Spain 5/20

‘Last day of this tour.  We ride down the Atlantic coast toward Africa.

We arrive at the coast at 6 km.  This is the bluest water I’ve ever seen.  We pass the Trafalgar Lighthouse (shown on left), site of the famous October 21, 1805 battle in which the Royal British Navy commanded by Admiral Nelson defeated the much larger combined fleet of the French and Spanish Navies.  The lighthouse seems small and isolated compared with the battle’s memorial, Trafalgar Square in London.

Our destination is the town of Tarifa at the south-most tip of Spain and of continental Europe.  Looking across the Straits of Gibraltar we can clearly see the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. These are the Pillars of Hercules and the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and one of the busiest waterways in the world.

Above, blue Atlantic. Below, Altas Mountains of Morocco as seen from Tarifa Port.

Tarifa has fairly constant winds and thus is a Mecca for kite surfers.  We see hundreds of colorful kites on the final stretch of the ride.  Tarifa looks more like an African town than an European town.

We pack our bikes in a plaza by the Tourist Information Center and then a bus takes us along the Mediterranean to Malaga where we have our last dinner and say farewell to our cycling friends, both old and new.

Along the route we pass Gibraltar. But what we witness along this Costa del Sol is difficult to properly explain.  To our left loom large, rugged mountains – and to our right, the Mediterranean. This is a two hour drive so it is probably 100 miles from Tarifa to Malaga.  But it is 100 miles of mega development. Every foot of land on the beach side is developed – on every hillside and on top of every hill are houses, high-rise condos, resorts, apartments, hotels.  It’s New York spread out on a beautiful beach. Where do these people come from? Where do they work? Or is it all vacationers?  This leads to questions about Spain: How big is it? How densely populated?

In terms of land mass, Spain is the second largest country (France is larger) in the European Union.  But in terms of population density, Spain has somewhat smaller density than France; and both are one-half of Italy, Germany and England (the most dense). Spain has five mountain ranges, which probably means it’s density is not evenly distributed.

On Sunday, I’ll complete this Spain trip blog with thoughts about cycling in Spain.