As a brief respite from my world tour, I got to spend last weekend in and around Catalonia in northern Spain. On Friday I headed north to spend a couple of days on the Costa Blanca in the town of Roses right by the sea (picture of hotel below - cool eh?). After leaving Barcelona I joined the N-11, a good two lane road to Girona. After leaving Girona the road gently winds through the countryside and looks much like any other road, except for one thing.
I was casually minding my own business, playing with the "flappy paddle" gear change on the surprisingly nippy diesel powered Citroen C4, when out of the corner of my eye I saw what appeared to be an attractive girl sitting in a white plastic lawn chair by the side of the road. Being a normal male my gaze wandered over to examine her more closely. She looked a little out of place for a rural road in northern Spain. She was wearing very high heels and a skirt that was as short as the heels were high. I cruised on not really knowing what to make of it. My first reaction was that it was strange place to have a bus stop. A couple of kilometers further on, another similarly attired girl sat beside the road - only this time the shoes were replaced by boots. Somewhere in the slower moving parts of my brain it began to dawn on me that they were not waiting for a bus. This site was repeated at regular intervals for the next 20km or so.
I know the Spanish are a friendly bunch but I had no idea that the services they extended to weary travelers were so comprehensive - very different than the free coffee at an American rest stop!
On my return to Barcelona on Sunday morning, I reversed my route. This time it was raining so most of the white plastic chairs were empty, either that or business was especially brisk that morning. I did however pass one petrol station where a couple of members of the "traveler relaxation team" were hanging out under the canopy. Now that really did redefine the concept of "full service" never mind having your windscreen washed...
