Thoughts from near Bordeaux, France: 13.10.18

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.

Travel Odds and Sods

• Los Arapiles: Here's the author, surveying the unaltered battlefield and Little Arapil from the vantage point of the French on Big Arapil. On the slope where the Portuguese were slaughtered:-

• The little mound from where Wellington observed the disastrous departure of the French left flank is top left.
• And here's a sweep of the battlefield from that very (windy) spot:-

• By the way . . . The search there for a souvenir button actually came up with one. Made of plastic . . .
• Within an hour of entering France via Irún last evening, we witnessed 2 shunts. One of them - involving 3 cars - had produced a tail-back of at least a mile, very possibly two, for drivers heading south. In an October muggy temperature of 27 degrees. We were a tad luckier, heading north.
• The hotel we're staying in near Bordeaux is one of the 'cheap' Campanille chain. It costs €53 but the sign on the reception desk says:- Your room for tonight is available for €117, reduced from €135. It reminded me of the fun we've had getting different prices for the same room on the same night from booking.com. Anyway, the wifi works fine. So long as you re-register every time you've taken a break from it.

Matters Spanish

• A slew of articles from The Local and Think Spain this morning:-

- Where/How to stay in this large and much-varied country.

- How to make the classic tortilla

- The positives and negatives of Spain's National Day. Here and here.

- What happened in Cataluña during it.

- Belated progress with the new administration's budget for 2019.

- Finally . . . Where all the Brits live in Spain. Or the minority of them who register on the padrón at least.

Note: I'm not sure you can get all the articles from The Local. Bizarrely, I can read them all when they arrive via my feed and are automatically converted into Mac's Reader view. But, if I then move to the original articles, some of them are behind a paywall. Or not available as I've reached my monthly limit of free articles. Please don't tell the folk at The Local about this wrinkle. But, then, why should they care? I'm advertising their journal . . .

Spanish

• Word of the Day – Ganas

Finally . . .

• Look who you have to embrace when you're a moralist of the Christian Evangelist sort. Jesus must be laughing his head off. Or at least shaking it divinely.

© [David] Colin Davies: 13.10.18