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

Spain boasts 50 ‘awe-inspiiring’ Unesco World Heritage sites. Here’s The Times view of the 13 ‘most extraordinary’ of these, one of which is here in Galicia.

A valid comment from Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas: We see South Americans working in menial jobs and forget that some of their wealthier relatives are managing very well indeed. Those expat Venezuelans or Columbians who live in the best parts of Madrid (viz. el barrio de Salamanca) are converting it into a kind of European version of Miami.

Still on both Madrid and Lenox Napier . . . He reports that Público tells us that: The people of Madrid unite in protest against the mayor’s logging. Residents of several neighbourhoods in the capital have gathered in front of City Hall to show their rejection of the PP’s policies. Since José Luis Martínez-Almeida became mayor, the capital has lost 19% of its mature trees.

More locally . . . In a VdG article on the shockingly high number of accidents in the last week or so, experts are said to have attributed these to the ‘overconfidence and indiscipline’ of pedestrians and the aggressive driving of motorists. I guess the former are being accused of, for example, not waiting to step onto crossings until it’s absolutely certain the oncoming driver is going to stop. The article included this diagram, but it’s not clear whether the pedestrian – moving from left to right? – is using a crossing or not. Either way, (s)he needed to have waited until the car had stopped (or passed) before risking being hit just before getting to the other side.

Another quote frm Cees Noteboom’s ‘Roads to Santiago’: Spain is not the only country abounding in relics from days of warfare but thanks to the climate they are in a better state than in most places. The dry air has not only preserved the carcasses of the buildings it has usually prevented creepers and mosses from covering the walls, as in more clement and moisture climates [such as Galicia’s!], and yet people seldom seem to find the land on which the fortresses were constructed an attractive location for building homes today. Spain has 2,542 fortresses, castles, battlements, ramparts, and towers. Many of them are sinking slowly into the landscape, and the question is whether that is bad. I enjoy staying in the Paradors, but at the same time there is a degree of insincerity in all these over-restored ruins, if only because you know it will take centuries for the architecture to look properly time-worn again.

Quotes of the Day/The Way of the World

• The viciousness of identity politics elevates certain groups, while dehumanising, devaluing and degrading others. This is something Jews are now finding out to their cost.
• A disturbing personal tale from a teenager: My generation has been influenced to think we must support trans unquestioningly. And I did – until it became a reality in our household.

Finally . . .

We will soon have a brown contenadores at the ends of our street, to go with the yellow, blue, red and green ones already there. The VdG gives us these lists of what we can and can’t chuck in them. I suspect the rules will be honoured more in the breach than in the observance, as they say.

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.