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

Authentic Spain?

Lenox Napier writes about trains here. I confess to having concluded over the years that most train stations in Spain – as with Pv city – aren’t in the town/city centre but on the outskirts, very near to the bus-station. But this almost certainly isn’t true of the AVE high-speed stations. Or most of them anyway. Not sure about, say, Puebla de Sanabria. [Just checked . . . It’s way out of town. But close to the Parador].

Another quote from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago: [Written in the 1980s] Sometimes it is as if Spain is out to preserve the past for the rest of Europe; sounds, smells, occupations which have long since vanished elsewhere but which were once so much part of every day life as to be considered part of nature, human voices uttering long-drawn-out cries, exhortations reverberating among the houses, fruit and fish and flowers in carts and donkey baskets, all of those things that have been rendered obsolete by social justice, technology and big business, leaving the world both richer and poorer.

France

It’s a shame that French flair won’t grace the semi-final or the final of the rugby World Cup. But their defeat by South Africa in a brilliant, very tight game last night does mean that Brits – well, some of them – will be spared the agony of seeing France cut England to pieces next weekend. So, a fond adieu to the superb Frog team. Who really should have won.

The Way of the (Middle-Eastern) World

• Someone tackles here the question: Why are Israel and Gaza at war?, providing a history of the conflict.
• Reader and fellow-blogger, Maria, also looks at the history of the conflict here.
• Looking forward to resolution of the conflict is nigh on impossible, of course
• As for the present . . . A British historian writes here that: The Hamas Apocalypse has crafted a New World Order

Quote of the Day

On questions of race, as on so many other issues, Western politicians are beginning to lose their minds. Egalitarian principles have given way to a crackpot identitarianism.

English

A tricolon:-

• In ancient prosody and rhetoric, a period/full stop consisting of three cola(colons?).
• A colon with 3 dots instead of 2. (Why?)
• A sentence with 3 clearly defined parts of equal length, usually independent clauses. (Beloved of politicians).

Did you know? . . .

There’s a way to find out if you’ve got the dreaded (fashionable?) bed-bugs. See here.

Finally . . .

I confess to not understanding the ebb and blow of readership stats from WordPress. Yesterday, for example, was way up on the average. But I have no idea why. Nor why sometimes it’s sometimes way below the average. Which is, of course, a very parochial concern against the global events of this last week. But, then, this would be true of any week since I was born.

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.