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

Those new, old hand-luggage rules . . .

Thanks to The Guardian, there goes the peace and quiet of lovely Luarca in next-door Asturias.

In the same vein . . . Yet another article on our nearby ‘heavenly’ Cies Islands. Beach name-dropping at its best/worst. As for the 1702 battle (of ‘Rande)’, at least ‘these waters’ is more accurate than the usual ‘Bay of Vigo’. As for ‘fish farming in Vigo Bay’, I guess he means the mussel rafts. More ‘seafood’ than ‘fish’, to be pedantic. And as for razor clams growing on rocks . . . “Razor clams do not grow on rocks. They are are burrowing shellfish that live in sandy or muddy areas, not on rocky substrates”. Finally, you can get boats from 2 or 3 other ports, so no absolute need to go to Vigo to catch one.

The VdG this morning: Other fires also burning: At the end of the summer festivities, with their classic fireworks and no news of the feared forest fires, we also have other (metaphorical and real) fires that are still active: one of them is the conflict over street cleaning in A Coruña, where people still walk among burnt containers and where several trucks of the cleaning service were set on fire yesterday. Other fires threaten to spread in Galicia if they are not extinguished soon: street violence is one of them. Just ask the Ferrol resident who was beaten up in his own house. Here’s a foto of the truck fires up in La Coruña. This is a foto of the trucks that were set on fire . .

We need to have reader David’s view of the range of suspects.

Here in Galicia, September has come in with an ‘unseasonal’ chilly wind but the forecast for the month is good – warm and dry. Though there’s a 30-40% chance of rain for our last big fiesta of the year on Friday night and Saturday – The Feira Franca, I’ve mentioned.

The other notable aspect of early September is the night-into-day emptying of the terraces, now that the Spanish tourists have all gone home. Two days ago every table in my favourite place had a Reserved notice on it. Last night and today . . . not a single one.

The 2 things you can be assured of seeing every in morning in Pv city’s old quarter – and possibly in every village, town and city in Spain: 1. Van and trucks delivering drinks and foodstuffs, and 2. Individuals nipping in and out of bars and restaurants, taking orders for food and drinks. The former don’t do much one’s attempts to get a food foto. Better to wait until later in the day for that.

Germany

Take your pick . . . Depressing reading, I guess, for my German reader. Or any British Remainers:-

• The choice facing Germany’s far right: radicalism or power. Afd won its first regional election but still has no viable path to govern. The far-right party’s victory in a regional election places it on the horns of a dilemma: does it actually want to govern? Or is it content to remain the arch troublemaker of German politics, forever raging from the sidelines at the Berlin machine?
• How Gen Z voters are driving the rise of the AfD in Germany. Exit poll data shows not only a remarkable voting trend among under-25s but a transformation in the way general voters view the hard-right party.
• How a crack in the German economy is fuelling the rise of the far-Right. The roots of the AfD victory in Thuringia on Sunday are as much economic as they are political.
• And a view from a left-wing paper . . . There’s only one way to keep Germany’s far-right AfD at bay. Address the concerns it exploits.

The EU

The EU’s big two have a distinct air of malaise[or unwohlsein?(unwellbeing)]. Troubles in France and Germany combine political paralysis with a deepening sense of economic despondency.

No wonder that, despite UK problems, the pound has risen against the euro.

Even I – as someone who doesn’t think the EU will ever overcome its internal contradictions – would go this far: It’s almost over for Europe – and only Keir Starmer has failed to notice. . . . The blunt truth is this. Germany and France are increasingly poor countries determined to get even poorer. 

The UK

From that last article . . . The British economy is in a dire state, weighed down by a hopelessly unproductive public sector that requires endlessly rising taxes to sustain itself. Even so, it is in better shape than the EU. But see here for a right-wing view of the UK economy and its (parlous) future.

Those bloody-minded Brits . . . British holidaymakers drove a boom in tourists to Spain in August despite widespread protests against foreign visitors.

Finally . . .

There’s no escaping the complexity of travel.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts.

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.