SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN -- I've been hooked on trains ever since as a small boy I rode beside the driver of a steam locomotive. The noise, smoke and flying sparks as we hurtled through the darkened English countryside -- at no more than 50 kilometres an hour -- was spellbinding. Trains aren't nearly so romantic now, so the chance to spend a week dawdling across northern Spain on El Transcantabrico, an old-style narrow-gauge luxury passenger train, was irresistible.
Called "Green Spain" because of misty rains that sweep in from the Atlantic, northern Spain consists of the provinces of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabrica, as well as the Basque country. It's worlds away from the dazzling white towns and brown hills of the sun-drenched south.
Barely mentioned in guidebooks, El Transcantabrico began seasonal weekly service in 1983. The journey combines travel by luxury coach and rail. That may disappoint hard-core train buffs, but it provides a relaxed way to see some of the least accessible parts of northern Spain.
The train stops each night so that passengers get a good sleep -- and you don't miss being rocked to sleep at night. Breakfast is served aboard, but lunches and dinners are at some of the best restaurants in northern Spain. Over eight days and seven nights, the train covers almost 1,000 kilometres, skirting beaches, crossing deep valleys and inlets of the sea from Santiago to Bilbao and finally to San Sebastian -- all at an unhurried 50 kilometres an hour, a pace that felt more leisurely than in my childhood.
We met our 40 or so fellow passengers at the historic Hotel de Los Reyes Catholicos in Santiago, one of the finest of Spain's parador hotels. The group that late September included an architect from Mallorca with his Danish wife, an orthodontist from Detroit, an elegant Madrid businessman who was the spitting image of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, two retired English couples living in southern Spain and a group of Puerto Ricans who burst into song at the slightest excuse.
After lunch, we boarded our bus for the first leg of the trip to La Coruna on the north coast. From there, a chartered boat took us across the broad estuary of the Ria de Betanzos to the railway terminal of El Ferrol. Our home for the next eight days waited at the platform. Warm lights glowed invitingly from inside the gleaming dark blue and cream coaches -- but the train looked even smaller than we imagined.
Our compartment was like a walk-in closet with a double bunk, wash basin and picture window. The next morning, we mastered showering in a stall as tiny as a broom closet; the trick was to keep still and let the water do the moving. But we spent very little time in our close quarters other than to sleep or take the occasional nap. (By this year, however, all accommodation was to be renovated into larger suites with private bathrooms.)
That first day, we set out to explore the train. With comfortable chairs, Oriental carpets and the aroma of fresh coffee and croissants, we settled into the dining car with a contented sigh. Just as we were finishing our second cup of coffee, the train's whistle sounded and we began to move for the first time.
Travel on high-speed trains, such as France's TGV, reduces the countryside to a continuous blur, but the leisurely pace of El Transcantabrico made the train a part of the landscape, if only fleetingly. Workers in fields paused and looked up for a moment as the train passed. On station platforms, passengers waiting for local trains gazed at us as we glided through: People looking at people whose lives came together for an instant. I remembered again those slow trains of my childhood when my face was glued to the window so as not to miss anything.
With the misty Galician hills slipping past the window, I asked our train guide, Barbara Nieto, how the idea of the train began. She explained that a group of executives from FEVE, one of Spain's railway companies, decided to renovate some coaches brought from England in the 1920s and convert them into a luxury train along the lines of the Orient Express.
She added that many of the first passengers were Americans, but now more Spaniards are discovering the train, especially during the peak months of July and August. The train has proved popular; booking needs to made a year in advance, she said.
After the first day, our bus awaited at our first stop in what would be the pattern for the week: a tour of Ribadeo, for example, lunch at the local parador, return to the train and travel on to the next town for another leisurely visit, dinner and bed.
The food along the ride -- on board and off -- showed off the best of regional cuisine. That first night, dinner at the Villa Blanca Restaurant in Luarca started with white asparagus stuffed with sea urchin caviar followed by veal-stuffed cabbage rolls that would make a babushka cry. All accompanied by excellent Rioja wines and Asturian liqueurs. When the perspiring cook emerged from the kitchen at the end of the meal, she was greeted with a spontaneous ovation.
As the week progressed, passengers got to know each other. The two Puerto Ricans kept up a running exchange of jokes, which many of us couldn't understand, and sang at least three songs for every birthday celebration, and a surprising amount occurred in this short time frame.
At times, the journey seemed like one long moveable feast. We stopped in towns that saw few tourists, visited the cities of Oviedo and Gijon and made our way slowly eastward, each day coming home to the familiarity of our little train.
In the Picos de Europa, we took a cable car to one of the finest alpine views in northern Spain, walked the ancient streets of Santillana del Mar, before travelling on to the elegant resort of Santander and finally arriving in the Basque city of Bilbao, where in the fading light we marvelled at the sinuous titanium shapes of Frank Gehry's astonishing Guggenheim Museum.
FEVE's track does not extend east of Bilbao so the last part of the trip to San Sebastian was by bus. Seven days is probably enough on a small train, but that last bus trip was anticlimatic. Everyone seemed reluctant to bid adios to the little train, or "el trenecito," as Miguel from Mallorca called it affectionately.
On one of our last mornings, I asked our train driver, Alberto Perez, what it was like to drive El Transcantabrico. "Well, it's longer than our regular trains, but it's just another train to me," he said. Maybe it's just another train to Alberto, but not to this passenger.
If you go
El Transcantabrico: Regularly scheduled trips run from mid-May to early October. Peak season is July and August. Bookings can be made through Marketing Ahead (http://www.marketingahead.com) in the United States, as there's no company representation in Canada. Prices range from $1,728 (U.S.) for one person, single cabin, shared toilet and shower to $3,528 for two persons, suite cabin with private bathroom. Prices include all meals with wine and all transportation from Santiago or San Sebastian. Contact Marketing Ahead Inc., 433 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. Phone: (800) 223 1356; fax: (212) 686 0271; e-mail: Mahrep@aol.com
Other options: Spain has a second vintage train, Al Andalus Express, which travels through Andalucia in the south, taking in the cities of Cordoba, Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Ronda and Granada. Trips either begin or end in Madrid or Seville and run from March through November. Prices range from $1,791 (standard cabin, double room, a person) to $3,133 (club cabin, double room a person). Trips can also be booked through Marketing Ahead.
For more information: Contact Tourist Office of Spain, 2 Bloor St. W., Suite 3402, Toronto, Ont., M4W 3E2. Phone: (416) 961-4079; fax: (416) 961-1992; Web site: http://www.tourspain.es.
-- G.F.
