Dawn

Dawn

Monday, November 27, 2017

Thoughts from Galicia: 27.11.17

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain. 

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web page here.

Spain
Serious stuff today . . . .
  • El País tells us – in English – that attitudes here to sexual attacks are changing. Good to hear.
  • The same newspaper carries an intriguing dialogue – also in English - on what it means to be Spanish. There's apparently a Spanish inferiority complex. Which might explain the knee-jerk defensiveness one occasionally sees.
  • Spain is doing its post-Brexit contingency planning. Which rather surprises me, as I thought planning was illegal here. Spontaneity being everything . . . 
  • But the really serious problem on the horizon is a rise in the price of jamón, because rich Chinese now have it as their latest food fad.
The Spanish Language
When you see Empuje on a Spanish door, it means Push. When you see Empurre on a Portuguese door it means the same thing and - to my ear – it's pronounced in much the same way - very differently from the Spanish double R. Contrast Empuxe in Gallego, where the X is Sh. That's what I thought but Google says it's Empurrar in both Portuguese and Gallego. Stop Press: My (nationalist) Gallego friend now tells me both are correct . . .

Galicia
It cost me around €20 in tolls to get from Coimbra in Portugal to Pontevedra yesterday, mostly in Portugal it has to be said. Fittingly, the headline in our local papers was that the company which manages the autopista in Galicia – Audasa – is the most unpopular in Spain and also the most profitable per employee. There might be a connection. After the announced price increases on January 1, it will also be among the most expensive. It seems only right that, if we have the costliest petrol in the country, we should also have the highest tolls. Why not kick the - also heavily fined - motorists when they are down?

Pontevedra
The new radar traps will be in place this week. Yesterday I practised keeping to 30kph(19mph) for 2km along the river, where the limit used to be 40kph. Quite a challenge. And would be even if our car-hating mayor hadn't put speed bumps every few hundred metres as well. Anyone visiting Pontevedra should think thrice about coming by car. The trains are nice.

Finally
Booking.com bombarded me last week - in both English and Spanish  - with an offer of cash repayments if a friend booked a hotel using a reference unique to me. So, we did this, only to be told today that the booking didn't qualify, for reasons I can't begin to understand. Annoying. Really annoying. Almost as annoying as the constant messages about lower prices in hotels in places I've already left. I used to like the company.

Today's Cartoon

Possibly a repeat . . . 


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