Driving in Spain: The roads are as good as in the US and the road signs are far better. Even if you spoke only Martian, you would be comfortable on Spain's highways. One thing that surprised me was that whether you were driving in the cities or on their freeways, there was no roadside trash--none. Surprise number two was that they gave pedestrians the right of way at all times and without any attitude or horn honking. I never fully got the hang of the liter system. Gas was about the same price everywhere and I wasn't about to spend my Spain-time shopping for a penny-saving deal. I learned to give the attendant my credit card (pumps don't take them) and say, "Completo." Which meant, "I'm going to fill it up."
Although I kept my eyes open for rods on the road and old cars behind farm houses, my only car-encounter was a Ferrari hooking it in the other lane in Granada (see above photo). Although US news coverage is how poor Spain is, I never saw any signs of poverty. The people dress well, drive decent cars and not a shack was in sight of major and minor roads. Another unexpected surprise.
Cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier and a different world awaits you. Trash everywhere, extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and beat up cars. I would have liked to have spent a night or two in Morocco to explore non-Tijuana-like Tangier. However, we toured what we could and then hopped on the ferry back to Spain.
I'm a non-itinerary guy. We had a list of towns we'd like to visit, but no hotel reservations and no schedule except the date/time we had to fly back home from the Madrid airport (which will blow you away in its modern design and scale). We drove where we wanted, when we wanted and stayed where we wanted. It was wonderful
Now I'm back at it. Working on the next issue. If you have photos, ads or articles you want in this issue, now is the time to get them to me.
Thanks! Ernest
