I. Season and Plan of Tour. Health.
Season of Tour. The mildness of the climate (p. xxxv) makes travelling pleasant in the Mediterranean lands at almost any season. Even in the height of summer travellers who can stand a little heat will find residence in many of the islands and seaside resorts quite agreeable. Winter begins here much later and ends much earlier than in Northern or Central Europe, but until the end of March few regions are quite exempt from wintry days and falls of snow. March is considered also the windiest month in the year on the Mediterranean.
For the Portuguese coast, Andalusia, and Northern Morocco (Tangier) the best seasons are from the middle of March to the middle of May and the months of October and November. Granada, which lies high, is suitable for a prolonged stay from April till the middle of June. Seville and Cordova are often uncomfortably cold in December and January owing to lack of heating appliances. At Lisbon and Tangier winter is the season of the fertilizing rains, which often last till the middle of March. With regard to the best season for Madeira and the Canary Islands, see pp. [19], 32.
The weather is generally bright and genial in Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania in late autumn, till the end of November, and also in March and April, though less settled. Winter is a dry season only on the E. coast of Tunisia and in the Sahara, but is sometimes cool and windy (see also pp. [170], 172, 321). It is still hot in October in Sicily, in Barbary, and in Egypt, where the sirocco (p. [321]) is specially disagreeable in the early autumn, while health is endangered by malaria (p. xvi).
Of all the Mediterranean regions Egypt alone offers a dry, settled, and genial climate in winter. The traveller on the Eastern Mediterranean who wishes to avoid extremes of cold and heat should make his first stay at Cairo in January or February, start for the Syrian coast at the end of February or early in March, proceed to Palestine and Damascus after March has commenced, and visit Asia Minor and Greece in April, and Constantinople and the Black Sea in May. In autumn, from the end of September onwards, the above order should be reversed.
Plan of Tour. The traveller is advised to draw up a careful programme of his tour before starting. All the places described in the Handbook may be reached by steamer, or partly overland, at any time of the year, but during the winter season (from about the end of October to the middle of May) much greater facilities are offered by excursion-steamers (see pp. xviii, 1, 2), circular tickets, and combined tickets. American travellers may sail direct from New York or Boston to some of the Mediterranean ports (see p. xviii). Travellers from Great Britain may start from London, Liverpool, Southampton, or Dover, or if they dread a long sea-voyage may proceed overland to Marseilles, to Genoa, to Naples, to Brindisi, to Venice, or to Trieste (comp. p. xxiv), and begin their Mediterranean tour from one of these points. Some may prefer the overland route to Spain and Gibraltar, while others again may find it more convenient to travel all the way to Constantinople (Orient Express), to Constantza (Ostend-Vienna Express), or to Odessa (viâ Vienna and Cracow) by railway, and thence explore the Mediterranean from east to west. The railway routes will be found in ‘Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide’ or in the German ‘Reichskursbuch’. For the ‘trains de luxe’ services tickets must be obtained from the International Sleeping Car Co. (London, 20 Cockspur St., S.W.; Paris, 3 Place de l’Opéra; New York, 281 Fifth Ave.; Berlin, 69 Unter den Linden). For the sea-routes, see p. xvii; for particulars application should be made to the various companies or their handbooks consulted. Excursion, circular, and combined tickets are issued by Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son, Ludgate Circus, and by other tourist-agents. It may be noted here that the ‘pleasure-cruises’ organized by many of the companies offer great attractions at moderate cost, but at the almost entire sacrifice of personal independence, while the fellow-passengers with whom one is associated for weeks may not always be congenial.
As a general rule it is pleasanter and less expensive to travel with one or more companions than alone. Apart from hotel charges and railway and steamboat fares, the cost for two or three persons is often no greater than for one. Moreover, when off the beaten track the traveller thus escapes from monotonous and monosyllabic conversation with native guides or drivers (comp. pp. xxv, xxvi), and in case of illness or accident he is far more certain of obtaining assistance and relief.
The most useful language in most parts of the Mediterranean is French. In Portugal, Madeira, and the Canary Islands English is much spoken, in Egypt it is the leading language. Italian is very useful in Tunisia, on the coast of Tripolitania and Barca, in Malta, throughout the Levant, in Greece, and at Constantinople. On the other hand a slight knowledge of Arabic will be found most useful throughout the whole of N. Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, and in Palestine and Syria.
Some Hints on Health may be of advantage to the inexperienced traveller from the north. As a rule an overcoat or extra wraps should be put on at sundown, though they may often be dispensed with an hour or two later. When heated with walking the traveller should not rest in the shade. In hot climates like those of Egypt and the Sahara he should never remove his pith-helmet or other headgear in the sun. Grey spectacles or grey veils shield the eyes alike from the glare of the sun and from dust. Sunshades also are very desirable in hot weather. As a rule it is advisable to stay within doors during the heat of the day. On the other hand many places on the Mediterranean are cold in winter, Lower Egypt and Cairo being no exceptions. Steamboat passengers, too, will generally find warm clothing very desirable between October and the middle of May. An extra coat or shawl should be donned in museums, churches, mosques, and other buildings with stone pavement, as the air is often very chilly.
When engaging rooms visitors should insist on a southern aspect, which is almost essential for the delicate and highly desirable for the robust. In every case, especially if the rooms do not face due south, they should have a fireplace or else central heating. In the Mediterranean regions, where many of the plainer hotels have stone or brick floors, carpets are essential to comfort.
With regard to diet also a few general hints may be serviceable. Oysters, fish, salads, and tinned meats should be absolutely avoided. Raw fruit, except perhaps oranges and grapes, should be partaken of very sparingly. Ices and iced drinks also are apt to be upsetting. The contents of siphons, lemonade, and other ‘refreshing beverages’ are not unfrequently composed of polluted water. The safest liquids are boiled water, natural mineral waters, tea, coffee, good red wine, and, in moderation, sound English or German beer. Fairly good cognac or even whiskey may be obtained almost everywhere, but for the time-honoured ‘soda’ or ‘potash’ it is safer to substitute boiled or mineral water.
Colds, errors in diet, malaria, and over-exertion are the chief sources of the sharp attacks of illness to which even the hardiest travellers from the north are liable in the ‘sunny south’. Sunstroke is another danger. Against all these the traveller requires to be more on his guard than at home, where his nerves and his digestion are much less liable to be overtaxed. Care and moderation in sight-seeing and touring are therefore hardly less important than attention to diet.
Before the journey is begun a supply of a few simple remedies (see below) may be prepared with the advice of the traveller’s physician. In cases of serious illness one of the properly qualified doctors mentioned in the text should be consulted.
Diarrhoea, which may develop into dysentery, one of the commonest complaints, generally results from catching cold or from eating unwholesome food. The patient should first take a slight aperient and afterwards several doses of bismuth. The diet should be arrowroot (which should always accompany the traveller), rice or some other farinaceous food, and milk; fruit, meat, fatty substances, and alcohol should be avoided. In obstinate cases a change of climate is sometimes the only remedy.
Sprains are best treated with cold compresses; the injured part should be tightly bandaged and given perfect rest. In the case of a snake bite or scorpion sting the wound should be immediately treated with ammonia, or better still, cauterized. Sunstroke is not common in winter, but may easily occur as late as November or as early as April. The usual remedies are rest and shade; cold appliances are used for the head and neck; in case of high temperature these should be iced. The best protection for the head is either a pith-helmet, or a tall perforated straw-hat, with several folds of gauze round it and hanging down over the back of the neck. When the eyes are irritated with glare or dust frequent washing with a weak boracic or zinc lotion affords relief (comp. also p. xv).
Lastly a few simple and well-known remedies, most of which may be obtained in a tabloid form, may be mentioned for other common ailments: cascara sagrada, castor-oil, ‘Tamar Indien’, or Epsom salts for constipation; a zinc or starch dusting-powder for chafed sores due to riding; tincture of arnica, or Elliman’s embrocation, antiseptic wool, collodion, and sticking-plaster, for bruises and wounds; ammonia (sal-ammoniac) or other antidote (muscatol) to stings or bites; disinfectants, carbolic acid, insect-powder; chlorodyne for neuralgia; quinine for cases of fever. Fever, be it noted, especially in malarious regions (Sardinia, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, Greece) is propagated by mosquitoes, especially by the female of the Anopheles Claviger. Light curtains round the beds should therefore be used to ward off the attacks of these troublesome insects. At dusk, and at night when the room is lighted, the windows should always be carefully closed. When a bite has been received the inflamed part should be at once rubbed with ammonia.
It should, however, be added, in order to reassure the timid or nervous traveller, that few of these elaborate precautions are necessary except for enterprising explorers who often leave the beaten track or whose tour extends beyond the usual winter season.