Awake, for evening in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the day to flight.
And, lo, has caught O Burgo bridge 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

Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice. The Spanish PM is suing the judge who is trying to get him to testify against his wife.

I quite like the Dutch. Pretty decent folk, I thought. Almost English. So, I was a tad surprised to read of scurrilous activities on the part of Booking.com, which has just been fined a massive €413.2 million fine for abusing its dominant position in the Spanish market.

Another reason to want to be a funcionario in Galicia . . . In the public sector here, 33% of employees are over 55, against 18% in the private sector

Up in our hills, in the village of Santa Marta de Ribarteme, there’s an annual event centring on a religious procession – una romería – involving open coffins inhabited by folk who’ve survived a near-death experience. But this year there were no takers. Which rather took the edge off the event, I suspect, turning it into a bog-standard romería. And making the procession from the church to the cemetery and back a tad pointless, perhaps. Or at least featureless.

Walking through a little park to the centre of Pv city last night, I heard a group singing a little ditty for kids. All about how healthy vegetables are. Not quite the stuff of my childhood, such as Heart of Oak and The British Grenadier. Quite a contrast . .

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

The UK

In his 1577 book on Elizabethan England, William Harrison waxes lyrical on the food. A couple of examples:

• The situation of our region doth cause the heat of our stomachs to be of somewhat greater force: therefore our bodies do crave a little more ample nourishment than the inhabitants of the hotter regions are accustomed withal, whose digestive force is not altogether so vehement, because their internal heat is not so strong as ours, which is kept in by the coldness of the air that from time to time doth environ our bodies. It is no marvel therefore that our tables are oftentimes more plentifully garnished than those of other nations.
• As for swine, there is no place that hath greater store, nor more wholesome in eating, than are these here in England. [Shades of Galician views on local produce].

BTW . . . Harrison says of English nobles that their cooks are for the most part musical-headed Frenchmen. Plus ça change.

Reader David assures me that all the actors in the BA safety video were employees. Actually, I’d thought so until I saw the last actress, who I thought was a star of a BBC period drama, controversially because she’s black.

France

Madrid won’t be pleased at France coming out in favour of the Moroccan plan for the Sahara, an ex Spanish colony. Time for Madrid to move on? Just as it has done vis-a-vis Gibraltar . . .

More on that Seine problem for the triathlon contestants . . . It’s very true that weather can intervene. I well recall the women’s event here in Pv city years ago when, in April, the water of our river was only 9 degrees, leading some women to return to the dock immediately after diving in and to the world champion retiring because she couldn’t use her fingers to adjust her bike’s pedals.

Not what you expect to read . . . Stale bread and no wine: Olympic spectators complain about terrible food. The Paris Games intended to showcase the best of French cuisine but sport fans have instead say it resembles the type of food available at American sporting events

And: An Italian broadcaster described the coffee as apparently being made with water from the river Seine. 

P. S. The Seine was adjudged fit for use today and the events took place. I haven’t heard of anyone dying of dysentery . . .

Net Zero

That didn’t take long . . . Austerity may kill Labour’s green superpower ambitions at the first hurdle. Labour’s heady bid to make Britain a “clean energy superpower” has already run into cold reality, barely days into the Starmer-Reeves era.

English

From William Harrison’s book . . .16th century English fiestas . . .

• Church-ale – A church festival
• Help-ale – A social gathering or event, organised to raise funds for those in need
• Soul/Dirge-ale – A wake or funeral gathering 
• Bride-ale – A  rustic wedding feast

There are so many no-longer-used words in the book, that I’ve stopped researching them. Just 2 more for now, from the chapter on food.

• Marchpane – Marzipan
• Sucket – A sweetmeat; a dainty morsel.

Galicia

If you take the initial syllables of Festival and Galego, you get the clever heading of this poster. Which you can’t do with Español.. .

Did you know?

Most English southerners have little idea of where places are North of Watford, as the saying goes. But this isn’t new. In his 1577 book , William Harrison writes of an eagle which nests annually in a ruin in Dinas Bren, which he says isn’t far from Chester. It’s actually called Dinas Brân and is in Llangollen in Wales, about 50km from Chester. Which must have taken a few hours to cover back then. On foot, 8 hours, says Google. I’m guessing the place hasn’t seen an eagle for quite some time.

Finally . .

El Tráfico – The DGT – has sent me an SMS saying I’ve been fined for illegally parking somewhere and that the fine will double if I don’t immediately pay it via the link cited. But, as the message arrived at 3am this morning – and from a French number – I’m going to risk ignoring it

Finally, Finally . . .

At the final Pilates class before our instructor goes off on holiday, I was again warned by the ladies not to go to a certain café and get involved with a lady called Pili. ‘She’ll kill you within 3 days’, said one lady. ‘What would be most important would be how’, I replied. Which garnered more mirth than I thought it really merited. Women! Worse than men.

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.