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

Property developments

• Foreign buyers flock to Spain’s ultra-prime hotspots.
• Cheap flights and mass tourism are making homes more expensive to buy and rent across Spain. Between 2019 and 2025, tourism growth added €3,800 to the price of the average Spanish home and €236 to monthly rents.
• Five locations dominate Spain’s market for homes priced above €3 million, underlining just how concentrated the country’s super-prime property sector has become. The undisputed leaders are the Costa del Sol’s so-called Golden Triangle of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís, joined by Calvià in Mallorca and the city of Madrid. Together, these markets account for thousands of homes on the market with asking prices starting at €3 million and stretching beyond €20 million.
• As you’d expect Mark Stücklin is sceptical about more tinkering by the Spanish government

Immigration: Spain’s migrant regularisation plan gets 1.2 million applicants and grants 600,000 work permits – where have these people come from and where are they living now?

Lenox Napier is understandably upset by the progress of the far-right Vox party.

Not good news . . . The high temperatures are bringing us more mosquitoes, wasps and Portugese-men-of war. But enough to put off Caminoers??

The World Cup

• Argentina have the spoils but Cabo Verde have most of the glory, after one of the best World Cup games ever.
• Messi is almost otherwordly at times

The United States of Trump America

Quote: Grift Force One – The Qatar plane gifted to Trump

So, many congratulation to the USA on getting rid of a king 250 years ago and on now being blessed with an emperor and a court of sycophants as absolute and as corrupt as any in Europe of the Middle Ages, never mind 1776. Maybe take a good hard luck at the Constitution which has emerged over 250 years and make it serve its original – much vaunted – purposes. Just a thought.

Mind you, revising the Constitution might not be enough, if you leave in place a Supreme Court as amenable to an emperor as the current one was set up to be.

Meanwhile . . .

• Trump’s beauty queen accuser: ‘Why I live in fear’. Podcast Video
• Trump’s a Crypto Billionaire While Americans Are Getting Poorer Podcast Video

The way of the World

AI’s limitations.

Spanish

• Exequias: Funeral rights, Obsequies.
• Escorado: Leftish
• Halucinante: Amazing

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh

There are 3 police forces driving cars around Pv city’s old quarter, Here’s 2 of them meeting up last evening. The 3rd was just round the corner and it soon became a threesome . . .

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 X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here. I no longer post on Facebook.

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.