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 Olive Press gives us here the Top Ten Spanish destinations for US tourists. No surprises.

It seems, from this article, that Brits with a TIE resident in Spain shouldn’t have their passports stamped on entry or exit. I just checked and found that, Yes, my passport was stamped when I left ln December last. Also in Nov 22 . But not when I returned. I wonder what it portends, if anything. Is there a maximum period I can stay out of Spain?

Reports Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas. . . You can get a 10m flat in Madrid for €550 a month. They’re known, unsurprisingly, as minipisos.

The UK

Those work-shy Brits with a mañana attitude! At least when Friday comes around.

Reading this article on Scotland by Effie Deans, I wondered if anyone in the UK really knows how Spanish-style regional government operates – on the basis of defined devolved powers to regional administrations. It’s certainly not a system where each constituent part is a real nation state which, for example, has embassies around the world. Even if it has a team in the football World Cup. ‘Devolution’ has been a failure, she says.

The Netherlands

Another of those headlines . . . Amsterdam’s plan to stop men drowning with their flies open. Possibly not what you think.

France

Why the French farmer protests matter for the EU — and all of us. . . Protests which some observers think could result in a fundamental reshaping of Europe. Just one pixel in a wider picture of discontent, says the columnist.

Quote of the Day

For every country in the West with the exception of Sweden . . . In putting self-obsessed politicians in charge of Covid, were we in fact being led by people who were unable to be objective and were, therefore, the opposite of what we needed and deserved?

Did you know? . . .

If I ever knew, I’d forgotten that there’s a plaque dedicated to Charles Dickens on the wall of the Bridewell pub in Argyle Street in Liverpool.

Finally . . .

A friend tells me that he has to deal with a colleague who retains so little of what is said to him or decided in the group that he’s suspected of having an Automatic Delete function in his brain. He’s nicknamed Mr Snapchat. I think I know why . . .

Welsh is one of the original languages of Britain, pushed westwards by the invading/settling Anglo-Saxons. It bears little relation to English, a Teutonic language ab as you can see from the lyrics of the Welsh national anthem:-

Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,                    Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mad,
Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.

Gwlad!, Gwlad!, pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad.
Tra môr yn fur i’r bur hoff bau,
O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau.

Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd,
Pob dyffryn, pob clogwyn, i’m golwg sydd hardd;
Trwy deimlad gwladgarol, mor swynol yw si
Ei nentydd, afonydd, i fi.

Os treisiodd y gelyn fy ngwlad tan ei droed,
Mae hen iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed,
Ni luddiwyd yr awen gan erchyll law brad,
Na thelyn berseiniol fy ngwlad.

Here’s a translation:-

The land of my fathers is dear to me,
Old land where the minstrels are honoured and free;
Its warring defenders so gallant and brave,
For freedom their life’s blood they gave.

Home, home, true I am to home,
While seas secure the land so pure,
O may the old language endure.

Old land of the mountains, the Eden of bards,
Each gorge and each valley a loveliness guards;
Through love of my country, charmed voices will be
Its streams, and its rivers, to me.

Though foemen have trampled my land ‘neath their feet,
The language of Cambria still knows no retreat;
The muse is not vanquished by traitor’s fell hand,
Nor silenced the harp of my land.

Here’s a beautiful rendition by a Welsh choir. And here by a Welsh tenor. We used to sing it in primary school, albeit in English.

Here’s a beautiful rendition by a Welsh choir. And here by a Welsh tenor. We used to sing it in primary school, albeit in English.

The Usual Links . . .

You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .

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.