Thoughts from Viseu, Portugal: 8.10.18

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.

Matters Spanish

• I might never drive in Madrid again, thanks to these developments.

Matters Portuguese

• Seven days and we still haven't been assailed by a single beggar.
• And we're still marvelling at how cheap the drinks are. In cafés at least.
• Nice to know we could have watched Verdi's Aida on Saturday night here in Viseu. Beamed live from New York. Don't recall this ever having been on offer in Pontevedra.

Matters European.

• A serious showdown is brewing in the Eurozone -writes Don Quijones - as Italy’s anti-establishment coalition government takes on the EU establishment in a struggle that could have major ramifications for Europe’s monetary union. The cause of the discord is the Italian government’s plan to expand Italy’s budget for 2019, in contravention of previous budget agreements with Brussels. . . . Sooner or later, one side is going to have to blink, for the longer this uncertainty lasts, the greater the risk that Italy’s systemically vital banking system slips over the edge, taking Italy’s economy with it and potentially doing serious damage to the Eurozone economy. More here.

Spanish

• Word of the Day: Botellón

Spanish and Portuguese

• As with Gallego, Portuguese retains the F in many Latin words where Spanish now has an H. For example: Forno/Horno and Formiga/Hormiga. But I was intrigued to see thisat work in Almofada and Almohada, given that both these words for 'pillow' come from Arabic and not Latin.

Matters Galician

• The Guardian goes gaga on Galicia again.
• The writer says he and his family took a boat from the Bay of Vigo, which featured in a chapter in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. But what Verne meant by this term was actually the Bay of St Simón, beyond the Rande Straits. Where the Spanish bullion fleet was destroyed in 1702. None of the boats to the islands goes from there.
• Reader Sierra has sent me this article on an unusual camino pilgrim. The man-who-walks-like-a-cat.

© [David] Colin Davies: 8.10.18