Free-D

El Corte Inglés is coming to Salamanca. That is, if it can resolve certain legal difficulties it has come up against after starting construction.

“What’s so English about it?” you may wonder, “Does it employ gloomy Essex teenagers to restock its shelves? Does it serve an English breakfast: one leathery rasher of bacon and cold beans for the price of a small family car?” Probably not.

Having already flogged the dead horse which is the concept of service in England, I should say that the difference in outlook between our countries is best represented on another plane altogether. Read the rest of this entry »

With the change of season comes a new visual treat for the visitor to Salamanca.  In the mist the cathedral takes on an aspect at once both soft and sombre. Of course, you have to get up early - but it’s  worth it.  Seeing the cathedral in this way brings a certain freshness to the hackneyed phrase “the mists of time”. Such was my romantic outlook shortly before Mark, the previous writer of this column, gave me a brief and startling account of the citys’ bloody past. Read the rest of this entry »

Before we saw the sun this week, a gloom seemed to hang over the region, what with heavy rainfall bringing not only pollution problems but washing away a whole crop of sunflower seeds as well (valued at over 180,000 euros). Read the rest of this entry »

What characterises a pilgrimage? Perhaps it’s the difficulty of the journey itself which largely gives it value: after all Christ didn’t say “Take up your cut price Ryan air ticket and follow me.” And as if the idea of cheap travel between England and Salamanca weren’t frightening enough, it seems Alba de Tormes could become host to thousands of “pilgrims” visiting the crypt of Saint Teresa. Implicit in this would be discussions concerning the completion of Albas´ basilica, which is worrying.
Perhaps you’re surprised by this reaction: the basilica is at first sight a sort of truncated shell of a building, to put it bluntly – not a very attractive sight.
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