Mediterranean winter resorts : a complete and practical handbook to the principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the Mediterranean, with special articles on the principal invalid stations by resident English physicians / by Eustace A. Reynolds-Ball.

Reynolds-Ball, Eustace A. (Eustace Alfred), 1858-1928

Date:: 1904

Credit: Mediterranean winter resorts : a complete and practical handbook to the principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the Mediterranean, with special articles on the principal invalid stations by resident English physicians / by Eustace A. Reynolds-Ball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$becoming a kind of residential suburb of Giljraltar) for the sake of the fine views of the famous Rock. Algeciras boasts in its immediate neighIjourhood an hotel, the Reina Cristina, which, as regards accommodation, is as good as can be found anywhere : while as regards situation, it is quiet,,, immediately faces (Jibraltar, and commands a most lovely panoramic view of the bay and straits, with their never-ending procession of the world's shipping. (]iven good accommoda- tion, a splendid climate, and lovely surroundings, what more does one want ? The town of Algeciras is a quaint but com- paratively modern Spanish country town. The streets are mostly well paved and tolerably clean. The Market Place, which is best reached by way of the sea front, is worth visiting at about 7 a.m., when it is full of country women who come in to sell their produce, making a very animated and interesting picture. In the heart of the town is the Plaza Alta, a large paved square, where a military band plays once or twice a week, and well- dressed women display their frocks. There are chairs to be had, as in the London parks, for a small charge, and there are a couple of confectioners' shops which can supply a very good cup of coffee. About five minutes' walk beyond the Plaza is the Alameda, a pretty shady garden divided into plots, each of which is kept up by a different family ; not a bad plan, as rivalry between the various people ensures the plots being kept in order without expense to the town. The bull-ring is situated on a hill west of the Alameda, and is the centre of attraction to thousands of people, the services of the best bull-fighters in Spain being secured for the fair-time. But the excursion which possesses most attraction is that to the picturesque mountain town of Ronda, some seventy miles from Gibraltar, but directly and easily accessible by rail from j\lgeciras. Though the guide books have long discovered Ronda, it is only within the last few years—since, in fact, the building of the line from Bobadilla to Algeciras, which is the last link in the trunk line from Paris to Gibraltar—that it has come within the ken of the ordinary tourist. This singularly picturesque Moorish city has, however, long been a favourite subject with the descriptive trstvel-'yvriter, and has, indeed, rather suffered from the indiscreet$