Costa Verde Express: On the gourmet train through Spain’s green north

A gentle jolt brings the still sleeping guests out of their dreams. The Costa Verde Express leaves the small train station in Viveiro at walking pace. Early morning fog lies over the coastal town in the extreme north-west of Spain.

The sparkling Galician Albariño white wine, served with crayfish and octopus arms at dinner in the dining car, keeps most people dozing off. The onset of the rhythmic rattling of the train does not make getting up any easier. But in the corridor, the train crew is already ringing a bell: breakfast.

The scent of warm croissants, fresh coffee, Ibérico ham and scrambled eggs fills the air in the dining car. A stewardess in a white uniform invites you to an empty table with cloth serviettes, fresh flowers and a lamp with a yellow marbled glass shade. Again and again the passing coastal landscape tempts you to look out the window.

Long sandy beaches alternate with rugged cliffs. In between, the journey goes through dense forests, past old fishing villages. At a leisurely 50 kilometers per hour, the Costa Verde Express travels on old narrow-gauge tracks, sometimes just a few meters past the Cantabrian Sea. The route also partly runs parallel to the northern Way of St. James Coast, the Camino del Norte.

More slow train than express

While the pilgrims have to struggle on foot along the Costa Verde, the “Green Coast”, Julio Cesar Pallucchini and his wife Liliana sit in the wood-panelled, carpeted lounge of the Costa Verde Express and enjoy the landscape in feel-good mode with a café con leche.

“Thank God the train only partially lives up to its name,” says Julio. The Green Coast is really impressive green. On the other hand, says Julio, he’s happy that it’s not an express train, but rather a tourist train. So you can observe the landscape in peace.

He was looking for exactly this type of decelerating travel. “And of course the good food,” he says and laughs.

The train journey takes you through the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia: Spain’s gastronomic strongholds par excellence, as Laura López puts it. She is Executive Chef on board the Costa Verde Express. Food also plays a special role on this train journey.

While they dine in restaurants on the daily excursions, Laura and her colleague Daniela prepare delicacies from the region where the train is stopping in the evening. Scallops and octopus in Galicia, wild salmon, fabada stew and Cabrales cheese in Asturias, Cocido Montañes stew in Cantabria, cod in the Basque Country.

The Spanish answer to the Orient Express

The Costa Verde Express is one of the so-called historical royal trains of the state railway company Renfe. They are something like Spanish Orient Express versions, reminiscent of train journeys from a past century.

The nostalgic train in Belle Époque style needs six days for the approximately 600 kilometers between Bilbao in the Basque Country and the Galician pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela. Depending on the date, it goes in one direction or the other.

This time the train adventure started at the tomb of Saint James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela. Above the tomb stands the cathedral, which is the destination of the Way of St. James.

The First Pilgrim and a Sistine Chapel

The train also makes a stop in Oviedo on its journey. The first Way of St. James starts from the cathedral of the city. Asturias King Alfonso II is said to have ridden from Oviedo as the first pilgrim to Galicia after the discovery of the apostle’s tomb in 812.

In Cabezón de la Sal in Cantabria, the train stops at the station as it does every evening so that the passengers can sleep. Cool country air flows through the sliding window, crickets chirp.

The next morning it becomes clear to everyone why Spain’s north is so green: it’s raining cats and dogs. On the platform, the train staff hands out umbrellas for the excursion. The bus takes half an hour to get to Altamira Cave, often referred to as the Stone Age Sistine Chapel.

The prehistoric cave paintings of bison, deer and horses are more than 14,000 years old. Today, only a small number of lucky people drawn by lot can visit the original cave, wearing protective suits and breathing masks. But the difference to the cave replica next door is hardly noticeable.

Futuristic temples of art in a double pack

Lunch is available two kilometers further in Santillana del Mar. The stone houses are adorned with coats of arms and wooden balconies decorated with flowers. The Convent of the Clarisse Colegiata de Santa Juliana is one of the most important Romanesque sacred buildings in Cantabria.

Cantabria’s elegant capital, Santander, with its magnificent Art Nouveau buildings, seems downright young in comparison. A few years ago, the silver-scaled Centro Botín opened here. Built directly on the river promenade, the magnificent building of the Botín banking family, owners of the Santander Bank, offers the most modern avant-garde art.

But the Centro Botín cannot compete with the world-famous Guggenheim Museum in the Basque coastal metropolis of Bilbao. Formed from silver titanium plates, the building on the Nervión looks like a gigantic serviette and can be seen from afar from the Costa Verde Express. The view announces the end of the journey. Because Bilbao is the destination station of the train.

Costa Verde Express

(dpa)

More articles from this category can be found here: Travel