Galicia Spain

Lithuania

2009-11-20T18:50:00.002Z

Here is a link to a site about Lithuania - http://whatsuplithuania.blogspot.com/. I think that I went to college (many years ago) with someone whose father came from there. Use this link to find out more about it.

Rosalia de Castro

2009-11-19T12:27:00.001Z

Rosalia de Castro was a famous Spanish poet from Galicia who had an extraordinary life and whose work remains popular to this day. There is a museum in the town of Padron that is dedicated to her and which uses the house in which she lived for the displays etc.

If you want to know more about her you can check out this page www.galiciaguide.com/Padron-galicia-castro.html, at the bottom of which you will find a link that goes to a separate site about her. That site has translations of her poetry and information about her life and works.

The weather in Galicia has been mixed of late, but with many dull and cloudy days, so the last month has not been a time to vacation there.

Flights to Galicia

2009-11-11T15:37:00.000Z

I have posted very little on this blog over the last 2 to 3 months, mainly because time has not permitted. But in addition to that I have had little in the way of useful or interesting information to post.

At present I am waiting to see how things pan out with the new Ryanair hub at Leeds Bradford airport.

At present there is no sign of a flight schedule to anywhere in Galicia, but with the termination of the Liverpool flight last October, and the rapid demise of the east midlands route a year earlier, it would seem a possibility that Ryanair might be looking at Leeds Bradford to either Santiago de Compostela or la Coruna airport at some time in the future.

In any event there is no news as yet, however more new flights are promised. My guess would be that any route taking in Galicia from this airport would be announced this side of 2010 to give ticket sales a chance. That said, it looks unlikely for the foreseeable future.

If any "flight" news appears I will post it here.

Our rental car in Galicia

2009-09-29T12:49:00.001Z

I think that this will be my last blog about our July/August trip to Noia and this one relates to our hire car.

Usually we get something along the lines of a Peugeot 207, but prices were so high this year that we went for the most basic car that was on offer and the result was a Fiat Panda.

Frankly I do not know what to say about this car. On the one hand it was without doubt the worst car that I have driven since my first ever car – a 1980’s something Morris Marina. But on the other hand I discovered on our return to the UK that these things only cost about £6K.

The big issue that I had with the Panda was that it was very narrow, but also very high, and every time that we went around any kind of bend or corner at more than 20mph it felt like it was going to roll over. This in turn meant that we simply did not do any of the driving and exploring in Galicia that we usually do.

In short we did less miles in this car in 23 days than we usually do in one of our one week long visits to the region. The impact of this on our vacation was quite significant as it pretty much tied us down to Noia and the surrounding area. Ultimately it went some way towards spoiling the holiday.

On the upside I do have to admit that, as a “town car”, the Panda is pretty good. Because it is short and narrow, but with a high driving position, it makes parking, tight manoeuvring and general city driving easy. It also has massive head space for someone over 6ft. That said it is not the car for anyone who wants to venture into the country or, God forbid, drive on a motorway. I would also hate to drive this car in high wind. Maybe it would blow over, or maybe it would just blow to pieces, either way, I hope that I do not have to drive one again.

So the moral of this entry is, if you want to do plenty of driving whilst on holiday do not go for the most basic and price conscious hire car!

I just hope that I take my own advice next time.

Good neighbours

2009-09-14T18:33:00.001Z

When we stay in Noia we are either based in an apartment next to the alameda, or a house that looks down on the town from the district of el Couto.

The latter is my favourite and, over the last couple of years, we have confined all of our visits there.

There are a number of reasons why I like this location and one of the main ones is the people who live in the houses opposite and close by. All have known my wife since she was a baby and all make us feel welcome during our visits. So much so that it is hard to leave the house and walk down to the town without being engaged in conversation by someone. That being a good thing of course.

Another big bonus of staying in this area is the amazing hospitality that you get to enjoy and here are two examples, both from the same lady.

Within a day of arriving we were being offered a home made empanada of any filling to be made just for us at any time that we wanted it.

What we actually suggested was that, rather than taking an empanada away with us, we eat it with the family at a time to suit them. So the following day was arranged and pork was the filling.

When we arrived the following day the empanada was ready, but we were ultimately unable to eat more than a thin slice as courses of fried and grilled squid, pimientos de pardon and king prawns preceded it. A massive Tiramisu was the dessert.

About 3 or 4 days later and, after expressing an interest in a traditional Galician stew, we got back to the house from the beach to find a note on the kitchen table.

It basically said, I have made you the stew that you wanted to try, it is on the stove and, if it has cooled down by the time that you get back, just heat it up.

Naturally it was delicious and we came home with the recipe.

Regrettably that kind of thing no longer happens here, or at least in my bit of here, so it is great to turn the clock back and experience proper neighbourhood spirit.

Giving a plug to a wholly unconnected topic, here is a site called http://www.rollergaragedoor.net/door-types.html which will tell you all about the different types of aforementioned doors.

No water!

2009-09-04T10:45:00.000Z

Going back to my rough list of things to write about, I am reminded that during our July and August break in Galicia we had some big problems with the water supply.

It started a couple of days after we arrived. We had already spotted that the main road into the town was being dug up and that the drains and main water supply were clearly visible. That, you would think, would make it difficult to break them, but then again when is a road ever dug up without some kind of catastrophe.

The next thing that we knew was that the taps were dry, the toilet would not flush and, having spoken to some neighbours, we quickly discovered that the whole central area of the town was in the same state, i.e. no water.

Water did arrive about 24 to 30 hours later, but for the following 2 to 3 days it was a dirty brown and suitable for nothing but the toilet.

Here however is where Galicia comes into its own with springs (fountains) everywhere that have fresh natural water pouring out of them.

For us it was a case of walking 20 metres to the nearest spring and filling up bottles, buckets and anything else that we could lay our hands on.

Having a shower was unfortunately out of bounds for about 3 days, so washing with cold water was something of an awakening.

The day after a full clean water supply resumed we woke up to know electricity and initially thought, “here we go gain”, however it was just one of the fuses that had tripped, so we were back in action in minutes.

I have not added any links for a while, so here is one about different types of garage door (http://rollergaragedoor.net) which “may” be of interest – but only if you are about to replace the said item.

Next post will be about one of the other items relating to our Galicia/Noia trip.

The taste of food!

2009-09-02T21:09:00.002Z

Each time that I visit Galicia I never fail to be amazed at the taste of fresh food, be it meat or vegetables.

As you get older you start to think that perhaps your senses are less acute and that the reason why chicken has no taste and peaches taste of water is because your senses are dulled.

This is not however the case and, in Galicia, eating anything from a peach to some chicken served as tapas with some drinks literally makes my mouth water. It really makes you realise that in the UK everything is sterile, treated with chemicals and probably fed with them too.

The biggest example that I can give is that having eaten the aforementioned chicken (wings) I could not stop licking my fingers. This is something that I never do and not only because the food never warrants it, but because I consider it a disgusting practice. Even so I could not stop myself from doing so.

Prawns (or shrimp if you are from the USA/Canada) are really tasty and they do not feel like water-filled lumps of cardboard. They are meaty, chewy and full of flavour. In fact when we eat them, which we do a lot, we never use a dip or a sauce, we simply sauté them in oil with garlic and that is it.

Pork, beef, and every kind of shellfish also have tastes that I remember from being a kid. It seems that food still has a taste and a texture and it also has colour too. Chicken is a yellow colour and egg yokes are orange. Peaches are large and juicy, but not watery and onions are sweet rather than acrid the way that they are in the UK.

The big question therefore has to be – what are we doing or not doing with our produce and livestock in Britain? Lamb always seems to taste pretty good and pork is generally OK, but that is about it.

One of Noia's oldest citizens

2009-08-26T14:41:00.001Z

I said that I would mention an elderly lady in Noia and so I will do so right now.

Her name is Sra Carmen de Cruz and I believe that she is 94. She was a friend of my wife’s grandmother who passed away just 2 weeks ago at age 96 and may well be the oldest living person in the town. Despite this she has all of her faculties and we have got to know her over a number of years as we walk past her house on route to the centre of town.

Initially she used to say hello to us, and then one day she asked my wife a question about her connection with the town and from that day to this we have had conversations with her every day.

One thing that is very perceptive of her is that she only ever talks to us for 5 or 6 minutes. At that stage in the conversation she wishes us a good day and says that she hopes to see us again soon.

This is a lesson that many could learn from because it means that we, for our part, always look forward to seeing her. Firstly because she is a nice lady, and secondly, because she is not one of those people who grabs hold of you and will not let you go. You always know that you can have a conversation with her without getting caught up.

I do have a photo of my wife with Sra Carmen, but I would not wish to post it without her consent.

Banesto Bank, Noia, Spain

2009-08-17T14:51:00.000Z

A number of problems have arisen since our return to the UK starting with my wife having to go back to Noia within the week for a funeral, and my computer being temporarily trashed by, would you believe it, an automatic microsoft update. It took me almost a day to find a way of getting into safe mode and running a system restore. God help any novice with the same problem.

Anyway, I set out a number of topics that I would deal with following our July/August trip and this is the first one - Banesto bank.

I opened an account with these people around 9 or 10 months ago and I was impresses with the meticulous approach to detail that they had and their apparent professionalism during the process.

10 months on they have convinced me that my initial impressions were totally wrong.

I started the account with a 100 euro deposit with the intention of making bank transfers as and when it suited me to boast the balance.

The first problem arose when it turned out that the online login details that I had been given were incomplete and this continued as it proved totally impossible to pay any money into the account.

Banesto were not however detoured by my lack of depositing action and they managed to make 4 separate charges against my totally unused account in less than 8 months.

One charge, the initial annual fee I had been informed about, however I was told quite categorically that there were no other charges. Put simply, an outright lie.

So in August I closed the account. No question was asked by the bank as to why, however both of the employees who dealt with me were decidedly rude. And, you guessed it, there was also a fee of about 18 euros to close the account.

Consequently the result was that, about 10 months after opening an account that had not been set up properly, that I was unable to access and that I could not deposit into, my initial deposit of 100 euros became around 14 euros.

Needless to say this is not a bank that I would recommend.

Next few posts

2009-08-10T12:12:00.002Z

I sometimes struggle for relevant posts, but after some time in Galicia I have a number of topics that I intend to cover. So (to make sure that I have something to refer to and help me remember them) here they are.

Banesto bank – A good way to see 100 euros disappear.

An amazing old lady (94) in Noia.

How food (i.e. meat, veg and fruit) taste different.

Terrible July and early August weather

Losing the water supply and road works – an employment plan!

Getting home to a ready meal (put in the house whilst we were out by a neighbour).

Our new favourite tapas bar in Noia and tapas ideas

Fiat Panda

Probably something on local wines too.

For now however, I am busy catching up on things that were not adressed over the last 3 weeks - the negative kick back of a holiday.

The vacation itself saw pretty awful weather, so sorry to anyone else who visited Galicia over the same period as a result of reading my seemingly "promotional" accounts of the the place.

Car rental, weather and economy

2009-07-13T13:03:00.002Z

I was looking at current car rental options out of Santiago airport over the weekend and discovered that it was only possible to hire a car form europcar for the rest of this month and next.

Every other company said “no cars available” and even europcar had a 3 week rental charge of over £1,300 and that was without excess, extra driver etc.

It seems that everything in Galicia is conspiring to detour tourists from abroad. No doubt this lack of rental car opportunities relates to the cancelling of Ryanair’s Liverpool flights. I would hate to be a hotel owner in Galicia right now.

I have also got feedback that the house market is still exceptionally quiet in the region and that there is no sign of this situation abating. This is of no great surprise as the same is true of the rest of Spain – only there the prices have dropped significantly.

Current doom and gloom forecasts suggest that it will be well into next year before the Spanish recession shows visible signs of disappearing.

Finally, as it is just a few days until we return to Galicia for a few weeks this may be my last post for a while. I dislike using cybercafés for anything that requires a password and, although I will be logging on from time to time, I suspect that this blog will be rested whilst I am away.

The weather forecast in the region still remains less than appealing, but as in most locations it is not always reliable. I certainly hope not!

Noia weather and car rental in Galicia

2009-07-10T12:45:00.000Z

Today’s weather in Noia is good with warm temperatures and plenty of sun. The seven day outlook is not however so good with temperatures dropping, cloud moving in and ultimately rain falling. Indeed, next Thursday has storms forecast which is not exactly what we had hoped for, particularly given that we arrive the following day.

I did experience a storm in Noia last April which was pretty scary in an apartment block where you tend to doubt the enforcement of Spanish building regulations. I fully expected the building to collapse (only because the noise from the shutters was so high) and I hardly slept a wink all night.

The following morning numerous boats had been destroyed or washed up on beaches, however our friends who previously lived in Florida and were accustomed to storms described it as a breeze. I guess that everything in life is relative.

Having checked our flight and car rental details I now see that we have been allocated (by Holidayautos) a rental firm that I have not previously encountered and that we are to meet this “mob” in the airport car park for pick-up. This will certainly be the last time that we use Holidayautos or fall for such an arrangement again. I am already resigned to the fact that they will attempt to dupe us and, if that is the case, we will leave without the vehicle and resolve things once back home.

My advice to anyone renting a car in Galicia is to use Hertz, Alamo, Record or another well known national or international name. The local companies are nearly all cowboys and will not supply you with the contracted car without some kind of catch. I may however be proven wrong in which case I will apologise in due course and give the name of the company in question.

Weather in Noia

2009-06-19T09:21:00.000Z

I was just looking at the weather for this weekend and I decided to checkout how things looked in Santiago/Noia. So this is their four day forecast.

Saturday – sunny and 25 degrees C
Sunday – sunny and 29 degrees C
Monday – sunny and 33 degrees C
Tuesday – sunny and 24 degrees C

It certainly looks like Galicia is the place to be over the next few days and I just hope that this kind of outlook greets us in a months time when we are there.

I have mentioned a number of times the “up and down” visitor figures/stats for my Galicia related sites and I have also contrasted them with another northern Spain guide that I run about Asturias.

Right now the Asturias site is as busy as it has ever been with more visitors and page views than ever. Interesting that the same is not quite true when it comes to Galicia.

It remains a contrast that I can only explain with the discontinuation of some of the UK to Galicia Ryanair flights, but maybe there is some other hidden reason that I know nothing about.

The other interesting thing is that I have received 3 enquiries about property in the Galicia region over the last week or two. This again seems at odds with some of the other things that are going on. Personally, I do not think that this is the best time in the world to buy property anywhere, but then again I am not in a position to do so.

The weekend

2009-06-16T13:34:00.000Z

I did indeed move past my 1,000,000th visitor to GG last week and now look forward to the next million. At present visitor rates it should be reached much more quickly. I also achieved a couple of other website milestones during the course of the same few days, but I will not bore anyone with them here.

The weekend at my in-laws proved very enjoyable and was made even more so by the unexpected presence of my wife’s youngest brother who is never short of a conversation and who has an extensive (but interestingly delivered) knowledge of gadgets, IT and many other interesting subjects.

The weekend was also enhanced by the dining which featured one of my favourites, a chicken and rice dish with prawns, squid and many other flavourings.

On the downside, my wife’s father’s excessively flowering garden did set my hayfever off for the first time this year.

The drive up and down the M1 was also interesting as our car seemed to attract a lot of attention, though fortunately in a positive way.

We are now only about a month away from our Galicia trip and I am still struggling for enthusiasm – I know not why!

Possibly because two sets of friends that we have over there are perhaps not having the best of times, but also because the holiday period seems to have been reached so quickly this year. Hopefully I will enjoy it once we are over there.

The property market!

2009-06-12T11:16:00.001Z

We will spend this weekend in North London visiting my wife’s parents before they head off to Galicia in about 10 days. I believe that they will be there till around October, so we will be seeing them again in July.

Finally we have some blue sky today and the same should be true in Noia where a hot sunny day is forecast. I hope that it proves to be the start of a long warm summer, but that may be asking too much.

I have noticed that this year has seen no mention of any northern Spanish territory on holiday programs or the many “buy a home abroad” shows that made numerous mentions of Galicia and Asturias last year.

All told this is quite surprising given the collapse of the southern Spanish property market and the relative robustness of the estate sector in the north. Then again these programs are never based on common sense or the best interests of the “would be” buyers who in most cases want nothing more than their 15 minute of TV fame.

Talking of the real estate market in Galicia I see that some estate agents there are resorting to sending out email circulars with their latest properties promoted on them. I doubt that this is a good idea as people soon become irritated by this and block the sender. A further downside to this is that google can recognise this response and may even bar the guilty email accounts.

I have also had communiqués from some southern Spanish solicitors wishing to promote there services in the north of Spain. This just reinforces how bad the property market now is in the over developed and highly overpriced south.

One million

2009-06-09T08:59:00.000Z

All being well, today should be a big day for my Galicia site as it will hit one million visitors.

The site started back in 2004 on a different domain and was transferred to its current home the next year. Since then the visitor levels have continually improved and I have seen the statcounter record visitors from many countries that I previously did not even realise existed.

Unfortunate therefore that this mini milestone happens at a time when Galicia has slumped somewhat in tourist activity, but this is true of many destinations right now.

On a different note, I sometimes mention Galician wine and I see that finally Albarino is universally available in supermarkets in the north of England, namely, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury etc. About time.

Unfortunately I was unable (because I do not like him) to watch Roger Federer win at Roland Garros, however his win is a significant achievement and means that, since Rod Laver, only he and Agassi have captured all four slams.

I do however expect Rafa to join that club in September when, if he is healthy again, he should pick up the US Open and complete the set.

We are still several weeks away from visiting Galicia this year and, as yet, I must confess to having no great desire to get there! Why I do not know, but this has been a strange year and I am struggling (like many) to get enthusiastic about anything. Hopefully something will kick-in as we get closer to the date and getting back together with friends.

Pratts

2009-06-04T22:11:00.002Z

Some time ago I had a brief, but highly irritating discourse with a pratt at wikipedia.

Wikipedia is not the fountain of knowledge as many assume, nor is any of their information validated, proof read, or indeed based on any kind of research or investigation into a source. It is simply an open access forum posing as an information resource. In short a fraud by any other name.

Back to my story – At around this time, some 2 years ago, I noticed that one of my pages had been largely copied by this mob so, as an existing account holder, I credited my stolen work rather than insist that they remove it.

To cut a long story short, All links to my site were removed by “an editor” (as also I am pleased to say was the plagiarised content), and so I thought that was an end to it.

Some time later however I spotted a statcounter link to one of my pages from the aforementioned site and a dialogue from the same pratt editor to (what I assume to be) another editor. In short it said that my site was a lightweight tourist guide with no factual content, that I was a spammer, and that no links to my site should be added!! (If you are he (Jamie whatever), then lets meet up some time. I don’t hide behind words and emails!)

2 years later I now see that new links have been added and that my “spam site” is now listed a source of reference used by this wonderful site.

What a bunch of arrogant, ill mannered, uneducated and hypocritical wan***s the editors at wikipedia are. And, like all such people, they hide behind a cloak of anonymity.

Nadal out!

2009-06-01T12:02:00.001Z

I was stunned to see what looked like Rafa Nadal at the French Open yesterday. But the person who looked like him certainly did not play like him and Nadal is now out leaving the title open for the vastly over rated Roger Federer.

Andrew Castle must have spent the whole night playing with himself in elation. In fact as I write this, Federer has just lost a set to Tommy Hass and my guess is that his main problem is the fact the Castle is so far up his backside that it is affecting his game!

I see that the “now British” Andy Murray is still only giving interviews to BBC Scotland and BBC radio Scotland. No doubt that will change next month when he wants the English and Welsh to support him at Wimbledon. What a two face pratt he is. I just hope that he and Fed do not meet in the French Open final as it will be hard to decide who I want to lose the most.

In the ladies event my tip “Safina” looks almost certain to take the title with tennis that is almost unsurpassable, but Sharapova is finally back from surgery and injury and Serena Williams is still scraping through – although only just.

Away from tennis, the weekend weather was sublime and it has continued into today, but with a change due for next weekend. Not surprising as I am just about to order some patio furniture as my wife queues up at the DVLA with over 30 other people waiting in front of her. Might it not be a bad idea in times of recession to employ a few extra people there and, while they are at it, get some more people employed to make our appalling roads drivable.

Random observations

2009-05-28T09:59:00.000Z

I have had a close look at visitor and advertising statistics on a few of my sites today and spotted a strange contradiction in traffic and advertiser interest between the Galicia sites and the Asturias site – both neighbours in northern Spain.

As I have pointed out on several occasions, both traffic and revenue are substantially down for Galicia this year, yet when I compare this month’s traffic versus the same month last year I see that the Asturias site is actually up!

This is a “hard to explain” discrepancy as both regions lie next to one another and both offer a similar appeal to visitors. The only conclusion that I can draw is that the fall in overseas interest in Galicia must relate to the reduction in direct flights to the region since Ryanair cancelled the Liverpool route and cut down on the Stansted alternative.

There have been still more estate agent and property seller disappearances in Spain with this sector being hit harder than any other. Unfortunately this is compounded by the fact that there are so few good English speaking agents in the region – a big problem for anyone wishing to buy out there.

At some point I will touch on Spanish banks as my initial impression of their performance has substantially changed as they deduct more and more money from my account despite the fact that I never use it. So far almost 88 euros in 8 months and that is without me making a single withdrawal or writing a single check. It is an account that I will be terminating at the earliest opportunity.

Agents, weather and flying

2009-05-22T15:11:00.001Z

With a good weather forecast from now until at least Tuesday, I decided to do some remedial work on our every day car in the form of touching up some paintwork. Needless to say it started to rain 10 minutes after I went outside and stopped 5 minutes after I went back in.

I hear through the grape vine that real estate agents in Spain are finding it harder than ever to sell anything and that many “misguided” agents in the south are now trying to salvage things by promoting (or at least seeking to) properties in the north. They will find little ripe fruit to pick there! Agents are closing down every week and there is no sign of a corner to turn around.

I now regret more and more our decision to fly from the distantly located Stansted airport to Santiago in July. We should have gone by ferry to Santander and driven our new sports car. The problem is that we did not have it at the time of the booking and consequently forked out around £500 in car hire and airport parking in the UK plus 400 miles of UK travel petrol. We will also have to leave at 1 or 2 O clock in the morning in order to catch the flight. The flight timing makes staying over with family in the south no less relaxing.

So, as I look out of the window, the weather is still pretty poor with bits of blue, but mainly grey. I just hope that the forecast proves accurate. Oh, and check out this great tourist guide to London called http://www.londonweekendbreaks.net with tips ideas and lots of useful stuff.

general blog filling

2009-05-21T12:58:00.000Z

Although it is something that I would rather not do, I have decided to consider having a small number of paid ads on Galicia Guide.

I tried this before and firstly gave the ads away and secondly had a lot of my time wasted, but I think that I may give it another shot.

I have been contacted by a number of companies over the last couple of years, all asking for an ad placement or some form of promotion and I have refused every one. I may well back-track on that approach and I will justify it to myself as regional promotion for the area!

How it will work in practice I have yet to decide, but it will need to be quick and simple for me or the time/cost ratio will become impractical.

The weather is actually supposed to be good in the UK this weekend.

With a national holiday on Monday this seems highly unlikely, but we will have to wait and see. With a new car in the drive and the chance to do some serious driving and CO2 pollution, some warm dry days will be very welcome. And, since the car costs a fortune to tax, I really want to get the twin exhausts pumping.

For anyone offended by that, forget the crap reeled out by governments and special interest groups. Every plant, tree and blade of grass on the planets feeds of CO2 and through photosynthesis converts it into oxygen for us to breathe. Basic biology tells us that if you remove CO2 you kill off every bit of plant life on the planet.

Very short post

2009-05-17T15:43:00.001Z

A whole range of preoccupations from buying a new car to seeing some distant (in location) members of my family have broken my usual twice weekly blog entry routine. They have also left me struggling for something to write about as my mind has not been spared sufficient time to think about Galicia or our July visit.

We have also spent quite a bit of spare time “on the road” on route to and from South Wales – a part of the world that I would strongly recommend anyone to visit. The scenery is beautiful and the people are friendly. It reminds me of Yorkshire 30 years ago before the onset of mass asian (and now eastern European) immigration and the destruction of our heritage, culture and way of life.

If you are Welsh or Scottish, then take every opportunity to vote for independence and save your nations from a similar and irreversible fate. Whatever you might think 2000 years of cultural evolution can be destroyed in 2 or 3 decades and it will happen before you realise it.

Save you country, people, culture, language and “way of life” and vote for politicians who put local matters first, or at least second after the expenses for their second homes!

For those considering spending time in the northern Spanish territories this summer expect to see a land and cityscape that is unspoilt by tourists. This is because you will see very few. Places like Galicia and Asturias really will be “unspoilt green Spain” this year as the economic downturn sees fewer overseas visitors than for many a year.

House prices!!!

Well there has yet to be a drop in that part of Spain.

Some further thoughts on this blog being flagged

2009-05-06T09:06:00.001Z

My blog no longer appears to be subject to a spam deletion, however this continues to concern me for one main reason.

With an MSc and thesis based around algorithms used for natural language processing (i.e. in line with the kind of thing that google robots do), I know that my blog cannot have been recognised by a spam robot as unsuitable.

That leaves one other option, namely a malicious email or an attempt by an individual to flag my blog.

Having given this some thought, a name springs to mind and I will now be looking through the IP address logs of recent visitors to see if the corresponding address shows up.

If it does (and you know who you are), you will find that messing around with someone who knows every underhand trick in the book is not a good idea. I will have your business site down in a week and your email account banned from all ISP’s.

Hopefully, my suspicions will prove unfounded, but given that this individual has told me previously of things that he has attempted to do to some of his competitors (of which I am not one), his intervention seems a distinct possibility.

A waste of 5 years

2009-05-05T14:13:00.000Z

Enjoy this blog while you have the chance as, after about 320 posts over a 5 year period, google/blogger have decided that it is spam and will delete it in 20 days.

At first I thought that their email was some kind of hoax, but astoundingly it is genuine.

Based on the fact that my blog is not spam and cannot be interpreted as such in any way by anybody (or a piece of web software), I must assume that either:

95% of all blogger blogs are about to be deleted, or

that I have been singled out for some “unknown to me” reason. Since I know no one at google or blogger this seems unlikely, but who knows

So, to all bloggers out there, do not waste your time for 5 years writing posts, expressing opinions and putting your views down on blogger. If they can view my long lived content driven blog as spam, then nobody is safe, so I suggest that you use another blog provider.

Bye

Why Galician tourism is slowing down

2009-05-05T09:51:00.002Z

I mentioned briefly that hits to my websites based around Galicia had gone up over the last 2 or 3 weeks. What I did not mention was that, whilst visitor numbers were up, revenue in the form of advertising was still going down.

This unfortunate trend has continued to show an ever increasing decline and has its root cause in the fact that the various links and advertisements are not receiving the attention that they were enjoying up to a few months ago.

Naturally the economic downturn plays a part in all of this, but even so the decline is one that economics alone do not explain. At least not to me.

All told revenue is down by almost exactly 2/3 when compared to the equivalent period last year and this must be a major concern for anyone with a business based on tourism or property in Galicia.

I have seen a similar downturn in Asturias, but not in Barcelona (the south of Spain) or other areas of Europe.

Undoubtedly the removal of much of Ryanair’s passenger carrying capacity to Santiago de Compostela must have played a part, but even this cannot explain the downturn.

In April last year the “A place in the sun” TV show covered Galicia and then later Asturias and, with various repeats, this must have helped promote the regions to the British. So far this year the region and its profile have seen no such features!

So, with the credit boom dead, the economy in tatters and no media coverage of Galicia, the region is seeing a dramatic reduction in UK and USA based tourist interest. All of which actually makes Galicia a better place than ever to visit and it certainly ensures that external influences on its culture and social infrastructure will be kept to a minimum.

If you want to visit Galicia, here is some info on where to stay independantly - http://www.galiciaguide.com/Villa.html.