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

This is why my nieto in Madrid, born on 13 January, gets 3 sets of presents in less than 3 weeks.

Irregular migrant arrivals in Spain. Their number is probably a lot higher than the total causing severe ructions in the UK.

There’s a staggering number of castles in Spain, around 2,500 castles in total. With Jaen in Andalucía having the largest number, at 237. Here’s the best Andalucian examples.

Portugal

I’ve been to this place at least 6 times and have difficulty believing this about a centre of academic excellence and religion. But it might be true.

The UK

Effie Deans takes a look at the track record of Scottish devolution and sees it as a failure. The task, she says, is to make the case for scrapping devolution completely in order to build a political system that is fairer and more representative, while maintaining the unity of [the UK].

This is the kind of headline to a page 1 article that has made me cancel my subscription to The Times, where I can, anyway, get round the paywall for articles of (possible) interest: Danae Mercer: How I went viral? I breathed out and posted my cellulite.

The Netherlands

HT to reader David in La Coruña for this depressing article: As the mayor of Amsterdam, I can see the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state. Well, Dutch narcos are getting lots of on-the-job experience in Galicia.

The USA

Interesting to see the polar views of the sacking of the Harvard President, Claudine Gay. In the right-wing media, it’s all about poor academic achievement, plagiarism and incompetence around antisemitism on the campus. In the left-wing media, it’s nothing but racism. Maybe, in today’s USA, they’re both right.

Anyway, this is a (right-wing) response to Gay’s defence and accusations of racism, within the context of what is said to be happening in US academia. And very possibly elsewhere. It’s certainly not university life as Effie Deans and I knew it decades ago.

Quote of the Day

Cod Italian isn’t fishy when the acting is brilliant.

The Way of the World

Is the world, someone asks, now ruled by a combination of zealots and regulation-loving bureaucrats? Quite a combination. But better than war, I guess. And also good at keeping chaff as well as wheat . . .

English

My lovely ex-neighbour speaks English well. But, when she doesn’t remember a word, she goes bravely with something close to whatever she’s grasping for. Yesterday, I had routinary and distractful. I believe that at least the latter is better than what we natives use and I will try to use it in future.

Did you know? . . .

The 1936 romantic comedy, Desire, starring Marlene Dietrich was the first film to feature one of Spain’s historic monuments, San Servando castle in Toledo, which is now a 25-room youth hostel.

Best news of the year so far, possibly the decade: The discovery of an entirely new type of antibiotic has raised hopes that one of the world’s most dangerous superbugs can finally be defeated. The new drug – zosurabalpin – was able to treat infections in mice caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (Crab) bacteria. It also performed well in other laboratory tests.

Finally . . .

My younger sister is good at chutzpah – rather fittingly as she is Jewish. Yesterday, in a large department store in Liverpool she wanted to tell me where to meet her but realised she’d left her phone with the tech service folk in another store. So, she told the employees of the store that she wasn’t well and needed me to be paged. By happenstance I overheard the worried staff discussing whether they had a medical emergency on their hands and was able to tell them my sister was not in trouble and didn’t need a doctor or ambulance to be called. Shortly after that, I heard a – now pointless – message for me on the PA system . . .

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.