Thoughts from Galicia: 5.6.17

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

- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain.

Here's a bit of advice for those arriving in Oporto airport:- Assume you'll need a lot of time to get your Metro ticket. I passed through these queues this morning, reflecting the complex instructions that even the Portuguese find difficult.

And here's some advice for those leaving the carpark at Oporto airport but who want to go onto local roads and not onto the confusing tangle of autovias which surround the airport these days:-

1. Ignore the huge signs which suggest that the only way out is onto one of the A roads north and south. Or even to nearby Matasinhos.
2. Don't bother looking for the tiny sign that takes you to the local roads and then Matasinhos.
3. Just follow the Arrival and Departure signs and then carry on straight to Matasinhos when you get to the junction. Don't turn left into the airport.
4. Be aware that someone might come the wrong way down the narrow, one-way exit road you are on.
5. Be aware that your GPS might tell you to turn right to Matasinhos when you can't.
6. Be aware that your GPS might well right now take you to a blocked road where there are no signs as to where the diverted route might be. Hopefully your GPS will give you the advice you then need.

More seriously.  . . .  The size and busy-ness of Oporto's airport, as I've said before, points up the stupidity 'of localist' Galician politicians who have stymied similar development in Galicia through their petty disputes. With time on my hands, I tried to find the car hire company I used in the late 1990s, when Oporto's airport was tiny and could genuinely be described as Third World. The hub development around the airport has been as spectacular as that of the latter itself and I gave up on my quest almost immediately. Nothing like it has happened around any of Galicia's 3 'toy' airports. More to the point, it doesn't look like it will ever happen. But they can always blame Madrid or the airlines, I guess.

Back to pix of Pontevedra:-

Here's Plaza de Ourense, where the (overlapping) beggars, alcoholics and drug addicts noisily gather. The authorities seem to be as unwiling to do anything about these as they are about the cylists-on-the-pavement/sidewalk nuisance. But they're very good at fining motorists, of course.

This is the furniture of the Savoy cafe in the main square, now a Restobar. A friend told me that they don't welcome the type of client who sits all day with a single cup of coffee and that the chairs are deliberately uncomfortable so as to discourage this. I didn't really believe this but here's the evidence . . .

In the main square itself, tourism tables were replace by trees. No idea why:-

Finally . . .  A video that might amuse:- Everything You Need to Know about Western Philosophy in Under 10 Minutes. Enjoy.

P. S. Portugal is generally much cheaper than Spain. But not down by the river in Oporto, where I am right now.