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/Galicia

Politics

A right-wing commentator writes here that It’s in everyone’s interest to stop the escalation; to call a truce for a little more than a quarter of a year and lower the tension. As ever, the English translation of the original is not great, so here it is.

I’m indebted to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for these 2 travel-related items:-

• The traffic czar and his mighty organisation at the DGT are unceasing in their efforts to make the roads safer. In 2022, the traffic police handed out 5,542,005 fines. Noise-radars are arriving on the roads to control our output, with fines of up to €280; while wearing the wrong kind of sunglasses can cost you €200. A fine of €200 can be issued for leaving the shopping on the back seat; and, of course, for entering a low emission zone (ZBE)with the wrong sort of car or sticker. Running out of petrol on the highway is also a no-no. ThinkSpain has a list of other ‘driver distractions’ here.
• An article here from Autobahn strongly recommends not importing your car from the USA or the UK to Spain.

Basil Rathbone returns, courtesy of a Spanish novelist.

Ávila is a pretty place but drinking and eating near its (justly) famous walls is expensive. Worse, our dinner last night was the least impressive we’ve had in Portugal and Spain. And in complete contrast with the excellent tapas lunch in Casa Paca in Salamanca earlier in the day. That, by the way, is a place I once made a 10 hour round trip to from Poio, just to have lunch with my younger daughter. Interestingly, a US friend who’s lived in Spain for 50+ years and knows Ávila well says that he always found the residents unfriendly and uninteresting. I probably won’t go back. But I might well make a 9th or 10th visit to lovely Salamanca.

I should add that the waiting staff in the hotel restaurant last night were all very friendly. But they’re all from South America, of course.

My go-to adviser on the local scene, María, expands on my comments of yesterday on the politics of the Rías Baixas area of Galicia: Most of the Rías Baixas has been politically left leaning for a century. It was the area where the Left held sway during the Republic, and where it was heavily repressed. Also, in Vigo there was armed resistance against the uprising of 1936, especially in the worker’s neighborhoods of Teis and Coia. It only lasted a few days, but I believe it was the only area in Galicia where there was fighting. Rianxo was heavily Socialist during the Republic, and since the Transición has only had Socialist or leftist mayors. Though that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of right wing thinkers. But they’re not majority. And the older ones mostly vote that way because of the conditioning during their childhood. “Better the devil you know…”

Portugal

Typing the above I recalled that, heading for our (poor) hotel in Lisbon, we were advised by the satnav that we would be passing through a Low Emission Zone. Likewise on the way out of the city. But there were no signs as to where this started and we could find no way to get a licence to enter it on the internet. And, most surprisingly, the hotel receptionist said he knew nothing about the system. So, now I await a letter telling me I’ve been fined at least once. Which I might just ignore.

Quote of the Day/The Way of the World

Those who have #BeKind on their Twitter biog are the most likely to engage in vicious pile-ons.

Did you know? . . .

When James Chambers and his colleagues discovered a new myxobacterium in North Wales in 2020, they noted that they’d found it near Llanfairpwll­gwyn­gyll­go­gery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch, the village with the longest name in Europe. So they named it . . . . .
 Myxococcus llanfair­pwll­gwyn­gyll­go­gery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­gochensis.

The Usual Links . . .

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.