It is indeed a motoring journalist’s dream – driving long distances aboard a high performance machine in comfort and in style – and this I did.
For almost two weeks, I drove a total of 1,635 miles aboard a BMW X1, that beautiful mean driving machine while touring almost the entire exciting and scenic peninsula of Spain and parts of Portugal.
Together with my wife, Baby and son Ray Louis with my brother, Philippine STAR (Biz Links) business columnist, Rey and wife Evelyn, we started off from Madrid and went all the way down to Salamanca, to Fatima, Cadiz, Estoril and Lisbon in Portugal and back to Seville, Spain and on to Marbella, Granada, Malaga, Valencia and finally to Barcelona or a total of 2,616 kilometers or like going from Manila to Baguio and back about ten times.
But it was sheer driving pleasure. A combination of well-paved highways and a very fast, very comfortable (for leg room, amenities and ride), very reliable (that’s peace of mind on long trips) and stylish compact SUV, the BMW X1.
I’m very sorry to say that having seen, experienced and actually driven through the highways and freeways of both Spain and parts of Portugal, I don’t think we can even come close to them in my lifetime or even my son’s. Not only do their highways and freeways run throughout the entire country, they are also well-paved, smooth, complete with necessary traffic and directional signage and they are safely confined to motorists – no stray animals nor pedestrians. Even if you’re not a driving enthusiast like many motoring journalists including myself, you’ll find driving in these highways stress-free and delightful.
Very visible too was the drivers’ knowledge and recognition of the “passing lane” or the lane located innermost or nearest the center of the highway. You won’t see any vehicle cruising in that lane. It’s used only for the purpose of overtaking slower vehicles – nothing else. If you overstay you’ll notice flashing lights of faster vehicles behind you and if you overstay some more you’ll hear instead honking of horns. But then as soon as the passing maneuver is done you’d see the vehicle getting back into the middle lane to proceed on mandated cruising speeds – very orderly driving, delightful and fun.
But then there’s also a downside for having such smooth and wide highways – you tend to get aggressive and speed to your heart’s delight. But then there’s the 120 kph speed limit and stiff fines for over speeding to tame your instincts. I was told that there are cameras all over the place to record your vehicle’s type and model, plate number and even your smiling face as you pursue the speed limits. The photographs together with traffic violation citations would find their way to your mail box. Aside from the stiff fines, the system works on points gathered for every violation. When you reach a certain number of points your license is suspended while you take a seminar on safe driving and when you reach the maximum level of points, your license is revoked and you are barred from driving for life.
On that topic, embarrassingly, I need to share with you a humbling experience I had when we were in Marbella, a high-end resort destination in Spain where for the first time in my life I was given a traffic violation citation and had to pay a fine of One Hundred euros or Six Thousand Pesos plus.
You know how difficult parking can be in most parts of Europe and Spain was no exception. July and August being holiday months in these areas with Marbella one of the preferred places of sojourn for both foreigners and local tourists, parking was doubly difficult. While we were going around looking for space, I got separated from my son Wee who was driving our back-up automobile, a BMW 320D with my brother Rey on board. Being out of our walkie-talkie range we had to resort to the very expensive cellphone texting to report our locations. When I finally saw them, I learned that they had found a public underground parking area, the entrance of which I just passed and for me to get back would have meant that I would have to drive a couple of blocks in a maze of narrow one way streets. But lo and behold I saw a car backing out of an alley. I waited for it to come out and immediately entered the alley and found a wide space for parking. So I parked and motioned to my son for us to go separate ways to the Marbella Beach and be back in fifteen minutes after taking varied camera footage taken from different angles to be used for the TV travel feature on Spain that we shall show on our TV program Business & Leisure.
We met after fifteen minutes and proceeded to our parked BMW X1 only to see two motorcycle cops by the side of our vehicle obviously waiting for whoever parked it. We must have parked on a “no parking” zone. I just had to “bite the bullet” and approach our car, besides I didn’t think I could wait these guys out because we were just driving through Marbella and proceeding to Malaga for the night. As we approached our BMW X1 the next words I heard were, “Hola companero, quiero ver tu licencia”.
To cut a long story short, I told them that we were foreign journalists and I didn’t see any “No Parking” sign, which I really didn’t. They must have some road markings indicating the parking restriction, which I did not recognize or didn’t see at all. But then in Spain for the police “walang media, media” and when I learned about the procedure that they would have to tow our vehicle to the nearest police station where I would have to pay 200 euros or about Twelve Thousand pesos but however if I paid on the spot there would be a 50% discount or just pay 100 euros instead with receipt, I though there was no choice to make.
It was really a very adventurous experience driving on foreign land guided only by your itinerary and the standard GPS on most if not all-new generation BMW vehicles. But a word of caution on the use of GPS, unless absolutely necessary, I suggest you don’t use the GPS all by yourself. It would be best if you had a navigator with you, if possible with earphones to prompt you on the directions as additional guided by visuals on the screen. Driving and at the same time looking at the directional screen can be dangerous. And if you would have other passengers request them not to meddle in prompting you directions from the GPS – “too many cooks spoil the stew”.
I also noticed in Spain and Portugal, similarly in many countries in Europe and also in the Middle East like in Bahrain, the extensive use of roundabouts or rotundas. Remembering a news report saying that the MMDA or the Metro Manila Development Authority was contemplating on the use of these roundabouts in the metro, I can say that this ambitious project can mean a lot of land expropriation on the part of the government because most of the rotundas found inside the city that handle multi entrance and exit roads are huge to properly accommodate and manage high volume of traffic. Except in a handful of medium-sized intersections, I don’t think it is viable to construct large efficient roundabouts in the metro.
I hardly noticed the presence of many traffic enforcers anywhere in Spain or Portugal. Intersections and roundabouts have traffic lights galore like lighted Christmas trees but you see the drivers, almost by instinct obeying what the traffic lights signal them to do and they patiently wait.
My body clock is still trying to adjust back to what it was three weeks ago when I left for the trip. I still find a little difficulty sleeping on my regular bedtime after having been exposed for a good two weeks to a brightly shining two o’clock sun at eight o’clock in the evening or seeing the last ray of sun in the horizon at around 10:15 in the evening. No wonder you see barely a soul in the streets of Spain from two o’clock to four o’clock in the afternoon – “siesta” time.
For more of our trip to Spain and Portugal, track us down on our Business & Leisure column on the business section of The Philippine STAR, for the next few Saturdays.
I cannot thank enough Ms. Maricar Parco, president of Asian Carmakers Corporation, the exclusive importers of the high performance BMW vehicles in the Philippines for the use and with fuel yet of the very reliable, comfortable, stylish, fast and high performance BMW vehicles (BMW X1 and BMW320D) for this extensive land tour of Spain and Portugal. Being behind the wheel of a BMW indeed makes any trip a joy.
Having gone for three weeks would have to make me try to catch up with the motoring happenings in the country. The grind starts again next week.
Happy Motoring!!!
For comments: (E-Mail) motoringtoday-star@stv.com.ph.