of c. 25-30 – being told about Sor Lúcia of Fátima fame, who came to live (and die) in a little convent in Pv city, where she had Jesus and the Virgin Mary come and talk to her. For the 2nd time in Mary’s case.

Another quote from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago: Leon, early morning. A pale mist lingers over the Bernesga, ragged veils over the quiet, brown water. The early sunlight is doing strange things to the facade of the Hostal San Marcos. It measures 100m across, the façade of this the most handsome hotel in Europe, a building like a statement: a spectacular affirmation of the power of Ferdinand and Isabella. It is always difficult to imagine anything that is centuries old as having been modern once, but the grandeur of their gesture is incontestable. This small town boasts some of the most beautiful early mediaeval buildings in the world, and the Renaissance seems to have largely passed it by. The style is called ‘Plateresque’, and for good reason, for the façade looks as if it is made of chased* ‘plata’, silver.

*chaste

The UK

In the week that saw the Scottish First Minister described by Time magazine as an extraordinary* leader ‘shaping the future’, his Scottish Nationalist Party suffered a very heavy by-election defeat to a ‘resurgent’ Labour party. The ‘Nats’ are now forecast to lose a lot of seats at the next general election, which would surely see the end of their dream of independence for a decade or three. Not quite the future predicted by Time magazine for Humza Yusaf.

*Which I guess can have negative connotations

France

An amusing take on an old trope . . . .

The EU

The leaders’ shindig in Granada has been marred by conflicts and absences, says the FT here.

The USA

The Republican Party is now out of control, says this columnist. A pretty safe statement the day after Trump says he’ll take over as House Speaker and the party says it’ll change its rules to allow this. As they say . . . If it wasn’t so serious . . .

Russia

Talking of madmen . . . Who isn’t going to believe president Putin when he says that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner warlord, died when a hand grenade exploded inside his plane while he and his fellow mercenaries were probably drunk or high on drugs? So very plausible. Much more so than all of them falling out a plane’s faulty window.

Did you know? . . .

The creation of what – 2,000 years later – became known as The Silk Road was down to one exceptionaly brave and tough chap, who set out West from the Chinese court and only returned 13 years later, with startling news of commercial opportunities in Central Asia, beyond the vast, hostile Taklamakan desert. From Peter Hopkirk’s ‘Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia’: A century before the birth of Christ, an adventurous young Chinese traveller called Chang Ch’ien set out on a secret mission to the then remote and mysterious regions of the west. It proved to be one of the most important journeys in history, for it was to lead to China discovering Europe. Chang was sent on his trail-blazing journey by the Han Emperor, who found himself facing increasing harassment from China’s ancient foes, the Hsiung-nu. These warlike people, Huns of Turkic stock, were eventually destined to appear in Europe as the ravaging Huns of our own history books.

Finally . . .

I never really understood why the Blackberry was such a huge success, so I look forward to seeing the eponymous film Blackberry, which is said to be very funny. And revealing.

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.