Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 26.7.20

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

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

- Christopher house:’ A Pilgrim in Spain’*

Living La Vida Normal in the Netherlands . . .

• An enjoyable - if wettish - day sightseeing in Rotterdam yesterday. Fotos below.
• And another super Indonesian dinner in Nusa in Gouda. 

Life Back Home    

• The British government continues to be consistent in its inconsistency. Having upset the Portuguese by putting their country on the Red list, it's now pissed off the Spanish with the announcement that since midnight last night, returning Brits face 2 weeks in quarantine. Theoretically at least. Not what the Spanish tourism industry needed.  
• María's chronicle Day 41 - individualismo on 2 wheels. 
• A nice bit of Spanish enterprise. But don't expect early availability.   

The UK

• Hard to disagree with this . . . In general the government is handling the coronavirus crisis with all the dexterity of a blind amputee juggling machetes. Its utter ineptitude during this crisis has been a marvel to behold: its flip-flopping, its confusion, its beyond-bizarre injunctions as to where one might wear a mask and where one might not, the pubs open and the schools closed — oh, I could go on and on.  . . .  And yet, hopeless though the government has been,  I do not believe — as the left seems to — that it is deliberately concealing the true number who have died, that underfunding of the NHS has led to thousands more dying, and so on: that it is inherently wicked, rather than just useless.

The EU

• Following up on yesterday’s citation . . . As an outcome of the recent 'summit’: For the first time the European Commission will be able to borrow money on financial markets for member states, some of which will not be paid back until 2058. The commission will also be given its own new sources of tax revenue, including a levy on plastic waste or a digital tax. The Dutch PM  and his allies have made clear they saw the package as a one-off response to an unprecedented emergency. Others, pushing for broader mutualisation of debt, will seize on it as a precedent — setting the scene for future battles in Brussels.  

The USA

• Trump on Mary's book

Finally . . .  

• Those Rotterdam fotos:-

1. An interesting new sight

2. Large rabbits

3. The wake of a - rather fast - water taxi

4. The amazing replica of a 15th century sailing ship, whose owner is half Dutch and half Scottish. Called Jimmy, naturally. Who treated us to rum and an extra hour of info. Free!

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.