Down on the south coast, a British man is being tried for murder of a young Spanish girl. The prosecution is seeking 34 years in jail but her family is demanding 44. I assume, if he's found guilty, it’ll be up to the judge to decide. Meanwhile, the man’s unhappy mother is appearing on Spanish TV expressing sorrow for the death of the girl and total conviction in the innocence of her son. This, plus discussion on TV of his life and criminal history, leaves me with the conclusion there’s no concept of sub judice in Spain. Perhaps because there’s no jury involved.

Spain has a monarchy, of course. And, just as in Britain, no world or domestic event can outrank certain developments in the life of the royals. Today the headline item on the morning TV news was a 3am pregnancy-check visit by the lovely Princess Letitia to a Madrid clinic. I had hoped it wouldn’t be the lead topic on the 9am serious discussion programmes but was, naturally, disappointed.

Galicia has a number of claims to fame. My favourites are that Ireland was colonised from this part of Spain and that Christopher Columbus was born right here in Pontevedra. Some have rejected these as myths but who’s to know? Anyway, I pass a statue of the great navigator en route to my morning coffee and you can see this below. When I show it to my visitors, I tell them it’s clear evidence that Columbus was the first person to sail single-handedly across the Atlantic. Some of them have the decency to smile.


















For new readers – If you’ve arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, you might find my non-commercial guides interesting – at colindavies.net