Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 16.7.19

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable. 

                  Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

Spain

• Looming strikes you might need to know about.
• The Local on the continuing attempts to establish a functioning government in Spain
• The Local with advice on eating here.
• Something that sometimes happens in our main square in Pontevedra, when steps are unnoticed by drivers who don't know the city.
• A very disturbing development in Spain.
• The O Burgo bridge in Pontevedra . . . As I've said, it's being modernised. Just to upset at least Perry, here's what the new railings will look like:-

I wonder if they'll be painted but suspect not - in keeping the fashion for rusty metal appurtenances to several restored buildings in the old quarter. Especially, of course, the one which is now the HQ of the Architects' Association. Anyway, this is what the bridge railings used to look like:-

Incidentally, I doubt that the lamp standard you can see - the only one not yet removed - will be retained.

• Those e-bikes . . . Here's a couple which arrived in a narrow street last night, apparently delivering something - at speed - to one of my watering holes. After which they sped off. I don't know whether they're legal or not here in Pontevedra:-

• I've said more than once that Pontvedra's old quarter is a gem. But not all buildings are as fine as this one:-

Because the O Burgo bridge is closed, I've had to enter the old quarter via a different street and pass these not-so-handsome buildings:-

Way back, the medieval walls of the city ran where you can see some people. So, the land these flats are on would have been outside the city, between said walls and the river. But now they're officially in the old quarter.
Just to the right of this foto is the back of a pazo, or mansion. Originally it must have had a view over the walls and across the river. Now it looks out on the market:-

It looks rather better from the front:-

Incidentally, it's now the HQ of the Rias Baixas Albariño producers' trade association. Or 'cartel'.

• Pontevedra's (many) beggars are constantly in flux, with some old ones suddenly disappearing and some new ones arriving from god-knows-where. Last night, I was assailed by this lady, who accosted me singing, addressed me in terms of endearment and then offered me a packet of tissues. TBH, I'm not sure she classifies as a beggar or an (odd) itinerant trader:-

The USA

• Fart's definition of free speech: Only things which praise me. You've got to admire his consistency.

Spanish 

• Word of the Day: Trasto

Finally . . .

• I'm reading about the Borgias at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th. It seems that the Borgia Pope and his 6-8 kids were screwing everyone in sight, including each other. The price they all paid - if they weren't murdered earlier - was the syphilis which fellow Spaniards had brought back from the New World in 1493. Whether this was the judgement of God or the Devil I leave to others.
• This sentence put me in mind of someone . . . Throughout his life, Pope Alexander VI had shown scant evidence of piety, leading more than a few to suspect that he had little more than a purely ceremonial belief in the deity. Nothing new under the sun, as they say.