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

The Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of General Franco resulted in the greatest plunder and movement of works of art in the country’s history, experts say. Now, the government has published an inventory of more than 5,000 seized pieces held in state museum collections. Allowing owners to reclaim them.

More than 5,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first five months of this year, or the equivalent of 33 deaths per day, an NGO said Wednesday. The figure is alarmingly high in comparison with last year.

There are some folk even further to the Right than the execrable Vox party. One such is Alvise Perez, a 34-year old online influencer from Sevilla, who a surrise winner in Sunday’s European elections. He is the leader of Se Acabó La Fiesta (The Party Is Over), an anti-establishment movement that won 3 seats in the European Parliament on the back of 800,000 votes, or c.5% of the total.

Vito Quiles is a ‘journalist’ on the list of Alvise’s Se Acabó la Fiesta. It turns out he was under a search and arrest order. When the news emerged this week, he fled the Congress building.

From Fascinating Spain here, ‘The Festivals of the Moors and Christians’.

I ate with an old friend in a (good) tapas place last night. The bottle of Albariňo wine we had at 40 quid costs 8-12 euros in Spain. Say GBP 6.65 to 10.15. Quite a mark up – the Spanish retail price x 6. The restaurant purchase price by even more. No wonder the meal cost us 70 quid – 83 euros – each. Just sayin’. . .

The UK

The pessimists’ pessimist writes: Be in no doubt: the next few years are going to be calamitous for Britain. Almost everything that is bad today will get worse, and everything that, for now, is still working will be vandalised or destroyed. The public is clamouring for change, but there will be no great rupture under Labour, no break with the dismal status quo, just a further acceleration in our national decline. More here, if you can bear it. There’s also some acidic comments on France therein. The columnist might well be right, of course. Things can continue to go wrong.

France

Macron’s gamble – Could France be heading for a far-right government, asks the FT. . . After a grim showing for his party in the European elections, President Macron stunned observers by calling snap elections. With Marine Le Pen’s National Rally riding high in the polls, could French voters elect a far-right government? Gideon discusses the possible ramifications of Macron’s gamble with the head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

Quote of the Day

Banning the office romance is a dystopian sign of a world gone mad. More here.

Spanish

Echar una cana al aire: ”To throw a grey hair into the air”. . . To have an affair. Lenox Napier has cited this in his latest edition of Business Over Tapas but this is the advice of a Galician friend: Tener una aventura extramatrimonial. Pero esta frase también suele usarse, de manera más común, cuando una persona tiene alguna relación de infidelidad con su pareja, especialmente con el fin de sentirse más joven. Ese es el significado mayoritario. Aunque tengo una tìa que lo utiliza cuando hace algo que no es habitual en ella. Como ir a Bueu a tomarse una pinta de cerveza…

Finally . .

The last 6 months in the UK have not exactly been the best in my life. One factor has been the lack of summer weather. A couple of weeks ago, it was very definitely shirt-sleeve weather but the temperatures have since plummeted. It’s all the fault of the jet stream, they say. And Brits will have to hold out until July for warmer weather, as cold winds continue to blow in from the Arctic. Said jet stream is: a fast-moving atmospheric wind, directing cold air from the north to the south. Thank god, all being well, I will return to Spain next week. Where even Galicia is a lot warmer. Or cooler, if you live in scorching Madrid or in the even-hotter South.

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.
• 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. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here. Finally, some advice on getting a mortgage.