Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 27.2.20

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

Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain  

Spanish/Galician Life 

• Tim Parfitt again: Adjusting to the Spanish pace of life was to become a recurrent problem for me: knowing how to pace myself and go slow – then knowing when it was the right time to party and go fast. That was written 20 years ago but remains valid.
• I met a camino 'pilgrim' here a couple of years ago who was so unimpressed by the toilets she'd experienced on her 5 days in Spain that she'd resolved to write a guide on them. I don't know if she did or not but I thought of her yesterday, when my walking companion and I lunched in a fine asador (grill place) and found there was no soap in either the Gents or Ladies toilet. But at least there was a dispenser in the latter, albeit empty. Some readers might recall my dissertation in 2018 on toilets I've visited on a camino back then, when I said there were 14-15 elements to a good facility. Soap and paper towels were certainly 2 of these. All a bit disconcerting, even though we ate well. Without ill consequences, as far as I know.
• Talking of the camino . . . Last year, I was severely reprimanded by a (self-appointed) guardian of the Camino Invierno for saying there were few bars or cafés open along the way. Well, I'm sticking my neck out again to say this was also true of our 3 day walk from Pontevedra to Santiago this week. As it was of several hotels and many/most of the pilgrim albergues(hostels) outside the towns.  'Because it's winter' we were told. To  be fair, in sharp contrast with the many hundreds of walkers on this stretch of the Camino Portugués last September, there were only a handful of us this week.
• Still on the camino . . . As I've said, numbers are now 20 times what they were 10 years ago and at least 120,000 are expected on the Camino Portugués next year, compared with 5,000 in 2009. I was told in Caldas de Reis that the summer numbers are now so high that the police have to control their entry into and exit from the town on the narrow bridges they have to cross. 
• During our 3-day walk, I noticed that the  route had been changed a few times, essentially taking walkers away from the truck-laden N550 highway where the route coincided with this. My colleague reasoned, correctly I think, that this was because of the numbers that would be at risk of an accident on the pavements between May and October.
• Talking of the N550 . . . This winds between La Coruña and Portugal and has featured here a lot because of the irritating 107 changes in the speed limit in the 57km between Pontevedra and Santiago. And because it generates, at certain notorious points, massive revenue for the State. I cite it again because I was gob-smacked yesterday to read that the camera in A Sionlla - north east of Santiago - has the second lowest fines rate in all of Spain. A mere 200 a year. They're clearly doing something very wrong. Perhaps being open and honest with the signs.

The Way of the World 

• Are those panic-bought masks effective against the coronavirus? In short, no. Well, not the simple ones. To be 96% protected, you need to buy an N95 variety and ensure you use it properly. And this requires fitting and training. So are not recommended for public use.

Spanish  

• Words of the Day:-

1. Caldas: Hot springs
2. Carroza: Float, as in a parade.
3. Obcecación: Obfuscation. Blindness.

• Phrase of the Day: Erre que erre. Said of a stubbornly insistent person. 'However mistaken I am/you are'. . . 

Finally . . .  

• Another old theme revisited . . . A Spanish friend has sent me this diagram - 'Because you're obsessed with  roundabouts'. It's the latest attempt to get Spanish drivers to negotiate these as they are in every other country of the world:-

Essentially, Spanish drivers used to be taught that everyone should funnel down and, regardless of the intended exit, take the yellow line and stay in the outside lane - even if doing a U-turn (dark blue line). I say 'used to' because they are clearly still being taught to do so by the several driving schools using my barrio to have their students practice the route they'll be tested on. What should really concern foreign drivers is that, even if you're in a correct lane but are hit on the right by someone who isn't, it's you who's legally liable for the accident. And, believe me, it happens a lot that, when I'm in the light blue lane, I get cut by someone who should have been in the red or dark blue lane but who's stayed in the yellow(outside) lane. But perhaps this only happens in Galicia. Anyway, wherever you are in Spain you need to be alert to the risk and use your rearview mirror diligently.