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’

Travel News

I’m now halfway from Portsmouth to my younger daughter’s house in North Cheshire, having stopped overnight near Shakespeare’s Stratford.

One day I’ll surely experience the drive without being slowed by works on one motorway or another.

Today it’s the M6 north and the dreaded Spaghetti Junction. Or rather, the toll-bearing M6 Bypass. Usually worth the money, even if you’re not in a hurry.

Had my first full English breakfast in years this morning. Nice to taste real bacon again.

Cosas de España

In the UK, searching for summer holiday options begins straight after the nap after the heavy Xmas lunch. Or, you’re a laggard, the next morning, Boxing Day. It’s at these folk that this article on Spain’s best cities is targeted. It’s impossible to believe it’s true that some of them are short of tourists, at any time of the year. With the possible exception of Zaragoza.

The UK

BBC news early this morning featured the shooting of an innocent bystander a year ago ‘in Manchester’. At the time of the tragedy, the UK media said it had taken place in Liverpool. In fact, it was in Wallasey on the Wirral peninsula – quite some way from Manchester and across the river Mersey from Liverpool, in a different county. This will confirm to Northerners that Southerners are an ignorant bunch and that it’s a good job we have a sense of humour. And, of course, a valid sense of superiority . . .

The EU

Richard North thinks it’s not only the UK which will fail to meet its aims/obligations around the installation of heat pumps, to replace oil and gas boilers. It’s a tall order for the Continent as well, he says. Barring Scandinavia and Poland, I guess.

The USA

Sic transit gloria mundi . . .

A judicial insurrection against democracy: The Colorado ruling forbidding Trump from standing for election is a grotesque assault on democratic rights. Rationale here.

Quote of the Day/The Way of the World

History weighs like a nightmare on the living if they are ignorant of basic facts; It’s alarming that so many know so little of the past, when it’s being weaponised to determine the present. . . We are constantly subjected to negative readings. No subjects are today as sensitive as slavery and empire. Yet surely we all know – at least those with any interest in the past – that slavery was practically universal, and Britain, once a major participant, became the principal actor in ending openly practised slavery around the world. Yet the story now being actively pressed is that Britain was uniquely guilty, that its wealth is based on slavery, that its anti-slavery efforts are irrelevant, and as a result it is racist today.  Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum ignores African and Arab slavery and downplays British abolitionism. More here, from a British historian.

Did you know? . . .

Liverpool has 2 cathedrals, one Catholic one and the other Anglican. They sort of face each other at opposite ends of, would you believe, Hope Street. I might be attending a carol concert in the former tonight. With my Catholic sister, not the Jewish one.

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.