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

National Politics:

• 1.The latest stage in the ‘rancour-stoking’ saga of Caesar’s wife.

• 2.The leader of the PP party says the PM should resign because the judge has asked to see him about his wife. The PP leader says this is because the PM told the previous PP leader to resign as then PM, albeit because of truly massive corruption. Which hardly looks like the same thing to some of us.

Regional Politics: Una decena de frentes tensionan la relación de la Xunta con el Gobierno. The biggest of these is the AP9 toll road between Pv city and Vigo, which Madrid declines to free up, as it has done elsewhere in Spain. The second is regional financing from the centre, which certainly seems to favour Cataluña and disfavour (rather poorer) Galicia.

]Local matters:

• 1. For the 2nd year running, the Pv city council has reduced the number of licences for tables on restaurant terraces. I have no idea why, though I do wonder if this will impact on those tables which I’ve been told aren’t actually licenced. But, anyway, one effect is that, as tourist numbers are growing, it’s increasingly common to see, at 7pm, that tables have been reserved for 9pm, or even earlier. Meaning folk have to do more planning than they usually do. The Spanish speciality of spontaneity is dying. At least in the summer months in Pv city. As is the custom of arriving late, because restaurants are limiting your time at their tables. Progress​​?

• 2. Not a great first day for the ALVO train between Madrid and Galicia yesterday. The train from Madrid was delayed for 2h46m after a breakdown in the station. And the train from Vigo was detained in Santiago de Compostela because of a technical fault. But the driver did manage to make up the 15 minutes lost and it arrived in Madrid on time.

• 3. It was 35 in Pv city today, and 40 up in the hills. But it was far hotter down South, which is why our ’cool’ summers are so popular . .

It was a quite a Spanish day for me today . . .

• Correos told me that a parcel sent from the UK 14 days ago would arrive today. (Well, I think the SMS was from Correos and it was the parcel sent by my sister. . . .)
• I learnt that I need to see not an audiológica but an otorrinolaringóloga, or ENT specialist.
• The pharmacist I regularly use declined to charge me for an item, presumably because it was small and we have the vital ‘personal’ connection. Even if he still calls me Usted.
• A waitress called me chulo(handsome) but I suspect only because I’d left a tip.
• Finally, I had tiny confrontation with a motorcyclist. As I was turning right into my usual parking area – which involves swinging left first – I met an oncoming rider who was signalling left to go onto the same patch of rough ground. So I stopped to let him do so. But he didn’t move and eventually signalled me to go ahead of him. At this point I realised 2 things:- 1. He didn’t really intend to turn left, and 2. He was a traffic cop. So, to avoid being accused of negligent driving, I told him his signal was flashing. But he just shrugged. The reason I’m telling you this is that I’m pretty sure that, if our positions had been reversed, I would have received my 21st motoring offence fine in 24 years. The Spanish traffic police are nothing if not officious. Even so, I don’t suppose he could fine himself. Perhaps if there’d been 2 of them in a car, the passenger might have fined the driver. But I suspect not.

The Camino de Santiago . . . Below, there’s some advice for pilgrims leaving Pv city across O Burgo bridge.

Portugal

More cause for optimism? The EU will give the government €815m to initiate the first stage of a high-speed train between Lisbon and Vigo. The less-good news . . . This will go on the 140km stretch between Coimbra and Oporto. As ever, god only knows when this will be finished. Or when later stretches will be initiated.

The USA

The Guardian is twice positive about Kamala Harris – here and here.

And The Telegraph just once. On one key issue Kamala Harris has Trump beaten hands down

But being negative . . .

1. If Biden is too frail to run, how is he fit to serve another 6 months? Hard hitting but valid comment on ‘a dark moment for the Democratic Party and American democracy itself’.

2. It seems the Democrats are entirely committed to their death spiral: in chasing the disastrous Biden out, they are now throwing their weight behind someone even worse: Kamala Harris.

3. Kamala Harris will be a disaster for the Democrats – and for America. Biden was just about able to keep together his party. Now the Left’s identity obsession will be unleashed.

Apparently, Ms Harris is not popular with all women. Or not all female columnists, anyway.

Quotes of the Day

• Disco isn’t remembered with affection by every musician. It was, after all, a period when drum machines and assorted technology began to eclipse the human element. You could argue that we’ve been paying the price ever since.
• Never in modern times has the Oval Office – the world’s biggest, most awesomely powerful job – been so totally up for grabs with a few frenetic weeks to go.
• A UK columnist, surveying the US political scene. . . The only thing I am certain of is that we are a very different country to America.

Spanish

• Jarana: Partying. Boozing. RAE:  Diversión bulliciosa y alborotada.
• Advice on the Spanish R: Es importante recordar que la distinción entre la R suave y la R fuerte es crucial en español, ya que puede cambiar el significado de las palabras. Por ejemplo, “pero” (but) y “perro” (dog) se diferencian solo por la pronunciación de la R. En español, la pronunciación de la letra “R” como si fuera doble (conocida como “R fuerte” o “R vibrante múltiple”) ocurre en situaciones específicas:-
• 1. Al inicio de una palabra. Ejemplos: Rosa, Risa, Rojo, Rápido
• 2. Después de las consonantes L, N, S. Ejemplos: Alrededor, Enriquecer, Israel
• 3. Cuando está escrita como RR (doble R). Ejemplos: Perro, Carro, Tierra, Arroz
• En todos los demás casos, la R se pronuncia suave (vibrante simple).
• Excepciones y notas importantes
• Algunas palabras compuestas pueden tener una R fuerte al inicio del segundo componente, aunque no se escriba doble. Por ejemplo: “sub-rayar”.
• En algunos dialectos del español, especialmente en Puerto Rico y partes del Caribe, la R fuerte puede pronunciarse como una J suave o una H aspirada.

Did you know?

Decena: 10, vs. Docena: 12

Advice for pilgrims leaving Pv city via O Burgo bridge.

At the moment, the main route up through the barrio of Lérez is closed and you’re advised to turn left and take the first right, just after the petrol/gas station. My advice is not to do this but to keep walking a minute or two until you arrive at a zebra crossing, where you’ll see a path to your right, alongside a tributary of the main river. This is flat and far more shaded. After a few hundred metres, you’ll arrive at a tarmac road, with a small, narrow bridge to your left. Here you can either carry straight on across the road or turn right onto the road and then join the main route after 200m. If you take the first option – my recommendation – you’ll follow a path as it bends to the right and comes out on the main route, further along than with the 2nd option.

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. And this article ‘debunks claims re wealth and residency taxes’. Probably only relevant if you’re a HNWI. In which case, you’ll surely know what that stands for.