Spain is stone pines with their lovely sculpted roundness, as if the prevailing sea breeze had shaped them, regardless of the distance from the ocean. Spain is rows and rows of scruffy looking olive trees that never quite look like a proper orchard but which produce a sea of gleaming olive oil that annoints everything including our breakfast toast. Spain is also oak trees and wildflowers in bloom along the excellent secondary roads that wind among the steep hills where all the forests grow in rows because the original trees were cut down centuries ago.

Spain is noisy bars filled with smoke and little babies in strollers who are part of the group festivities from a very young age. The place we stop for our morning coffee also has a couple of beer taps, although one is non-alcoholic beer which is stocked here in the supermercado in a section almost as large as that for the regular kind. Spain is the land of cheap, good wine and if we have to pay more than seven euros for a bottle served with dinner, we think we might have been overcharged. But since there is often no printed menu, the bill can be a bit of a surprise but never an unpleasant one.

Young women in Spain show as much midriff as their sisters in the US and their abbreviated T-shirts regularly sport English words in odd combinations, as if the words had been chosen for the number and shape of the letters instead of the meaning.

Spain is moto drivers who pass on curves, on the right, and consider cars stopped at a red light just another barrier to zoom around. They all wear helmets. Spain is parking your car wherever you can regardless of the signage or the amount of road blockage you might create. If it is easier to get somewhere by going the wrong way on a one-way street, then do it. If you can't find a parking place, double park. We see many driving school autos on the roads and wonder what the curriculum looks like: double parking for dummies? Creative red-light running?

Spain is sidewalk cafes that spill into the street so that the passing cars can add a little thrill to that morning coffee. Spain is sitting at the outdoor cafe along the beach watching the sunbathers returning from a hard day in the surf. Spain is walking along the edge of the water, sandals in hand, letting the warm Atlantic waters wash over the toes while trying the ignore the pairs of perky nipples bouncing down the beach toward you as the young women exercise their right to a tan without lines above the waist.

Spain is ordering tapas at an open air bar and wondering just exactly what you're going to get but knowing it will be good.

Spain's Costa de Luz is the beach vacation you always dreamed about.