Tuesday 16 March 2010

Ferrol to Santander

Meet FEVE: neat, trim, a little funky.

It takes twelve and a half hours for four or five hundred km, but it's a gem of a trip. Never far from the coastline--for several hours of blue dazzle on this sunny day we are right on the coast--this two-car, narrows guage special slips through diverse countryside, from mountains to coastal flats.
A random list of its delights: a ticket guy who pats the empty seat facing me, inviting me to place my feet there (unlike the later ticket guy, who tells me to get them the hell off), tunnels and fog, pine and eucalyptus forest (and the eucalyptus scent of the hand cream applied by the curly-haired woman behind me), farms and livestock, freshly tilled gardens, cemeteries (always with the best view of the sea), clotheslines and fencelines, spectacular highway overpasses and gorges, station chiefs in red hats and red batons, rooftops and courtyards, blossoms, and the Camino de Santiago (the famous pilgrimmage route west--maybe that's why the area appears so neat)--all of this directed by a day-long sun that rises as we leave Ferrol and has just set as we arrive in Santander, right on time. 


2 comments:

Tracy Hamon said...

Probably one of your Feve's of the journey!

Glad to read/see parts of your trip!

Gerald Hill said...

Good to have you aboard. That train ride is one I'd gladly take again.