Some impressions and experiences

The Spanish people we have encountered have been friendly and warm. We have mostly felt quite safe. However, English is not widely spoken or understood. We are gradually building up an essential vocabulary to help us get by in cafes, shops, hotels etc. But I think we would get much more out of a visit to Spain if we had more Spanish.

Food has been hit and miss for us. We have had some lovely meals but also quite a few ordinary ones (or worse). Language difficulties and lack of local knowledge no doubt contributes to this experience but is not the whole story. I have felt very vegetable deprived- other women on the tour express the same view. And mostly the coffee has been awful. Cappuccinos range widely in style of preparation and quality- the Prado cafe did a good one but most others have been watery with froth not crema . I have discovered that a cafe americana is not bad where available. The hotels we are staying in use coffee machines.

A lot of Spaniards smoke-70% we have been told. But so far this has not been a huge problem for us. Some areas seem more obviously economically depressed. Granada struck me more in this respect-a lot of graffiti and closed shops. Our local guide had been a social worker whose job was lost in the wake of the financial crisis and its aftermath. He said up to 50% of young people are unemployed, including graduates. Apparently many young Spaniards live with their parents until they marry-so the social consequences of unemployment are many and varied.

The roads are good and driving outside the cities looks like it would be relatively straightforward. Spain has clamped down on driver behaviour so that deaths from road accidents have decreased significantly. Our observations-admittedly as passengers- is the drivers are not aggressive. Not sure I would want to drive in any of the cities though.

Spain has some very beautiful buildings and cities, particularly in the central areas. But many smaller towns and cities that we drive past seem less attractive. To my eye, they seem to have harsh edges and often appear to be surrounded by wasteland with few trees in evidence. These are often poorer areas of course. Spain still has a manufacturing sector and this is also evident in some parts of Spain. Economically we assume this is to Spain's benefit, but rarely are such areas beautiful.

There is a lot of regional variation noticeable in climate, scenery, agriculture and, in some cases language. Right now we are coming into the area of Valencia- very mild, lots of orange trees and date palms. Only a couple of hours ago it was the snow capped mountains and almond trees.#

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