Ponf. to Villafranca del Bierzo - pt one

We're in a basin, which produces a microclimate DONT YOU KNOW? It's wine and olive country again, it feels like an age since Rioja! Speaking of regional differences, something I've been meaning to pop on the homeschool syllabus for a while is why in Spanish it's mantequilla but lots of other languages it's butter/burro/beure/b-something.

In looking for the answer I scratched some other linguistic itches, loosely organised around why my Italian sometimes helps and often just gets in the way. The gist of it is while they're both rooted in Latin they developed quite separately, with Italian having "serious contact with languages from across the Alps, including Germanic dialects such as Langobard, Gothic, and Frankish. Spanish, on the other hand, took on a good deal of Arabic influence from its Moorish occupiers during the same period."

So this is why we get big differences in key areas, for example verbs like (Spanish/Italian) comer/mangiare (to eat), mirar/guardare (to watch or look at), guardar/conservare (to keep), bajar/scendere (to go down or get off), salir/uscire (to go out), subir/salire (to go up or get on), and such Arabic influences in some spellings. Tomorrow's lesson will be investigating why everyone leaves big water bottles outside their front doors - what do they know that I don't?

Approaching 400km of a sore back, so I'm sort of beyond sick of it now and potentially turning into some sort of Wolverine character. That this is all so wonderful despite the pain is, I think, a testament to the Camino. And to be fair, in all other respects my body is being top notch ally. Talk Valentina! Ally! Others are suffering more. I remain grateful.Read more