Driving in Spain

Driving in Spain

Sitting in the Sevilla airport right now with time to kill, so here’s an update…

When Kristy and I decided to come to Spain, we decided to rent a car to drive around the southern part, rather than take the train like we usually do in Germany and central Europe. In all, this has definitely paid off, but not without our share of excitement. Of note:

The scenery in southern Spain is truly amazing. We drove through the mountains, along the Mediterranean coast, in big cities, and in small towns. There were times when we were going up and mountains and one side of the road was totally brown and the other was all green. All the green were olive trees and I tell you that they went on FOREVER! I think southern Spain can meet the world’s demand for olive oil and then some.

I’ve heard horror stories about driving in Rome and Paris, and I think that Spanish cities / towns have got to be just as bad. Each of the cities that we visited were built before cars existed. As such, all the buildings were piled on top of each other, only with so much room for a single horse carriage to go through the streets. I don’t know how many times I had to nearly stop to narrowly squeeze by a parked car on one side and a wall on the other. And the parking garages were just as bad, if not worse.

Roundabouts, roundabouts everywhere! I think there was one time that I went through three consecutive roundabouts within half a kilometer. These things were everywhere! Some of them were at least four lanes wide.

Speeding tickets in Spain suck. Especially when 34 km/hr over the limit nets you a 98€ fine (that’s $150), cash paid on the spot. It would have been 140€ if I would have contested it, and since Spain doesn’t seem like a very corrupt country, I paid it to the officer. Dumb speed traps!
I don’t think Kristy liked going through the mountains too much. I’m pretty sure she almost vomited. Not really, but I know she wishes that she would have taken her Dramamine!

That’s all for now, Kristy will follow with other updates when we get to another internet connection.

Ken