Page:A Handbook for Travellers in Spain - Vol 1.djvu/28

[12] from other countries to any town in Spain can be addressed “Poste restante,” in which case they must be called for at the Telegraph-office, just as a letter would be called for at the Post-office.

Railways, and the improvement of public conveyances, by leading to increased travel and traffic, have caused some corresponding change for the better in the quantity and quality of the houses destined for the accommodation of wayfaring men and beasts. As they are constantly changing, it is not easy to give their names in every small and out-of-the-way place. These conveniences are of varied denominations, degrees, and goodness. 1st is the Hotel, or Fonda (the Oriental Fundack), which is the assumed equivalent to our hotel, as in it lodging and board are furnished. The hotels in the chief towns have now French cooking, and are good, though not equal to Swiss hotels. 2nd is the Posada, in which, strictly speaking, only the former is provided. Thirdly comes the Venta, which is a sort of inferior posada of the country, as distinguished from the town; at the Venta the traveller finds the means of cooking whatever provisions he has brought with him, or can forage on the spot. These khans are generally larderless, although the Ventero, as in Don Quijote’s time, will answer, when asked what he has got, Hay de todo, there is everything; but de loque V. trae, “of what you bring with you,” must be understood.

The traveller, when he arrives at one of these Posadas, in rarely-visited places, should be courteous and liberal in using little conventional terms of civility, and not begin by ordering and hurrying people about; he will thus be met more than half-way, and obtain the best quarters and accommodation that are to be had. Spaniards who are not to be driven by arod of iron, may be tickled and led by a straw. Treat them as caballeros, and you put them on their mettle at once, when they generally behave themselves as such. No man who values a night’s rest will omit on arrival to look at once after his bed: a cigar for the mozo, a compliment to the muchacha, and a tip, una gratificacioncita, seldom fail to conciliate and secure comfort.

The “ventorrillo,” or Cantina, is a minor class of venta, and often nothing more than a mere hut, run up with reeds or branches of trees by the roadside, at which water, wine, and bad aguardiente (aniseed, true aqua ardens) are to be sold. In out-of-the-way districts the traveller, in the matter of inns, will seldom be perplexed with any difficulty of selection: the golden rule will be to go to the one where the diligence puts up—El Parador de las Diligencias. The simple direction, “vamos á la Posada,” let us go to inn, will be enough in those small towns where the name of an inn is not given in the Handbook, for the