With the Guardia Civil and Spaniens Costa del Sol

2023-08-09 20:38:36

Admittedly, I didn’t resemble Andreas Baader or Jan-Carl Raspe, I was much smaller and younger. My bangs might have reminded me of Ulrike Meinhof, but that had nothing to do with the RAF, but at most with the Beatles. Anyway, the pilots granted me one Iberia-Flight access to your workplace without fear of terror.

I asked a stewardess, she consulted me and the door to the cockpit opened. Two guys in slightly too wide open white shirts smiled at me. They had darkened the skylights with newspaper pages. Instead of turning the wheel or fumbling with buttons, they drank coffee. I imagined myself forcing the two from the catering department to change course towards Mogadishu with a metal knife held in front of me.

We ended up in Madrid, where this holiday really turned into a holiday of improvisation. Our connecting flight to Malaga was cancelled. Air traffic controllers strike. We found a taxi driver who wanted to take us the 500 kilometers to Andalusia for a fixed price. I learned a lot about road traffic in Spain that summer night.

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For example, that a Simca 1000 can easily reach 140 km/h on busy country roads. That two open side windows top every air conditioner, the stiff breeze that is generated in this way puts you in the right mood for the Costa del Sol. I saw that you can overtake a truck by turning the steering wheel with a thigh, because both hands are needed to light a cigarette. “Would you please touch the steering wheel! Steering Wheel, please!” – “Wiele, si, si, hahaha!”

The Guardia Civil drives regular buses

We reached Málaga dead tired but alive. Vital functions picked up momentum when we boarded a bus. He was to transport us to a coastal village where friends of ours lived. The bus drivers went on strike, which is why officials of the Civil Guard step in. Ours wore a small shiny black cap with a sort of tucked wing at the back. He seemed to be imitating Walter Röhrl at the Monte Carlo Rally, which didn’t matter because we were so tightly packed in the aisle that nobody could fall over.

I don’t remember the rest of the vacation. Just that our host was a pharmacist and looked like Eagle Sam from the Muppets. He cooked delicious dishes. Without a recipe, improvised from existing ingredients.