Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- Many city bars here stay open until 5am, with associated noise levels. But most of them shouldn't. They get a licence for tablaos flamencos which permits this, then consummately fail to put on any shows. The government has finally decided to crack down on this, following complaints about the impact on the sleep capability of neighbours.
- Someone has done a survey of 10 European cities and ranked them for value for money. Madrid came out top and Barcelona 3rd best. Here's the Madrid paragraph:- Madrid, my champion, best-value destination European city for this spring, is also one of my favourites. Strangely overlooked by many British travellers in favour of the ever-popular Barcelona, for me, its attractions – museums, parks, palaces, nightlife – beat those of its Catalan rival on every score (except, obviously, beaches and, currently it seems, football). It is also less crowded with visitors and less defined by tourism. My survey finds its hotels are 20% cheaper, a haute cuisine meal costs 15% less, and its sights and museums are only slightly more expensive than Barcelona. It’s also a momentous year to be visiting Madrid – its greatest sight, the Prado Museum, is celebrating its 200th anniversary. BTW . . . Worst city - from a purely cost point of view - was Amsterdam.
- This coming summer, Galicia's 3 small, uncompetitive international airports will lose 9 international flights. Says it all, really. As if that weren't enough, they're having to think hard about reacting to the (eventual) competition from the AVE high-speed train connecting Galician cities with Madrid. Will they be amalgamated? Almost certainly not. Local politics, the determinant of so much in Spain.
- The frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor has rejected some of President Macron’s central proposals for reforming the European Union, widening the fault-lines between Berlin and Paris. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that a European “superstate” and an EU-wide minimum wage would be the “wrong way” as she stressed that national sovereignty must take priority over centralisation in Brussels. Ms K-K, the new leader of the CDU, gave a lukewarm reception to the French president’s ambitious plans for protecting the environment, including his vow to make Europe carbon-neutral by 2050 and to halve its use of pesticides by 2025. In a pointed snub to France, she also called for the European parliament’s seat in Strasbourg to be abolished, so that the assembly would be permanently based in Brussels. Her intervention underlines the growing ideological divide between Germany and France over how to ensure the bloc is capable of holding its own on the international stage.
- There is a strong possibility that the EU’s leaders will soon be faced with a choice: try to save Italy (and the whole of Europe) from yet another crisis or set an example by punishing the Italian government for the country’s independent economic and foreign policies. See here on this.
- An interesting point made in an article I read: The EU must stop the UK leaving at all costs, as the loss of the British economy would markedly reduce its negotiating strength vis-a-vis other trading blocs.
- If you have no sympathy at all for Mrs May’s predicament just pause a moment to consider some of the buffoons she has to contend with.
- So, not only in Spain . . . Abandoned or stalled buyer-funded housing projects are littered across Liverpool. The 'Times' visited eight collapsed or stalled schemes that have attracted substantial deposits from investors after glossy marketing campaigns overseas, promising high-end properties in a region in the midst of a government-backed regeneration. There was no sign of construction activity at any of the projects and in some instances they appeared to have been abandoned.
- Was this Putin's inspiration? Among Garibaldi's tiny army that the Royal Navy shipped to the coast of Naples in 1860, there were some English volunteers. The English Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, maintained they were merely tourists visiting Mount Etna.
- Odd word of the Day: Bowfarts. 'On one's back and unable to rise'.
- The Spanish mock the British custom of putting wall-to-wall carpets in bathrooms, pointing up the risks connected with the toilet bowl. Having yesterday again witnessed the inability of Spanish males to direct the flow of their urine, I'm not surprised at this view. I read that somewhere in the world, false bluebottles are painted onto the faces of the urinals so that they can be 'targeted'. I wonder if this isn't the solution for the owner of my regular bar. Must raise it with him today. Except there isn't a urinal, only a bowl. And it might not work with these.
No comments:
Post a Comment