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Sunday, September 02, 2018

Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 2.9.18

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. Garish but informative.

Matters Spanish/EUropean
  • The official Spanish attitude to prostitution can be very confusing, whether we have a right or a left-wing administration. Basically, it's neither legal nor illegal, in contrast to people-trafficking for the industry. Here's an article on a dilemma of this week.
  • And here's Private Eye's take on the British woman who booked a holiday in a Benidorm hotel full of Brits but was tranferred to a hotel full of the locals. The Spanish media loved citing this (unrepresentative) tale of a crazy Englishwoman:-


Matters Galician and Pontevedran
  • Well, the city's Medieval Fair yesterday was gargantuan. Bigger than ever. They wanted to make it 'legendary' and might well have succeed. Some of the costumes were truly stunning. I had roast ox for lunch and far too many pork ribs for dinner. But the godello wine helped them go down. I could have taken numerous fotos but didn't. Here's just a few:-
A street on the very edge of the old quarter, down by the river. Ready for lunch:-


The market:-


Big bread and big cheese:-


A sign of the times, an English translation:-

  • I wrote that September was the best month for me. Yesterday, the Times published this list of 'special places' to go to during the month. Poor old Barcelona is on it, but not – I'm very pleased to say – anywhere in Galicia. Or, indeed, anywhere else in Spain:-
1. The Loire Valley – for autumn colour
2. Istanbul – for culture and wildlife
3. Cornwall – for the St Ives Festival
4. Scotland – for Open Doors
5. The Greek Islands – for an escape
6. Barcelona – for a party
7. Paris – for the Ryder Cup
8. Tuscany – for food
9. Singapore – for the Grand Prix
10. Munich – for Oktoberfest
11. South Africa – for the whales
12. Rome – for the Colosseum by moonlight
  • Talking of tourism . . . Reader María mentions the ubiquitous tour guides with groups in Santiago these days and expressed a degree of disgust that there's a sushi bar in the city's fish, seafood, veg and meat market. Quite right.
  • News of a major disappointment for Franco's birthplace of Ferrol, it seems.
Finally . . .
  • I noticed a camino pilgrim in the midst of the fiesta hordes with a map in his hand and looking very hot and bothered. Possibly because, after a long tramp in the hot sun, he'd arrived at 2pm and in the midst of fiesta-revellers thronging the narrow streets of the old quarter. As I do, I tried to help him but he was rather offhand and ungrateful. Surly, even. The sort of Frenchman who gives that people a bad name. I noted he was travelling alone and I can't say this surprised me.
© [David] Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 2.9.18

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