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/Galiza

The calima and ‘blood rain’ . . . It seems we’ll escape it up here on the Galician coast.

HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for these 2 items:-

• As many as 33% of cars which should have an annual inspection fail to do so. This inspection aims to ensure road safety by detecting potential problems and determining whether a vehicle is roadworthy. But we have an increasingly old and poorly-maintained vehicle fleet and drivers are not taking their cars to the inspection for fear of failing. Given that the police have details of your insurance on their PDAs, I would have thought this problem could be easily tackled and a lot more fines dished out. Rather more justifiable ones than many others.
• 10 Geography Facts About Spain That Sound Fake (But are 100% Real). Some very odd pronunciation of Spanish names. Very possibly AI.

Not surprised to see 2 Galician cities in the list of the 10 cheapest Spanish places to rent in Spain. Personally, I wouldn’t want to live in either of them. To say that Ourense has a milder climate than other Galician cities is a nonsense, given how hot and humid it is in summer and how cold it is in winter. In fact, it’s the only Spanish city which can be both the hottest and the coldest in the entire country.

The USA

See my earlier post.

The Way of the World

Ladies . . . You need to know: Cleavage is out and veavage is in . . . I imagine men won’t be disappointed at this.

Spanish

• Gallo: Cockerel: Pata: Leg (animal): Patas de Gallo: Crows’ feet
• Verguenza ajena: Vicarious embarrassment/embarrassment for others
• Abuelastro: Step-grandfather
• Carracho = garrapata: Slot machine

Did you know?

I’ve cited the several empires that existed in the eastern Med in the Late Bronze age – roughly 1550-1200 BCE – and stressed that these were well-connected by trade in all directions. Evidence for this trade comes from the wreck of a ship which sank around 1350 BCE and which contained this amazing range of items, from at least 7 different countries:-

• 10 tons of Cypriot copper
• A ton of tin, probably from the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan
• A ton of terebinth resin
• Two dozen ebony logs from Nubia
• Almost 200 ingots of raw glass from Mesopotamia, most colored dark blue, but others of light blue, purple, and even a shade of honey/amber
• About 140 Canaanite storage containing the terebinth resin, remains of grapes, pomegranates, and figs, as well as spices like coriander and sumac
• Brand-new pottery from Cyprus and Canaan
• Oil lamps, bowls, jugs, and jars
• Gold scarabs from Egypt and cylinder seals from elsewhere in the Near East
• Swords and daggers from Italy and Greece
• A stone scepter-mace from the Balkans.
• Gold jewelry, including pendants, and a gold chalice
• Duck-shaped ivory cosmetic containers
• Copper, bronze, and tin bowls and other vessels
• Twenty-four stone anchors
• Fourteen pieces of hippopotamus ivory
• One elephant tusk
• A 15cm tall statue of a Canaanite deity made of bronze overlaid with gold in places
• Lapis lazuli items from Afghanistan,

Clearly this ship didn’t belong to a world of isolated civilizations, kingdoms, and fiefdoms, but rather to an interconnected world of trade, migration, diplomacy, and, alas, war. This really was the first truly global age. Before they all collapsed around 1170 BCE, with the sea-going Phoenicians surviving better then the rest..

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

Uncomfortable Finns

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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.

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