Tuesday 28 August 2012

Tourism, weather and pavement etiquette!!

Despite there having been flights all summer from Heathrow to Vigo’s Peinador airport, they are losing flights in general and there are far fewer direct flights from foreign airports, according to the news reports. Maybe things will improve in the future, because even though the airports of Galicia might not be able to get their act together, someone has been getting on with some advertising. In London, posters have gone up in bus shelters pointing out that Vigo is not just the name of a London street but a place in Galicia, accompanied by a photo of the lovely Islas Cíes. And then, looking at the newspapers online I noticed that Sunday’s Observer had a feature on La Coruña. 

They need to point out that although the locals don’t think much of the summer we have had this year, in fact the sun probably shines enough to keep most Britons happy. We had lunch last Thursday with a young (English) friend of mine who currently lives in Madrid and had come north for a long weekend. After the broiling heat of Madrid, he was quite ecstatic about the cool breeze and declared himself very happy with this kind of summer. I’m not sure how he felt on Friday when the rain clouds moved in and it was so dark by nine in the evening that cars had their lights on. On Saturday it improved, however, and by Sunday I was back in the pool. 

 On Sunday evening we did one of our favourite walks, up to A Guía, where the church at the top serves as a lighthouse. A number of people were just sitting on benches enjoying the evening sunshine but I noticed a number who had come prepared with their books to read outside. I’ve seen this up at the Castro Park as well: a good way for city flat-dwellers to enjoy the open air. 

As we walked down from A Guía, I spotted this quite impressive bit of protest-graffiti. If you follow the coastal path round A Guía you go past a small but quite rapidly-developing marina. We’ve often commented on the amount of money that is moored there. Some people apparently don’t like it and want to keep the beaches of A Guía, small and unspoilt up to now, as places for local people, instead of turning them into pleasure boat parks. It’s a difficult one: preserve things as they are or bring some revenue into the area? 

We have quite often discussed pavement etiquette here in Spain. Our friend Colin will no doubt echo our longstanding complaints. Here we go. There is little awareness of other people on the pavement. Few Spaniards notice someone in their path until they almost bump into them. If you step back at a narrow crossing place, it is unusual to receive thanks. It’s even worse if they are using their mobile phone; other pavement users become invisible. And then there’s the stopping to talk in the middle of the pavement, blocking everyone’s way. We saw a young woman have to push her baby-buggy into the road to get past a group of talkers the other day. 

Well, all is not lost. Awareness seems to be growing and steps may be about to be taken. In Vilagarcía de Arousa the local council is going to debate next week a modification to the “Ordenanza de Circulación y Seguridad Viaria”, the law governing movement and road safety. They want it to include “la prohibición a los peatones de detenerse en grupos en las aceras cuando este obligue a otros usuarios a circular por la calzada”, forbidding pedestrians to stop in groups on the pavements if this makes other people have to walk in the road!! 

Progress ... of sorts!! At least they are thinking about it in one place not far from here.

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