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

The Spanish Notting Hill?

The Corner tells us something about public housing construction here.

I suspect this tirade against Spanish banks will meet with a lot of sympathy from foreign residents – like me – used to better and cheaper services back ‘home’. The opening para: The banks in Spain could well be the worst in Europe, if not the world. They make obscene profits, yet they continue to close branches and their service gets poorer and poorer.

The airbynbing of Pv city . . . There are now said to be 6 times more ‘tourist flats’ than conventional flats. How much longer can this be allowed to continue, with its inevitable impact on availability and rental costs for residents?

It had to happen . . . Una plaga de chinches infesta habitaciones en los albergues de Caldas de Reis. The finger of blame is naturally pointed at the backpacks of ‘pilgrims’.

Sic transit gloria mundi . . . Can this be true (David)? I recall Deportivo La Coruña winning the La Liga some years ago but think I saw them down near the bottom of the 3rd Division yesterday. When looking for Pv FC. Who are doing very well right now albeit in the 4^th Division, to which they were demoted at the end of last season.

Another quote from Cees Noteboom’s Roads to Santiago, rather appropriate as we are suffering the first storm of the coming winter: I must make a detour just one less time, irrational, foolish, I am not ready yet, the city [Santiago de Compostela] is too close, the whole of Galicia is its garden, I am coming, but not just yet. I draw a wide circle around the city, unsure whether this is serious or just child’s play, instinct or whim. First I must go to La Coruña which marches on the ocean like a balcony, a city of light and wind and large windows where it feels so different from the rest of Spain, as if she belongs more to the sea than to the vast, stony mass of mainland behind her. Ships and markets, swaying statues, but I cannot stay here either. Onwards to the West the land is lush and Irish looking, but where it meets the sea it is called Costa de la Muerte, coast of death, and today the wind is doing its utmost to explain why: when I arrive in Muxía I am almost blown off my feet, the fishing boats have come into port and the fishermen huddle together on the cafés on the quay. On a rocky promontory stands a church, the storm rings the bells, but it can’t keep time, it clamours at random with its bronze voices, the fishermen take no notice. Coast of death, the rusty carcass of a ship wedged between the rocks is lashed by thongs of white, tufts like a burst of chicken feathers, churning water glitters in the harsh light, the glare hurts the eyes.

France

Those perennially protectionist French, making a mockery of the ‘common market’. If I had my way, I’d ban all French wine imports into the UK. And into Spain. And eliminate tariffs on Spanish wines, of course.

The EU

Here’s AEP doing his Cassandra schtick again, in respect of the challenges faced by Italy – ‘the eurozone’s weakest link’ – and the consequences for the EU.

Covid

Lockdown sceptics are rapidly being vindicated, it’s claimed here. The [UK] Covid inquiry has shown how the scientific process was perverted by advisers steeped in groupthink. Possibly not just in the UK.

English

Kilts: Bonds to be issued by the Scottish (devolved) government. A play on the word ‘gilts‘. Predicted to be ‘a disaster’, and to rank alongside those of Argentina and Zimbabwe. There are so many reasons why Scotland is a poor investment, it is hard for even its most diligent critics to keep track of them all. When nationalists get too big for their boots.

Spanish

María tells me that “Muy verdes” means things are very green, with a long road to fruition before them. Literally, “unripe.” So, not ‘fruitful’. Quite the opposite.

Finally . . .

I dreamt last night of bumping into and chatting with the mayor of Pv city, in a place I’d been hampered in getting to by road closures. Given what he’s done to car owners over 24 years, that must be the connection and stimulus to the dream. I don’t recall any of the conversation, apart from him not recalling my name while I remembered his. But, then, he is rather more famous. Rightly or wrongly.

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.