1936 On the Continent

is some three hours by train from Santiago. Vigo is a place of romantic and enchanting beauty, and if breath-taking scenic loveliness means anything to you, you can have your fill of it here. That is all there is to Vigo, and it is not really different from other southern ports. But it has a fish market that is even more picturesque than Billingsgate, and that is saying a great deal. That it is far, far dirtier than London’s famous fish mart is a fact that only adds to its colourfulness.
    But you can make many lovely trips from Vigo, by train, bus or boat. By the way, boating on the
rias
(small bays) and allowing the Spanish sun and the Atlantic breeze to give you a healthy tan, can be very pleasurable, and costs next to nothing. The
Patronato Nacional del Turismo
office on the quay will give you all the information you require in connection with boating trips.
    The best excursions include a one-day trip by private car (about £4 for four persons) along the south shore of the Bay of Vigo to Redondela and along the north shore toCangas, then to Pontevedra, the Isla de la Toya and the small port and fishing village of Villagarcia.
    If you want to stay at Vigo the Hotel Universal will accommodate you as well as any other, and it possesses the advantage that it overlooks the Ria. In addition, it is inexpensive.
Leon
    I advise you to go from Vigo to Leon by road, no matter how you contrive it. If you can hire a car, so much the better, if not, then walk. The roads are not merely good or excellent, but magnificent.
    By now Spain will have “grown on you,” but if you walk from Vigo to Leon it will get into your blood. You will establish contact with the common people and understand them with the understanding of affection. You will pass through lovely villages and through constantly changing scenery. You will walk for miles and miles through vineyards laden with bunches of grapes such as you have never dreamt of. You will meet peasants driving primitive ox carts, sturdy yet graceful peasant women carrying enormous weights on their heads and stepping along lightly, without a trace of effort or strain.
    And you will realise that ceremonial is not confined to classes but is general throughout Spain. There is a ceremonial in everything, in the way you are greeted as well as in the manner you are received at a humble home.
    The journey from Vigo to Leon will be all the more enjoyable the less you know about it beforehand. It will give you a pleasant surprise at every turn. There is only one surprise you will be spared, and that is bad weather. The road leads up hill and down vale and sometimes you will be walking—or driving—thousands of feet above sea level, where the weather may be rather cool, but most of the time you will have bright blue skies and the sort of heat that is never oppressive.
    And everywhere you will meet with exquisite courtesy and a wholehearted helpfulness that you will be bound to recognise as the genuine thing, for the simple reason that it is genuine, and it often happens that a gratuity is definitely refused even by poor peasants.
    Leon has a cathedral that you must see even if you areotherwise not interested in churches and their architecture. It is the most remarkable cathedral in all Spain and its 13,000 square feet of stained glass is a truly magnificent sight, and when the sun shines through it the whole cathedral is bathed in wonderful colours. All sorts of biblical and other subjects are depicted on the stained glass, and ho matter what your tastes are you can spend many enjoyable hours admiring this fairy tale magnificence.
    The rest of the sights you will find described in the ordinary guide-books, and I will only add here that the Hotel Oliden is an excellent place for meals.
    A few miles out of Leon there is Manzilla, which you must visit if you wish to see a real Moorish village. It looks like a piece of Africa with its baked mud-houses and the open market-place crowded with black-clad women. Manzilla is full of mules and its agricultural community provides endless subjects for the camera.
Valladolid
    Valladolid is a few miles from Leon. Here, if you are interested in such things, you can visit the house of Cervantes, who wrote
Don Quixote
, in the Calle de Miguel Iscar.
    Do not be surprised if you meet in the street a group of young Englishmen, or elderly Englishmen for that matter. For Valladolid has an English Theological College! How it came to be there I do not know, but it is