1936 On the Continent

apart from the above defects the Spanish railways are perfect.… At all events, they are cheap, probably far cheaper than any other railways in Europe.
    Bilbao is not one of the show places of the country, but it is worth a brief visit. In fact, it is the Manchester of Spain, with a busy port and important industries, excellent hotels and quite a number of beggars, including children. But comparison with Manchester need not deter you from having a peep at Bilbao, which is magnificently situated and has never been mentioned in the same breath with the nether regions. Bilbao has an English colony and an English church—two facts which I mention without comment.
    By the way, if you decide to spend a night in Bilbao and are lucky enough to be staying at one of a chain of hotels, the manager may give you a recommendation to the rest of the chain in other places, where you will then receive a worth-while rebate.
    Before we leave Bilbao—if you decide to go there at all—I must not forget to mention that this city contains the most notable sight in all Spain, to wit, a large number of Spaniards who actually work!
    The train journey from Bilbao to Santander takes some three and a half hours, and as the Spanish railway companies are anxious to enable their passengers to see the scenery, your train will travel slowly enough to allow you to enjoy some truly magnificent mountain scenery on this route. In addition, you will see grapes, grapes and grapes everywhere.
Santander
    Santander is another of those places that you wish to omit from your itinerary, in this instance because it isthe second most fashionable seaside resort in Spain after San Sebastian, and therefore in many respects like the latter. However, to my mind Santander is the more romantic of the two. It really consists of two towns, Santander proper, which is the old part, and the suburb of Sardinero, which is modern and has one of the loveliest beaches in Spain. Santander, apart from glorious weather, and romantic moonlit or starry nights, possesses all the usual amenities of the seaside resorts of its class, including a tennis club which is also a dance club and which the foreign visitor is allowed to join. Another thing that might interest you about Santander, particularly if you come from “ayont the Tweed,” is the fact that although hotels all over Spain are allowed to charge up to 50 per cent. over and above the listed prices during the principal season and on special occasions, Santander hoteliers hardly ever take advantage of this privilege.
Santillana del Mar
    Among Santander hotels I can recommend the Hotel Real (luxury), the Royalty (medium) and the Continental (inexpensive), but I only mention these by way of example, for all Spanish hotels under the
Patronato Nacional del Turismo
are really excellent in their respective classes. By the way, there is one thing about Spanish hotels that you ought to know. If on going to bed you put your shoes outside your door, you can be quite certain that they will not be mixed up with other people’s shoes, no matter how small or large the hotel happens to be. Such accidents cannot possibly happen in any Spanish hotel, for the very good reason that there is no one to clean the visitors’ shoes. On the other hand, there are shoeblacks at every corner in every town of any size, and you can have your shoes cleaned for a few coppers.
    But to return to our muttons, you can make some memorable excursions from Santander. The local office of the ubiquitous
Patronato Nacional del Turismo
will tell you all about the routine side of them, and I need only call attention to the most interesting trips.
    One is to Santillana del Mar and the Caverns of Altamira. Santillana is an archaic little town, and the Caverns,about 2 miles from the former, contain the most remarkable prehistoric paintings.
    If you are interested in mountains and mountaineering, you might also care to visit the Picos de Europa, the highest mountains in Northern Spain, but practically unknown to the traditional tourist. You can reach the Picos de Europa by train and bus combined, as the
Patronato Nacional del Turismo
office will tell you.
    And by the way Santillana is not just another show place. Firstly, your bus passes under arcades of eucalyptus trees—which is sufficient to indicate that this is a lovely journey. Then, when you reach Santillana, you will see the first lemon trees in your experience and a quaint, small world that is run almost