Observations of Spain

I've left Spain. After a month, over a thousand miles of riding and 23000 feet of climbing I am now in France! But before my French experience begins let me sum up Spain.

I'll start by saying that the people I met along the way were all very friendly and helpful when they could be. The drivers gave me wide berth, even frequently using their turn signals to go around me. The scenery was frequently beautiful and the olive orchards where a sight I'd never seen, surpassing the Pennsylvania apple orchards in their scale. The coastal roads where fantastic though very busy and Barcelona and Valencia were both very cool towns. Barcelona especially came through for me by having the only Surly (my bicycle manufacturer) dealer in the country just as I needed a replacement fork. I had bent mine on a fence post a couple days before getting there. Also from Barcelona we took a train to Montserrat for a day. It is a Beautiful monetary in the mountains with a cable car ride to get there.

Some observations: There are a lot of windmills in Spain. Cyclist, at least half of them, wear a scarf over their face when the temperature drops below 65 degrees. Restaurants don't have pepper on the table. The road surface was better than expected and usually better than the United States. The homeless dogs do not bark or chase cyclists. There are almost no female cyclist. Only men were at the bars day or night. It's never too early to start drinking on the weekend. There are a lot of BMW, Mercedes and Audi on the road, way more than anywhere I've seen in the USA though I saw only two pickup trucks. There was a lot of trash on the roadside as well as all the scenic view pulloffs. Many road and building projects were thoroughly started and now lay abandoned.

There were hard parts too. Camping was difficult to find though it became easier after Valencia, and we found some very beautiful spots, even sharing a hilltop with a wild pig one night. The rain drove us indoors more often than I would have liked but that too let up after Valencia. The food was not good. I had the worst hamburger of my life. It wasn't inedible but the patty, I was told, was a pork and steak mixture though I would have guessed turkey. None of the Paella was as good as what I've had in Boulder. We eventually gave up on going out but this too became an issue as the grocery stores were not very creative in what they had to offer (chocolate cereal varieries excluded), no matter which store chain we went to.

As the final judgment of countries from now it comes down to the wind. I can say the tailwind was more consistent than the headwind though the headwind was brutal when we had it. Spain was good and now I am glad to be in France.

Update : A few more observations I forgot to mention.
The napkins are made of plastic and do not absorb. The bottom floor of every building in every town had bars on the windows. A short Mohawk is the coolest haircut going and if you are a high schooler that does not have one you will stand out. Also the mullet is still acceptable.