VISIT TO SPAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1928, Page 8

VISIT TO SPAIN

lALI *1 ? KSSiOXS OF GORGEOUS SKIES.

liy FRANCIS R. L. CAMPIN'. who won the Anjtjlti-Spii n ish Society's prize of ;t trip to Spain and home for an essay consisting of 1.000 words in Spanish on Spain. He is h year.oi age and a student at the AVhitgift Middle School, Croydon. He was chosen as school candidate to

compete for the prize. Railway travelling in North Spain is very pleasant, especially in a last t rain. The country is extremely rugged, and the train passes throng short, tunnels at frequent intervals. As it em ergesifrom each tunnel a new landscape spreads out. for the land is divided up h\- parallel ranges of hills ol regular rounded shape.

There is hardly an acre ol lend ground ill the whole area that one run see. In every direetion great ridges. sleep as the root ol a house, sweep awav into the tumbled horizon. Some converge to meet in a heap of stony wreckage, hut most.id them open out to form a tunnel or enclose a basinshaped valley. 11l Jill (his confusion of hills and valleys there is very little rock to he seen. n occasional isolated mass rises from a sea of verdure in a valley lar hclnvv Ihe railway, or stands out. against the skv like JI castle, on the summit of a lull, hut as a rule the ground, however steep, is covered with woods and cultivated lields. These woods iuv very ! cantifill, whether they mount, grey pud mysterious, up the slopes ol ill distant, ridges, or stand like soklieis in a compact mass on the grass slopes of the pastures or whisper and sway by the side of the road. DELIGHT TO THE F.YK. The farms of this region are a deliglil to the eve. The farmhouse, built ns usually on a steep slope or on the eicst ~f a hill, is 'of large white stones, with t iuv windows and a great sweep ol itregular, mellow red mol. I stially il has orchards and venerable, crookedtrunked pear trees, and quaint conical haystacks, built round a pole. In the field slow-moving fawncoloured bullocks, with red pads on their heads and fringe's over their eyes draw cumbersome carts or strange wooden reaping machines. Occasionally a church comes into view. These churches are very (filler ent from ours in England. I hey have as a nth' no windows: the walls are high and supported bv heavy Initlressand the roof is very low-pitched. The pointed spire is entirely absent, itn'acc being taken by a small square tower or pierced wall with bells hung : :i the opening. The church is almost nvat'iably built on the summit of it small hill.

Rivers here are small but numerous. Where the witter is deep, as above the lams which cross many of the rivers •>t frequent intervals, it is often of in’ense bluish-green colour, hut it is otherwise dear and full of small brown ":sh. At this.season the rivers are shahSw. especially the larger ones, which become mere streams. As one goes farther south, the land becomes flatter, with great flat-roctfed -misses of rock rising from it and stretching away in monotonous straight ■iocs to the level horizon.

The woods have* vatiishc'd, leaving only long limns of ragged Lombardy mplars. ” The land is barren and sandy, all of a yellow or dun colour. )n(> can easily conceive the poverty >f those who cultivate it. t WONDERFFI, SKIES.

Over the flat, rock mesas mentioned above, wonderful sky effects can be seen in the evening. AH the douds are quite flat oil Ihe under side, but above they are wrought into all mantlet of fantastic shapes. The sun paints them in gorgeous tones of purple and oragne, gold and blue, until they seem like enchanted Alands in a sea whose colour rangeeggshell blue to that of an aquat is worth travelling through tli is part is only to see the sky a I ■ unset.

Since we are discussing railway travelling. it would he as well io consider :lie* conditions governing it. There are two vastly different types ol train. The last train (first and second class mly, is comfortable and well-equipped, ncl stops only at important stations.

The mixed train is more interesting. In Spain, second-class fare is three times as much as third. In a third lass coach the compartments are separated into pairs by high partitions, and into single compartments by low iurtitions. over which passengers climb to visit friends.

The seats are of hare wood, and the • hi!-,- illumination is :l tiny oil lamp m a kind of goldfish howl attached to the 1-oeif. These trains wait for a long time it each station, and the passengers go out and make a stroll. Merchandise and live stock are carried as well as nersons.

The railway is not fenced. Children play almost under the wheels of the trains, and a level-crossing is. dosed solely by a rope. The railway is. however, really the only practicable means of reaching many places, since one requires much experience to ride a mlile particularly if one has luggage.