CR5 Issue 157 June 2018

Another Spain
When the weather turns for the better,
however temporarily, and the end of year
approaches for school children across the
country, thoughts turn to escape.
Away from the day-to-day hurly-burly,
(such as the inevitable traffic jam in Coulsdon
caused by muppets blocking the road as they
attempt to ram their very expensive, oversized,
pretend off-road 4 x 4 into an already
full Aldi’s car park to save pennies, when they
could have saved thousands by buying a car
that just did the job they needed it for) away
from work, away from home. The overseas
holiday, despite, or maybe because of, the
ongoing Brexit row, remains increasingly
popular according to the Office of National
Statistics. The locations vary, as last year’s
must see becomes this year’s has been, but
since the dawn of the package tour in the
1960’s, Spain remains uppermost in the
average British holidaymaker’s mind.
Personally, I haven’t been. I’ve seen
some of France, Belgium, Germany and Italy.
Explored parts of Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria and the Czech
Republic. I’ve even got as far as bits of China,
Canada, the USA and Australia. But somehow
I’ve managed to miss Spain. I’ve not done it
deliberately. At least, I don’t think so.
Then again, perhaps in my subconscious I am
rebelling against the near-reflex action for so
many to just jump on a cheap flight South,
and head for the Costa del Sol or the Balearics.
Marbella, Torremolinos, Benidorm, the
last now the title of a TV sit-com, all sum up a
certain attitude to holidaymaking that I just
don’t get. Magaluf, nicknamed ‘Shagaluf’ in
many quarters, has British-staffed
emergency medical centres close to its bar
and club strip to cope with the copious victims
of binge-drinking, the result of low alcohol
and fast food pricing. It’s got so that the
reputation of Magaluf is affecting the tourism
for elsewhere on Mallorca.
There is in many, this seemingly very British
attitude to travelling abroad, which is to be
in a foreign country but not experience it.
They want the weather, warm, sunny, dry, but
they also want fish and chips, the brands of
lager they get at home, Sky Sports and British
papers. For some you can add clubbing, for
others golf.
But on their return, they’ll be no more familiar
with the country they’ve just spent 10 days in
than they were before they left.
Which is frankly bonkers.
Now that’s a personal opinion, but really?
Spain as a country has a positive wealth of culture,
cuisine and history, due in no small part
to its Moorish occupation for seven centuries.
It was one of the first truly global empires,
pre-dating the British and leaving as a legacy
500 million Spanish-speaking people, making
it the second most widely-spoken language in
the world after Mandarin Chinese.
The Alhambra in Granada, a Moorish
fortress that became a spectacular palace,
and the whole of the Old City of Toledo, once
capital of the Kingdom of the Visigoths
(How ‘Game of Thrones’ does that sound?),
are UNESCO World Heritage sites worth hours
of one’s time. But there are 44 other such
sites across Spain, and only two other
countries in the world have more.
Spanish red wine, tapas and dancing versus
cheap lager, a kebab and clubbing. I shall
get to Spain, hopefully soon, but I might see
a very different country to the one so many
choose. But then, a holiday is a holiday, and
a very personal choice. Have fun, whatever
you decide to do, but maybe, just maybe, look
just a little further afield than the usual tourist
strip and the beach. You might be very
pleasantly surprised. Hasta la vista…
Paul M Ford writes for
GrayDorian – The Writing Bureau
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The Alhambra in Granada