1936 On the Continent

you abstain from drinking water. Beer, wine and mineral waters are safer. The season is that there is not a single well in the whole of Cadiz and all the drinking water is imported from other parts.
Ronda
    Ronda is a small place, with nothing remarkable from the traditional tourist point of view, yet it will richlyrepay a visit. It is only four hours by train from Cadiz and it is no less incredible, though for other reasons. Ronda is almost as white as Cadiz, but it owes its fame—and it is world famous—to its situation. It stands on a rocky shelf whose three sides have a sheer drop of nearly 500 feet, while in the middle of the town itself, separating the old Moorish
Ciudad
(City) from the more modern
Mercadillo
quarter, is the gorge of the Guadalevin, which is about 200 feet wide and 400 feet deep. It has a single span bridge, the Puente Nuevo, from which you get the finest view.
    It is easy to give facts and figures, but difficult to convey a clear impression of Ronda as a whole. But if you can imagine Hell as a picturesque and not unpleasant place in sun-drenched country, then you will have a fair idea of Ronda in the spring, when the river roars through the terrible and magnificent gorge.
    Ronda has the usual churches, hotels, restaurants, guides, beggars, etc. But on May 20th-22nd there is an interesting
fiesta
with bull-fights, and another on September 10th-12th.
Malaga
    Malaga is another place where I would like to spend a few months, especially in the winter. Of course, you have heard of the muscatel grapes grown in the district and also about its sub-tropical and tropical vegetation. That means that Malaga knows no frost and, in fact, the temperature never falls below 44 degrees, so that it is the warmest winter resort in Europe.
    But Malaga represents still another aspect of the kaleidoscope that is Spain. About its situation I need only say that it lies on a beautiful bay and is surrounded by flat country. The town is split in twain by the seasonal torrent of Guadalmedina which, however, is now regulated to prevent floods.
    But what distinguishes Malaga from all the other Spanish cities we have visited so far is the fact that here the municipality pays attention to drainage and other questions that are more or less neglected elsewhere. Also, the hotels and restaurants are even better, yet not more expensive, than in other cities. In this connection it iswell to bear in mind that oranges, figs, melons, bananas, and, of course, some of the finest grapes in the world, grow in the environs of Malaga, and in view of the hot weather it is quite pleasant to indulge in a brief period of fruitarianism. Malaga can also offer you some excellent drinks.
    Of the hotels, I will only mention the excellent Ingles on the Calle del Marques de Larios, and the Principe de Asturias, on the shore, in the residential suburb of Caleta, both of which are open all the year round. Some of the other hotels close in the summer.
    Malaga has an industrial district with sugar factories, cotton mills, etc., and if you are interested in that aspect of Spanish life you can easily make the necessary contacts through the British Consul.
Fat Ladies
    Of amusements in the ordinary sense, Malaga has nothing to offer beyond the usual things—theatres, music-halls, bull-fighting, and the like. But boating in and around the bay, particularly in the evening, when the city is illuminated, can be very enjoyable. The “local colour” is present everywhere, and if you go to the market place—the Mercado—you will get an “eyeful” of picturesqueness and rather more than an earful of noise. The fat lady who fries fish in the street will probably try to vamp you, but if you refuse to buy her oily product she will not “turn nasty.” On the contrary, she will teach you some Spanish if you ask her, though I cannot guarantee her grammar.
    By the way, you will have observed by now that all Spanish women above a certain age are fat, and all those below that fatal limit are ravishingly lovely and are—in Andalusia at any rate—guarded like criminals by their more corpulent sisters. Mr. Havelock Ellis, in his
Soul of Spain
, gives a closely reasoned explanation of this tendency on the part of Spanish senoras to enrich the shops that specialise in out-size clothes, and if you are interested in the subject I refer you to his book.
    Talking about matters feminine reminds me that while we were in Cadiz I forgot to mention that you can obtain in that