Spain

Leaving France

After two months of travelling through France, I could easily have continued my tour around the country and have been quite happy. But the plan was to travel in Spain, so after a brief lunch overlooking the mediterranean sea, we drove up the steep hill that marks the border between France and Spain and the very end of the Pyranees mountains.

I was sitting quietly, contemplating what it would be like to traverse an open border and suddenly find myself in another country; same money, different language, customs, history, food and attitudes. As I gazed out through the windshield, I noticed something odd. A drone was hovering about 20 metres above and in front of us.

My first thought was that some geek was flying his drone awfully close to an international border when it occurred to me that in fact, it was more likely that it was border security, checking out people coming up the hill. If they saw something suspect, they very likely would have met us at the top and stopped us. It was a bit of a 1984 moment for sure and made me feel a bit uneasy despite just wanting to be a tourist.

Alas, we crossed the border with nary a goat in site and made our way down the steep switchback into Spain.

I’m always  thinking how bizarre we humans are for carving up our planet into spaces that are mine, yours or theirs. We hoard or steal or sell resources just because we’ve claimed that a certain part of the planet is ours. 

Yah, I have too much time to think about such things when I travel, but honestly, no wonder extraterrestrials are cautious about contacting us openly. 

Our first stop was to visit our own earthly ET, namely Salvador Dali’s eccentrically brilliant museum , in Figueres.

Go. Just go. It’s amazing! I cannot do the Dali museum justice but yammering on about it. But it was cool. Go. You get a time slot to go in and give yourself a good two hours to go through it.

After that, we just snaked our way down the coast, staying in places I found on Park4nite. Some of the spots were ok, but there were often too many tourists doing exactly what we were doing; travelling by van or camper. But finding free places to stay along the coast is challenging and therefore, you end up having to put up with other tourists more than you would necessarily like.

Overall Spain reflections

This is where I have a difficult time. How can I do justice to an entire country by simply writing down what I saw from the van window? There is literally no way I can provide you with an accurate overview of anywhere, really. It all comes down to my own particular lens and how I view the world. It’s also hard not to be influenced by one’s partner as a shared experience tends to bring out varying viewpoints that are sometimes hard to separate. What are my thoughts and feelings compared to someone else’s? Sometimes it’s hard to know?

In no particular order here are some of my observations:

Unfortunately, it was rather dirty in many parts. While Spain may have recycling bins and garbage containers everywhere, they aren’t necessarily collected as frequently as necessary, which means most are overflowing with garbage.

The sides of the highways are littered with broken glass and plastic bottles filled with piss thrown out of long-haul truck windows. Truckers don’t stop to pee. They just do it as they drive and chuck it out their windows. Nice.

The country is beautiful with varied terrain. There is a rugged coastline, dry, arid interiors, olive groves, and places where you’d swear you’re in Arizona. Oh wait, yes, they filmed lots of “spaghetti westerns” in Spain. Why they call them that when spaghetti isn’t Spanish, I don’t know.

Food and booze is less expensive than in France, the bread isn’t as good as it is in France, there is a much more limited selection of cheese than in France and the pork products are to die for. God, how superficial. Still, when you travel by van and you need water, need to dump your toilet and buy groceries, you notice stuff like that. Stay in an all inclusive resort and you likely won’t see any of that.

A lot of service stations where you have to pay to fill up your water tank actually tell you that the water isn’t potable. I had to type in ” Is the water potable?” into my telephone and ask about ten different places and most of them said no, it wasn’t drinkable. Be sure to fill up your tanks and take extra water before you head into Spain. Obviously, you can buy bottled water in the supermarkets. Toilet dumping stations are also difficult to find.

The coastline is overbuilt with concrete holiday homes and because the water table in Spain is all but dried up, I wonder how cities are going to supply enough water for all of those homes when people flock to the coast for a vacation. I didn’t take pictures of that. It was just too sad. But look at this spot below!

I don’t speak Spanish. I really should learn.

The south coast is wilder and we met some really nice people and spent a few days with them perched on rocky outcroppings overlooking the ocean. The ground was covered in crystals. I was happy about that.

And then..there’s Granada. named after Pomegranates, which you find on manhole covers, tiles, printed on fabrics and topping metal posts along the streets.

Granada

Again. Go. This was my favourite place. I’d love to have stayed longer as I like window shopping and taking my time. We spent an entire day wandering around and managed to get tickets only for the gardens around the famous Alhambra palace. You simply cannot get tickets to visit the palace on the same day. You MUST order them online and it’s kind of complicated so if this is on your absolutely do NOT miss list, then plan ahead. Still, we had a great day. Granada is a beautiful, historic city. 

One thing I never did get to do in Spain was have chocolate and churros, which is such a shame as I really wanted to. We did happen to go to a bar, though, and sat at the counter where we were immediately served a plate with  bread, salamis and some pâté. We munched happily away as we had a beer and then proceeded to plow through the most incredible burgers we’d ever had. Oh my lord…

It’s worth repeating. Spanish pork is outstanding. So there.

Onwards. We’re going to Morocco!