Jen and Dave's travels through Spain and Italy 2016

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Riding the north coast train

From the seaport of Ferrol in northwest Galicia we boarded a narrow-gauge railway that winds through the mountains eastwards, all across the northern coast of Spain. At first we were on a new train, but as we got to more remote areas we had to change several times to progressively older trains, never quite sure if one would show up as the last one pulled away. But they did, and we made our last change in Oviedo just as the doors closed -- a day of good luck! Most of the time we travelled through a tunnel of lush green forest, or actual tunnels through the rock ribs of the mountains, but then we would break out to spectacular views of the wild coast, little towns, fields and always more mountains. We chatted with a young couple, she from Madrid and he from Bulgaria, on their way by train to Bulgaria for her to meet his family.
Late in the day our good train luck brought us at last to Llanes, a village on the coast of Asturias where Jen's uncle Roho (Rogelio Llerandi) was born. We had fresh fish dinner and local wine by the harbor -- we plan to stay a while, here by the sea.