For the latest in our ‘Worst of Spain’ series, Ken from Totally Spain touches on a matter I’ll happily rant about for hours… Yes, it was about time someone mentioned this….

“Without doubt the worst of Spain has to be the drivers. I’ve lived in several countries and driven in many more but the Spanish drivers have to be the worst. Living in Cantabria I travel regularly along the A8 motorway between Bilbao & Santander. I never fail to see reckless driving on this road and have on quite a number of occasions had threatening situations happen to me on this motorway. The most recent and perhaps the worst occured in August. I was leaving Santander on my way to Castillo near Noja. A 35 km journey approximately.

Leaving Santander city is a two lane carriageway and you pass through several tunnels. I was in the outside lane and had ahead of me a line of traffic and could not travel any faster than I was going. Next thing I know this guy is driving right up my tail. Way too close. I tap the brakes and wave my hand indicating he back off but no, he continued to tail me like this sometimes backing off but then racing up behind me again. This frustratingly went on for a while before finally I saw him switch to the inside lane and race for the next exit.

We eyed each other as he shot by me and I couldn’t resist giving him the finger. He deserved it but it was the wrong thing to do. With that he swung dangerously back out onto the carriageway and raced right back up behind me again. Well believe it or not for the next 25 kms he raced behind me, he raced up on my inside and he raced up on my outside. Unbelievable. All the time furiously waving for me to pull over so he could have a go at me. I was sure I was going to have to lead him all the way to our local police station but finally he took off. Pointless macho bullshit and a dangerous, crazy experience. He could have easily caused one of us to crash.

Also my mother and father in law had a somewhat similar experience in Alicante where an angry driver actually forced them off the road. They are in their late 70’s so you can imagine what that was like for them. So my worst of Spain ? THE DRIVERS.”