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

The appalling floods and their aftermath.

How floods devastated Spain — in maps, video and pictures. From a forecast of rain in Valencia to hundreds dead, this is how the country’s worst natural disaster in decades unfolded.

The right-of-centre journal, The Corner, comments on death and anger in Valencia here.

The deadly floods highlight the divide between the people and power in Spain.

Why Spain’s flood survivors have turned on their royal family. Showing sympathy with people battling adversity is all about when and how you do it – as King Felipe and Queen Letizia have just found out.

How Spain’s PM used the king as a human shield. The monarch remained at the scene as the politician fled to his car.

Something on one of the hardest hits townships, Chiva – West of Valencia.

Spain’s political leaders turn on each other over the flood catastrophe. The blame game begins over the failure to alert residents as the country suffered its deadliest disaster in decades.

The USA

Thar bizarre electoral college system – The Guardian’s view of it.

This can’t be anything but bad news . . .A federal error could cost Trump the election: Mistakes in the census have given Democratic states too many Electoral College votes.

Says this columnist, if Kamala Harris wins thanks to women, they will surely come to bitterly regret this.

The Way of the World

The Anglo world, anyway . . . The real lesson of the US election is that populism isn’t going anywhere. Voters are fed up with the technocratic establishment. . . . The old politics of Left and Right has morphed into a rivalry between technocrats and populists. And that is the way things are going to stay.

Quote of the Day

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it: ― John Steinbeck again, in Sweet Thursday.

English

Lifestyle creep: When occasional small upgrades you allow yourself have become no longer just an occasional treat but are now everyday normal. eg: You never used to pay for extra legroom but then you do, and you add on speedy boarding.

Spanish

Bacón: Bacon.

Did you know?

The battle of Guadalete was a turning point in Spanish history.

Finally . . . Travel News

After a morning in beautiful Renaissance Úbeda, we motored almost 3 hours to Toledo, again surrounded by kilometres of olive trees on all sides. And the occasional castle on a promontory.

As on every day except our first day in Cuenca just a week ago, it was sunny and, at 23 degrees, pretty hot. It was hard to imagine that, on the interim, there’d been a DANA storm of immense destructive power not so very far away.

We stopped on the way for a light lunch. I ordered a bacon sandwich. When I pronounced the word in accordance with Spanish rules, the waiter looked blank, and only understood what I wanted when I tried it with English pronunciation. Odd. Anyway, having suggested we eat light midday, ahead of a good dinner in Toledo tonight, my old friend plumped for bacon, egg and chips. Which didn’t particularly strike me as a light meal.

A warning . . . Don’t order chipirones or zamburiñas if the menu says they’re conservas. I knew this meant they’d been in a tin but I didn’t realise they’d bear no relation at all to the real thing. You live and learn.

We’d made reservations in a Toledo hotel which claimed it had parking. As I feared, this was a lie, as what they have is a discount arrangement with a car park, 600 metres walk away. As I had to actually take 15 minutes to drive 4 kilometres right around the city and to again brave some very narrow streets to get to this, I was not best pleased with things. Especially, as I made a mistake just before the garage and had to reverse 100m down a narrow, bendy street with cars on either side of me. But, hey, that’s Toledo for you. And at least I didn’t hit anything. Or anybody. And can now relax until I have to drive out of the city to Madrid on Friday morning. And I don’t have to worry about my alcohol levels getting back to our hotel.

Oh yes, the cost of the garage is a very significant percentage of the room rate. Far higher than in any hotel to date. As I say, that’s Toledo for you. Tourists are a nuisance and they must be fleeced, if at all possible. Even Trump could make a massive profit from a car park here. Better odds than with his casinos . . .