Review - Is it only me......?

Our cycle trip was the first that either Rob or I had done and, for me at least, there have been a couple of things that have occupied my mind. 

1. In Spain, we cycled along a busy dual carriageway and, northern Spain being mountainous, every so often it entered a tunnel. These tunnels were sometimes quite frequent but we didn't know at the time. Sometimes the tunnels were lit, but not always, and we couldn't see how long the tunnels were until we entered. Signs for each tunnel, lit or unlit, required us to put our lights on (and then invited us to turn them off on exiting each tunnel). Operating our lights meant that we had to stop, dismount, hold the bike with one hand and fiddle with a switch with the other hand, all the time with fast-moving traffic going past us. My rear light was at the rear of my rack (because of the dry-sack that I had on the rack which would have obscured a light on the seatpost) and my front light was low down on the LH front fork (because of my bar bag taking up the space on my handlebar). Then, when we exited the tunnel, we had to do the same again or just leave the lights on.....but for how long? Five or ten minutes later, we'd come to another tunnel. Get the idea? It struck me that it would be far easier if all bike lights had simple handlebar-mounted switches................or is this too simplistic? I must investigate further.
2. On a long cycle trip, it is almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with an oily chain. Rob and I used to have to check before we got into the shower each day whether we had black horizontal stripes on our right legs to ensure that we didn't emerge from the shower to dry ourselves on the nice, clean, fluffy, (always) white bath towels. Sometimes, if we were careless, clothing would also come into contact with the chain, either on our leg-warmers as we stood astride our bikes or, in my case, as one day I put on my wind-proof jacket only for it to slip and brush against the chain. On tour, unless you also bring Swarfega or a chain degreaser and detergents, the oily stain remains on the clothing for the duration. Once the tour finishes, the contamination can have "set" and be impossible to fully remove......as I'm discovering today! This is really annoying and I'm looking at bio-degradable oils now in the hope that if lubricants can degrade naturally, then the contamination should be easier to clean off on tour with a bit of help from common detergents...........or is this belief misguided? Again, I must investigate further.

If anyone has any comments or experience on either of the above, I'd be really interested to hear them.