The Road from Santiago

  It is a day of wide open spaces. Well, it is a day of a road hemmed in by an openish road so we will go for a wander through Spain today as we consider the view. Franco was against things generally, and love was one of those he particularly was not fond of. The law banning gay relations that the Dictator brought in was reversed in 1979 and a 1995 law specified an equal age of consent for all people. Equal Marriage was recognised in 1994 but it was up to the autonomous communities to set up Registries. Catalonia led the way in 1998, followed by most others by 2003. Galicia waited till 2008, La Rioja 2010 and Murcia 2018. The ban of Equal Adoption was lifted in 2005, however Navarre [2000] and the Basque Country [2003] had got there first. Laws banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation apply across Spain, however all but Madrid, Castilla Y Leon and Asturias have not made their own laws. Spain’s autonomous communities make their own laws on Gender...

  Another day on the road. It bypasses Peralveche. Maybe we should have visited, but we didn’t. We are still in Castilla-La Mancha. Let us do some comparisons. Castilla-La Mancha has a population of 2,104,433 people. That makes it 9th most populace province in Spain.  If it was a country   This makes it about the same size as Lesotho and Slovenia. The total area is 79,463km2 - the third in Spain.  That makes it a smidgeon larger than Czechia and a smidgeon smaller than Scotland. The GDP is 55.560 billion euros. This makes it about the same as Cameroon or Jordan. The GDP per capita is 26,134 euros. This is about the same as Malta, a little less than Italy and a little more than Slovenia.  Tomorrow, as they say, is another day and a day in Castilla-La Mancha is roughly equal to those in other places.  Actually, come to think about it, it is on the same meridian line as Brittany, Cornwall, West Wales, east Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana.

  Into the countryside and a day of thinking about things and all that. We will get to 966m above sea level at our highest.  This is equal to the peak of Lata Mountain, the highest point of American Samoa. Heading round Europe The Faroe Islands high point is 880m, the Netherlands make it 870, Belgium 694m, Denmark 171m, and Vatican City 75m. If it helps, and why should it, Andorra’s lowest point is 840m. We are heading for Mantiel.  Currently 28 people live here. Once it was different.  Yes, we are going to the GSD. MANTIEL: village with town hall in the province of Guadalajara situated on the slope of a hill that protects it from the south winds, and is freely exposed to the others: its climate is cold and the most common illnesses are chest ailments; it has 100 houses , the town hall with a granary for the storehouse, whose fund consists of 55 fanegas of wheat; a primary school attended by 25 students of both sexes, under the charge of a teacher who is also the ...

  To be honest it is a day to enjoy upland scrub and the ingenuity of chaps who can engineer their way through it. On the other had, if you wanted perky villages and slender castles then you will be gravely disappointed. I began this as a piece of whimsy, an excuse to discover and the hope that social media may be constructively put to providing harmless diversion. About four years ago we were in Normandy and I was looking to buy Norman Cider to celebrate.   Without reviews let us do a bit of self reflection. At the time of writing 76 people belong to this Facebook Group.  Most of whom are real people. To the Blog, Same content but with amusing titles.  Apparently 33,600 views have been made but not a single comment. If nothing else the bots are happy although if AI is learning from all this it is more A than I. One can never be sure what attracts people but the most viewed entry was from 30th December 2023. It was entitled ‘In which a Roman Bridge and a funeral...