Viva Espana

By -

As I sit on the ferry trying to wrap myself around the 10 item mega-breakfast there is time to reflect on my first ever visit to Spain. That's right, despite being reasonably well travelled I have never been to Spain before.

On the negative side, it isn't exactly pretty. At least, not on the coast which is lined with 60's and 70's concrete apartment blocks and hotels. I'm guessing that architects didn't exist back then or, if they did, they must have all been busy designing cement factories. Inland comes a layer of cookie-cutter villas. These are mostly much newer and ok on the eye but there are countless thousands and all identical. When you eventually break through the villas you reach the cement factory belt. I assume the big cost of concrete apartment blocks must have been diesel for the cement lorries because they have certainly tried to keep delivery distances short! Finally you reach open countryside which is very lovely when it is hilly but covered in greenhouses and poor little towns when it isn't.

By far the worst thing about Spain are the roundabouts and speed bumps. The roads are good, smooth and mostly traffic free but any journey takes an age and involves constant acceleration and fierce breaking. My theory is this: when the construction business here went tits up (there are abandoned developments everywhere) they were left with a zillion builders and ten zillion cement factories with nothing to do. A roundabout or speed bump doesn't use a lot of cement but build enough of them.......

Good things? Well, the weather obviously! In very late November it was T-Shirt weather and I gather temperatures almost never drop into single digit degrees C. It is also cheap as chips, for example:

Diesel - less than a quid per litre
Beer - a pack of TWELVE cost me £2.50
Wine - in a restaurant a very drinkeable house wine is about 6 quid
Hotels - our cheapest was 27 quid and perfectly OK

I'm sure there are other things I could have bought but I can't bring them to mind.

But the BEST thing about Spain is the motorways! If you have ever wondered what it would be like to drive up the M1 when it first opened just try the main motorway up the middle of Spain. It is only 2 lane but almost completely empty. I set my cruise control at 80 and, 600 miles later I had averaged......80! Even better - there are vast stretches in the south that are toll-free. I would get there soon and givem then a try - it can only be a matter of time before they have run out of other places to put speed bumps!

In the last year or so I have started to believe that I am growing out of my near-terminal sea sickness. The boat has just left the harbour into a fair swell and I realise I was wrong. Huey and Ralph - I'm calling your names!

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the EE network.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll/Mr Tamborine Man/I Write The Songs

By -
Image
  After an 18 month separation Plum and I are reforming the band for another tour.  The two of us, plus 6 others, are heading up to Scotlandshire for another crack at the North Cost 500.  I should probably introduce the full line-up:   Lead Singer - David.  David is the young(er) pretty one.....brother of John.  David also happens to be my Financial Adviser and is funding this trip (plus a yacht and a cocaine habit) out of what he makes from my account.   Lead Guitar - Nick.  Friend for 50 years.  At school Nick was a keen cyclist and consequently, quite rightly, bullied.  Nick has forgotten more about cycling than I will ever know.   Bass Guitar - Stuart.  Stuart and I worked together for many years; he has powerful legs and can push out big watts while looking like he is coasting.  I hate Stuart.   Keyboards - Michael.  Michael is a...
Read more

If I Could Turn Back Time

By -
Image
If ever you are in the Inverness area on a Friday and looking for a lively night you could do a lot worse than avoid Muir of Ord.  Our hotel, the only pub, wasn't serving food so we walked into town where it appeared that Steven Spielberg had just finished filming some sort of post-apocalypse movie: nothing open, nobody on the streets and the odd bit of tumbleweed blowing along the pavement.  Even the fish and chip shop couldn't be arsed to open...on a FRIDAY NIGHT!  We managed to find a take-away offering a rather odd choice of kebabs and curries (served in pizza boxes for added novelty) and purchased some food which made up for in calories what it lacked in food-hygiene standards.   I recall a meeting where a few of my co-riders and I met to kick around ideas for a group ride.  We considered all sort of destinations....mostly in those parts of Europe where the weather isn't consistently shite.  I'm ashamed to say that I thin...
Read more

Julia's Song

By -
Image
As some readers will know, Plum is no longer Chard's most eligible bachelor.  The lovely Julia has taken on the job that Social Services would otherwise have to do....making sure he changes his pants once a week whether they need it or not and loading routes onto his Garmin.  We are all very grateful to Julia, especially Chards most eligible bachelorettes who can get back on the dating scene now Plum is safely off the market. As we were starting our trip Julia fell, dislocated her foot and broke her Tibia so she is probably missing Plum more than usual. She has insisted that the show should go on so thanks for being such a trooper. Today was another with a shortcut that promised to turn a very hard day into something more manageable.  Some of our group took the high road and others took the low but I had a more cunning idea.....get in the van.  Whatever is ailing me, long covid or acute spinelessness, reached the point where pushing th...
Read more