Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight.

And, lo, the hunter of the east 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

(Over)Tourism: I thought things were bad in nearby Vigo but then I read this: In the past week, 23 cruise ships carrying nearly 60,000 passengers docked in Palma, the capital of the Balearics. Of these, 4 were mega-ships with capacity for more than 5,000 passengers. This is 21% more than during the same period last year. On April 29 and May 2, 5 cruise ships were docked at the same time, which has sparked concern among local authorities and residents.

More here on anti-tourist measures.

Growing difficulty in renting out holiday flats.

Maximum disruption for minimum gain.

Cousas de Galicia

There are 2 classes of people who are very unpopular with Galicians, it seems

• RENFE – for not allowing advance bookings beyond the end of May, in contrast with every other place in Spain,
• Catalans – judging from the happiness expressed in the Pilates class this morning at Barcelona losing to Inter Milan last night.

The EU

Will the housing-shortage problem be solved by Brussels, rather than by national and regional governments​? I suspect not.

Germany

The week when Adolf Hitler realised the German people had let him down, causing him to top himself.

Is Friedrich Merz still the man to lead Germany? The new conservative chancellor may have been fatally weakened after scraping through in a second Bundestag confirmation vote.

The Latest Mad Pronouncements of the Jester

• A repeat from yesterday but with the link . . . I don’t take the decision re returning Kilmar Garcia from El Salvador. I have brilliant lawyers who do that. [Trump has twice admitted he has the power to bring back Kilmar Garcia from El Salvador but doesn’t want to. See from 4m30s here.]
• I’m an artistic person. [As was Hitler, of course].

Trumpworld/LA LA Land

Trump’s toadies are peddling a dangerous new lie.

The maddest woman in the USA, which is saying a lot! And a touch of sarcasm in her regard . . .

Astonishingly . . . There are polar views about who humiliated whom in the Oval Office yesterday:-

• Carney humiliated Trump. An “off-his-game” Trump was humiliated by Carney. I guess the MAGA base – nor Fox News – will see things that way.​
• A social media burst of Trumpian constitutional dementia. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell at his best, perhaps.
• Trump humiliated Carney.

Another view . . .Carney shows the world how to deal with Trump: ‘grey rocking’.

The truth – as someone has said – is that no one is better at embarrassing Trump than Trump himself. Though he will never realise this, of course.

One thing we can probably be sure of is that China will do its utmost to humiliate Trump

• BTW : The Secretary of Commerce, tries desperately to avoid losing his job by admitting that American consumers pay the tariffs
• BTW 2: Republican strategist Karl Rove likened Trump to Scrooge. Trump, of course, responded with his standard insult. Here and here.

Spanish

• Blandir: To brandish, wiled, swing.
• Pichón: Squib, chick.
• Ajenjo: Wormwood, absinthe.
• Superchería: Trickery, fraud, hoax.
• Postizo: False, fake, hairpiece

English

You’ll all know that the Americans call football soccer, reserving the word football for a game in which the ball is hardly ever touched by a foot. But did you know that ‘soccer’ comes from the word associated in the phrase associated football, which was used to distinguish it from rugby football?

Finally . . .

Over the decades, I’ve got used to failed forecasts of football/’soccer’ taking more than a toehold in the USA. But, these days, one hears it mentioned regularly. Which is not good news really. The day will come when the USA can field a world-beating team, and none of us wants that.

Talking of football, I clearly missed one of the great matches last night, when Inter Milan beat Barcelona and went into the Champions League Final. And this was after being 2 goals ahead and then 3-2 behind– before equalising in the last minute and scoring the winning goal in extra time. Final score over 2 rounds – 7-6, an amazing result at this level of football.

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 . . .

I can also be read on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/colin.davies.752861 or on Substack at https://doncolin.substack.com/

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. But see here on this. 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.

Getting a mortgage in Spain: Some advice on this challenge.