Grass down the middle of the road; A fine turn of speed; Creative parking; Oompa Loompa-ness.
We have escaped from Portugal and their expensive (if lovely) motorways and expensive (whatever grade of loveliness) fuel and are now in Spain where the fuel is 35c per litre cheaper (that is, over 20% cheaper) and the motorways are free. And markets being what they are, the Spanish motorways are busier and worse maintained. In fact one bit had a line of broken tarmac that had been there so long that grass had started to grow on it. In Doris’s childhood holidays, the definition of Being Properly On Holiday was when you drove down a road with grass growing up the middle, but tbh I did not expect that to happen on a Spanish motorway in 2021. Still, it confirms that this is Properly A Holiday. (Thanks to Mr Alamy for the pic and apologies for not having an account to license it properly – I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to photograph the motorway.)
H ere we are in Granada, historic town, lots of tourists and somewhere that you would think was generally welcoming. And here we have a lady of a certain age, who we saw crossing the road, but not fast enough for an approaching town bus who tootled her vigorously without slowing down at all. As a result of which I can tell you that little old Spanish ladies have a surprising turn of speed under the right (or wrong) circumstances.
And while we are talking about odd traffic habits, parking in the steeper areas of the old town seems to present certain problems. Reminds me of the cartoon about the Daleks.
In one of the squares in Granada I got my right hand out of my pocket (bad habit I know walking along with your hands in your pockets, but not one my mum ever managed to break me of) and OH MY GOD it was bright orange!!!!! I took a photo of it just to make sure.
Turns out there were some stained glass stars hanging from wires across the square, and my hand was in the light from one of them. Some creative fun with the camera beckoned… here is Sid and his saintly aura.
To finish off this post and fritter away another few of your precious life minutes, here is the classic Oompa Loompa song featuring faces exactly the colour of Sid’s in that photo. Which, you understand, you should never sing if you see someone who has used too much artificial tan in their makeup. Never.