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.

This was the post that I cited earlier as having been lost by WorpPress. Fortunately, I realised I had the text of it in Word and could publish it here . . .

Note 1: This will be another bare bones as the first day of our trip begins with a tyre problem that might take me a couple of hours to solve, meaning we won’t get to our evening destination and will have to revise our plan . .

Note 2: It was another odd day yesterday, with readership 3 times more than usual, As before, the USA again took the lead in this. I have no idea why it happens but it compensates for the days when readership is below average.

Cosas de España/Galiza

I left Galicia in heavy rain yesterday morning and this only lightened when I got close to Madrid. I stopped after 2 hours for a coffee in Padornelo, where 2 bedraggled Caminoers were already taking sustenance. They’d left their rucksacks in the porch, leaning against 2 huge marrows. I found it hard to believe they were carrying them. But you have to be daft to do the Camino in the mountains of Galicia this time of year, so who knows?

A planned, I left my car in Las Rozas and then took a Cercanías train and a metro to Malasaña. But I had difficulty getting my Cercanías ticket from a machine and then using it both to get into and out of the network. God knows how anyone who doesn’t read and speak Spanish could have managed this.

María has explained why driver entering a highway from a slip road don’t always obey the Yield sign and why drivers on the highway move leftwards to accommodate a car entering it. In brief, slip roads are ‘acceleration lanes’ in Spain . . . When entering the acceleration lane, you should try to reach the cruising speed of traffic on the highway. If you’re in the right lane on the highway, you should change to the left to allow others to incorporate easily. Yes, there’s a yield symbol, but that’s in case both lanes are occupied. Then, obviously, the cars already on the highway have the right of way. I guess this would be impractical/unsafe on highways busier than Spain’s and wonder if this approach is taken in other countries. Or whether Spain is Different, as the Ministry of Tourism used to say.

The Transport Ministry has already pushed backwards the opening of a high-speed train line between Galicia and Portugal. Not exactly until the 12th of Never but certainly at the very least a decade from now. Possibly two. And the spur down from the Ourense-SdC line to Pv city and Vigo has disappeared from the plans of the Ministry. Again.

The mad, bad world of MAGA

As I’m sure you all know, Trump continues to astound and disgust everyone outside the MAGA world. And there really can’t be many in the Republican Party who are unaware of the damage he has done and continues to do to the party’s image, For which, if they ever relinquish power, they could well pay a heavy price. Imagine the desperation within the party now not to lose future elections. And the strategies being considered to avoid this. After all, some of them face gaol sentences

Meanwhile, here’s the always excellent Laurence O’Donnell on the decline and fall of Trump.

Russia v Ukraine

The poison pill in the proposed peace deal.

Spanish

• Sobrecargo: Surcharge. Purser/flight attendant.
• Ganzúa: Lock pick.
• Estar en condiciones: To be fit

Did you know?/You Have to Laugh

Charles Hatfield was a sewing‑machine salesman in San Diego who claimed he’d made the rain come after a drought.

Finally . . .

Welcome to new subscriber Kana Smith, whose web page is here.

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 and on X.

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.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.