I went to Spain to visit and see my sister studying there. I went with my dad, mom and brother.

It's definitely a different country when you see San Miguel Beer vending machines in the airport.

Two things you don't see a lot of in Spain are fat people and pickup trucks.


Outside of the cities it's all olive groves and small villages.

The driving over there is CRAZY! Use the trains and taxis. Don't drive. They speed and slam on their brakes so much. Also pedestrians DO NOT have right of way. Cross the street at your peril.

Madrid was nice-60-70 degrees but Seville was HOT. 90+ every day. I guess that is why Spainairds stay out until 12 o'clock. Even middle schoolers were out at 11 PM chugging beer.

When we were at Baragas International Airport in Madrid getting our luggage I saw a door labled "FIREARMS REGISTRATION GUARDIA CIVIL" in Spanish.

Also the GC carried what appeared to be LLama 9MM double stacks with just one magazine.

The Polica Local and some security guards packed mostly .38 special wheelguns with lead roundnose ammo!

Also I saw an AR-15 in Spain. The shop was closing and I didn't speak Spanish so I could ask to see the gun (it was behind the counter) but it had bayo lug, hi-cap mag, flash hider, ect. Problem is apparently only. 222 caliber ARs are legal![:(]

Also in the same shop, a kind of outdoorsman shop, they had Colt 9MM 1911's for just $170 EUROS!

CRC

I'll second what you said about the driving.  I was watching guys on motorcycles in downtown Madrid and it was INSANE!  

I need to go to Spain someday...

did you go inside the Cathedral in Seville? is that mind boggling in size or what?  

Yeah. They say it's the 3rd largest in the world.

CRC

I guess that counts most of us out then [:D]

Well I never been to Spain
But I kinda like the music
Say the ladies are insane there
And they sure know how to use it
The don't abuse it
Never gonna lose it
I can't refuse it

Spain is a beatiful country.
I went two summers ago and had a blast.
It was with the school so we took a tour bus. We started out at madrid and did a sort of spiral and ended out in barcelona.  I can concur with the crazy driving over there.  The scariest was when we were all traveling on a tour bus.  If I rememeber correctly we were on the outscurts(sp?) of madrid goinf to our next localtion.  Well anyway, our bus driver wasn't content being behind a slightly slower bus driver.  So he decides to pull out into the other lane and overtake against on comming traffic.  Well, sadly there wasn't enough space before the opposing vehicle(van) reached us, and we were still along side the tour bus we were overtaking.  But, luckily the spainards know what to do in such a situation.  The van simply drifts half way over into his break down lane, We stay in the middle of the road, and the bus next to us goes half way into the breakdown lane.  It was like magic! And we didn't die!  I learned so many things that trip, inluding the fact that three large vehicles can fit on a two-lane highway!

Fidel

Not me! I don't have a pickup truck, so.....

er....

.....Oh, that OTHER criteria......

...never mind! [BD]

I love Spain. Three of my grandparents were native Spaniards.

Yes, the Guardia Civil is a BAD bunch of mo-fo's and they SHOOT when they have to. When I was in Siena back in the early 80's, a group of thugs decided to try and have it out with the GC's. There is a hospital directly across the street from the cathedral we were visiting, and they wheeled three or four of the bad guys right past us. One had his head disassembled by some GC's rounds.

Paella, Calameres, and Cerveza while watching the sunset..... Ah, THAT'S paradise!

I lived over there for 3 years in the USAF. Its a great country. The GC have basically been at war with ETA for the last 50 years or so, so they should be good. All the bad ones are dead. They didn't like the US military being over there too much back then either. They leveled a 2 story brick restaurant just outside the base while I was there.