When churches become bars, watch out

I've often said church and crane are rarely far apart in Spain. For every bit of construction a church is rebuilt. It seems an unwritten rule that although the socialists were in power as early as our Camino in 2007 it seems the quid pro quo is for every euro spent on housing a euro fixes a church roof.

What makes me chuckle now is that even Scotland home of the raging orders of the Scottish Rangers and Celtic - it would be lying to call them Glasgow Rangers and Celtic as they are the continental rift through which even islands like Uist are divided.

Their power however is dwindling as one of my favourite Glasgow venues is on the Byres Road and the church in Dundee was converted in Deadbeat days, ie the 1980's.

I'd love to ask all our celebrated Dundonians did they realise how far ahead of the times they were when religious pilgrims were tearing down these things never mind exploitative capitalism.

I digress, as always. I get hung up on the most mundane things and humanity's slow migration from ruled by religion to being ridiculed by it has always got me square between the eyes. I was a believer and like a smoker I believed. When I gave up smoking I told all my pals to continue if they wanted but I was settled in my choice. Not so religion. When I gave that up at 17 I was stunned by how much my world caved in. I hadn't realised just how much my faith and recognition of it, had stopped me, for want of a better phrase, grow up. I was your preist on waiting, your freedom fighter etc etc.

When I realised that the tooth fairy was porkie pies, that Santa wasn't coming in for a cup of tea I realised my world had been built on sand. Sand would be fine until the tide came in. Well probably it wouldn't unless it had been through a cement mixer!

What makes me dream scheme and want to invent a meme is just how slowly the population are giving up on this solar deity. I love the Camino, I'm a walking Jakey who enjoys his food. This is heaven on earth if I can just borrow a term from the religious folks!

So back to my churches chunter. The best one on the Camino is at Rabanal, falling apart and no money for a stage, while the next best is at villalcazar de Sirga just before carrion does Los condes. I tell religious pals to go there as it's so old and in a less than useful place even the moors left it. The masculine line of bishops goes back a long way and using different substances leave an indelible mark on the pillar within. That's history and why religion has lasted until Wikipedia explained god does not exist in answer to the wrong question 🤣🍺🍷🍷🍷Läs mer