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

Here, allegedly, is how the fugitive ex-president of Cataluña evaded arrest. Sr P is said to have removed his jacket and pulled on a cap before dodging from the crowd into a getaway car. I wonder why he didn’t just take off his wig . . .

There’s an article in today’s DdP entitled: Galicia – Culo del Mundo, There’s a Google translation of it below, which could doubtless be improved here and there. The writer’s main intention, it seems, is to take issue with those protesting – mainly in Santiago de Compostela, I believe – against the rise in tourist numbers.

Our annual big fiesta has now ended and I no longer need to take my grandson down to the fairground and the adjacent stalls. As in every year, all the toy stalls seemed to be majoring on the same product line – firearms. Pistols, rifles and machine-guns. All in plastic, of course and presumably harmless. Except for the numerous air-pistols impounded by the police.

As retail shops in Pv city continue to close, new eating places are opening all the time. At the moment we have in the offing: an Italian café, a Chinese noodle place and an upmarket ‘pop up’ café on the main square. Which surely must be mis-labelled. And last evening I passed ana restaurant specialising in Milanesas Argentinas that’s new to me.

As I approached a roundabout this morning, a car crossed mine in the outside lane and then proceeded to go all the way around to do a U-turn from this lane. What’s unusual about that?, you will ask. Well, nothing except that it was a car belonging to Spain’s Royal Automobile Club and I just didn’t expect it. More fool me.

The UK

It was news to me to read that restaurants in Britain now expect a 12.5% tip, sometimes adding it to the bill and challenging you to refuse to pay it. I thought it was still 10%.

Germany

Germany’s economic woes have deepened after new figures showed a second straight month of contraction.

The USA

A perceptive article . . . The Harris joy bubble will be hard to burst. The Democrats had a good week and, while Trump may be able to call out the hypocrisy, he’ll struggle to match the optimism . . . If Harris is to win, voters have to be made to forget the record of the past four years. Some nice lines:

• Some of this was cringeworthy stuff [which wouldn’t play well in at least the UK].
• The politics of identity – always core to the modern Democratic Party – are crucial herr
• Never has there been a lower substance-to-fluff ratio in the history of political campaigns.

The Guardian is naturally more impressed.

The US tipping system is teetering. Customers are growing more resentful as gratuities soar. . . .Restaurants got into the game with a vengeance. I’ve seen tip screens that recommend as much as 25%, double the 12% service charge that some UK restaurants levy, and shocking compared to the pocket change expected in much of Europe.

The Way of the World

A natural follow-up to yesterday’s para on freedom of speech and terrorism/extremism.

Quote of the Day

Pithy . . . ‘Trans rights’ is the veil misogyny wears in the 21st century

English

Fridge tapas: A posh term for the stuff that’s about to go off that you give to your kids as a ‘cold-plate’.

Galician

A bit of text for you, on the predecessor of one of the 2 bridges I use.

These are the first 2 sentences in Gallego and Portuguese, for comparison. Quite a resemblance, of course – given that they were once the same language, Galaico-Portugués.

• Antes da construción da ponte alá século 12 neste punto existía unha pequena embarcación que unía as dúas beiras e estaba rexentada polos monxes bieitos do mosteiro de San Xoán de Poio. De ai su denominación de Ponte de Barca.
• Antes da construção da ponte, no século XII, existia neste ponto um pequeno barco que atravessava as duas margens e era dirigido pelos monges abençoados do mosteiro de San Xoán de Poio. Daí o seu nome Ponte de Barca.

Another bit of Galician text, from a poster at one end of A Barca bridge, advising of an honour Pv city will be getting next January.

Did you know?

It must be summer . . . A Times article on the 9 bad habits that ruin relationships.

Finally . . .

I mentioned my friend Mark yesterday and should add that, apart from being a Camino guide, he also offers gastronomic and wine tours. Here’s his FB page and here’s his Linkedin page. He also works with a particular Galician bodega but I’m sure he takes folk to other places too . . .

Galicia, the asshole[culo] of the world

Unlike teachers, who have hundreds of months of vacation a year and, consequently, are a bunch of scoundrels, the rest of us workers enjoy four weeks of vacation in the summer, at most. A fleeting fortnight, in most cases, that we try to spend somewhere isolated with the intention of disconnecting. A glimpse and not a glimpse, after all. A summer sigh for which many choose Galicia as a destination. And I wonder why that is. It may be because Galicia is far from everything. More or less, at the asshole of the world. It is an isolated place that is not even easy to reach. By land you can only enter from the east or the south – if it is through another country – and to do so you have to cross mountain passes that are more than a thousand meters high, such as Xurés, Padornelo or Pedrafita do Cebreiro. There are only drawbacks, such as steep slopes, hypnotic landscapes and sharp curves. Given the circumstances, it does not seem unreasonable to me to consider Galicia as the most distant place from any other point in Spain. Even for someone from León, Galicia must be further away than Murcia. It may be possible to disconnect here, yes, but it is forced.

It could also be due to its climate. It is true that it is very cold here in winter; no one would think of coming to spend their summer holidays in Galicia in the middle of winter, as it is cold. But it is not that hot in summer either. The maximum temperature today in Lugo is 25 degrees. In Pontevedra it is 26. In Coruña it is 22 degrees and in Sanxenxo, O Grove and Bueu it ranges between 25 and 27. The only place in Galicia worth visiting in summer to get some warmth is the capital of the province of Ourense, where the highest temperatures in all of Spain are sometimes reached. But precisely there, in this apparently summery city, there is no sea. Nor does it seem that there will be one for the moment: the installation of a beach bathed by the Atlantic is not part of the works announced on social networks by its mayor, Gonzalo Jácome.

And this is not a minor problem. The sea is very important for tourists who come to spend a few days by the sea. If it is not there, it is as if it were missing. And in Galicia we cannot complain, there is plenty of coast, but it all has the same defect: marketing. How easy it is to boast of having been on holiday on the Costa Daurada, in Tarragona, for example! Or on the Costa del Azahar, in Castellón. Or on the Costa Cálida, in Murcia. Or on the Costa del Sol, in Málaga. But in Galicia, which coast do you come to spend the summer on? The only coast here with a name is A Costa da Morte. Da Morte! And the others do not have names. They are either estuaries, which are distinguished according to whether they are Altas or Baixas, or it is A Mariña, which has the adjective, but lacks the noun. 1,500 kilometres of coast and no one has named its different sections with a name and a surname, to resemble all the others.

Although, perhaps, the most representative thing about Galicia is its gastronomy. With the disadvantage that there is hardly any culinary variety. Almost everything is reduced to octopus, turbot, xoubas, spider crab, sea bass, sole, velvet crab, monkfish, lamprey, razor clams, bream, crayfish, John Dory, roosterfish, squid, eels, barnacles, hake, sea bream, shrimp, mussels, sea bream, salmon, scallops, conger eel, scallops, clams, etc. If it weren’t for the fact that Galician beef is one of the best in the world and Galician cuisine is full of excellent stews, casseroles, pottages and stews, one could say that the vast majority of what stands out in it comes from the sea. How boring.And yet, despite everything, tourists keep coming. Summer after summer. Tourism activity already represents more than 10% of Galicia’s GDP, with nearly 8 million visitors a year. More than one hundred and thirty thousand jobs depend on tourism today, which corresponds to 11% of the labour market. And the figure continues to rise. Some will not like it, others will be delighted and many will think that we need to sit down and fine-tune the foundations of coexistence. These are all legitimate positions that can be debated. But that will not be necessary if the tendency of a few to insult outsiders prevails.

I don’t know if what best represents Galicia as a tourist destination is the moderate temperatures, the remoteness, the disconnection, the immense coasts without surnames or the culinary monotony of seafood, steaks and fish. But I would not like it to be the disdain towards those who visit this land because, precisely, there are few things that have less to do with its people than inconsideration, haughtiness or conceit. Quite the contrary. And if not, perhaps one day we will continue to contemplate hypnotic landscapes here, at the end of the world, but totally alone. Sometimes it seems that is what some people want.

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .
• 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.