A Trip to Spain

We arrived at Tilbury at 10 a.m. on Friday, 3rd April. In halfan-hour we were through the customs and aboard the S.S. Highland Brigade which was bound for South America, via Vigo and Lisbon.

The days of the voyage were spent playing chess with Mr. Nasor from Zanzibar and a Spaniard, and playing Hoop-la with Mr. Finsh from Bradford.

We arrived at Lisbon on the 7th, having had a quick look round Vigo the day before.

We were soon through the customs and out into a large car park. An interpreter found us a taxi and sent us off to the city centre cautioning us to watch the meter.

After tramping round the streets for an hour with rucksacks on our backs, we got tired of Lisbon, so we asked the way to the station and took the first train to Badajoz.

We arrived there at eleven o'clock that night, sick of wooden seats and the sight of cork trees. There were customs at Badajoz, because it is only 3 miles inside the Spanish frontier. We yawned our way through the formalities and set out from the station down a side street. After five minutes walk we ended up in the town rubbish dump. After going a little farther we came to some open ground. We made our way up a hill hoping to get a kilometre out of the town to obey the camping laws. We came up to the top past a farm house. Suddenly the whole place was illuminated. I turned round and was dazzled by a searchlight. "Keep on walking calmly," I said, "or they might shoot or something."

We went back over the brow of the hill and then ran back to the bottom, as if all the devils in hell were after us. After an hour of wandering through back streets and ploughed fields we camped by the railway line !

Next morning we got up after a freezing night—we had no tent— and went to the station to leave our rucksacks. After a bun, an orange, and some foul wine we went over the river into the main part of the town. We looked round the castle, which had been so knocked about by Wellington that there was nothing to look round. Then we looked for a bank to cash a travellers cheque. We went to Banco Hispano Americano. It turned out that we needed passports to cash them. Mine was in my money belt, so I had almost to take my trousers down in the middle of the bank.

We eventually found our way back to our camping site and spent

another cold night, from which we were woken by dogs barking.

They were two farm dogs chased by a police dog. A minute later a policeman with a rifle and various other assorted arms came down the railway line. He watched us getting up for five minutes and then came down to us. I thought he would run us in for being so near the frontier, because Portugal was just across the valley. However, I gave him some port which made him quite friendly and he soon went away. 56

At eight we caught the train to Merida, which we looked round that afternoon. It is full of Roman remains. There is an amphitheatre, a theatre, baths, Trojan's Arch, temples, and aquaducts, all in very good condition, but I will not attempt to describe them as Mr. Wiseman has written all about them in his "Roman Spain".

That night we spent in a hotel, as we were tired of camping. It only cost us 3/6 each. The next day we spent travelling to Sevilla, where we did not camp because it was too big. Sevilla, I think, was the most beautiful place in Spain that we visited. There are orange trees everywhere and they give off the most beautiful scent. We spent our day wandering through Moorish palaces, the Giralder Tower, the parks, the gardens of the Alcazar and the orange trees, and living off hot dogs.

The next day was Sunday and we went to Cordoba. The first place we visited was the Mosque, which is about the only thing we saw there, as the Alcazar (castle) was closed.

We then set off to look for the bus station, because we were going to Granada by the more expensive but much shorter bus route. We could not find it, but a man came up to us, seeing our bewilderment— he spoke English and offered to take us there. Afterwards he started to show us round. Phil was walking between us and so I had to lean over to hear what our guide said. Once, when doing this, I bumped into someone. I could not say "sorry", so I went on. The next thing I knew, I was flat against a lamp-post. I got up and found our English speaking friend just about to have a fight with the man I had bumped into. A crowd gathered and a policeman arrived who started to take us to the police station. The man who hit me tapped the policeman on the shoulder and pointed up the street. The policeman looked and the man disappeared down the street, so the policeman had to let us go as well.

Next day we went to Granada. There we looked round the beautiful Alhambra and Generaliffe palaces, which I would have counted the most beautiful buildings and gardens I saw in Spain, if it had not been pouring with rain.

That night we travelled by train to Madrid, where we immediately caught a train to Toledo. There we were shown round the oldest sword factory, where we saw the best of the world's swords. That night we went back to Madrid and stayed in a "flea pit".

The day after, Wednesday, we went to Avila. This is a very old town completely surrounded by walls with 1'2 towers and 14 forts, all in almost perfect condition. We had quite a good time looking round and actually found the spot where Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren were killed in the film "The Pride and the Passion".

From Avila we set out on our return journey, and got home without any trouble, thanks to Spanish visas being abolished, for I had lost mine.

We had enjoyed ourselves thoroughly in Spain and into the bargain I lost half a stone, because we lived on bread and oranges the whole time.