Santander and Ribadesella, October 2024

 After half a day in Santander (I had a look at "Europe's tallest indoor vertical garden", (sounds more impressive than it is), it was back on the narrow-gauge railway, this time to Ribadesella.  

Once again I bought my ticket (to Ribadesella) from a helpful person at the counter in the FEVE station.  Unlike my last trip, a return ticket was for some reason not an option.  A single ticket was just over 9 euros.  The timetable is here.

I am getting the hang of this railway now.  Firstly, you are unlikely to make the whole trip in the same train (or even in a train at all!).  There are no doubt many reasons for this;  one reason could be that some sections are electrified with posts and cables, and other parts not.

Secondly, you may well be asked to switch trains mid-journey, and you may use a wide variety of train types in a single trip.  The smallest train I got on was little more than a tram.

Others look more "train-like" with 2 or 3 carriages.  All have a big bathroom.  All are comfortable (sometimes the seats are spacious with 2 on one side and a single on the other).  They never seem to get remotely crowded.

Thirdly, at some point on the journey, you are likely to switch to a bus.  The bus can also vary in size!   This has been the case on all the four journeys I have made on the Santander to Oviedo stretch.

Finally, it is very, very slow.  On some trains if you sit at the front you can see through the driver's cabin.  It is curve after curve with regular speed limit signs, often as low as 30kmh.  

There are two outstanding sections of the Santander to Oviedo section of the railway.  Firstly, between Roiz and San Vicente de la Barquera you enter a real wilderness alongside the Rio del Escudo.  Secondly, climbing out of Ribadesella towards Oviedo, there is half an hour of very dramatic scenery, cliffs and drops to the river, alongside the River Sella.  Do not expect great views of the Picos de Europa though.  You get distant views from Unquera, but nearly always there are ridges in the way blocking the view from the train route.

You see lots of gum trees from the train.  These are a problem in northern Spain.  They are Tasmanian Blue Gum, introduced in the Franco years as they are fast-growing and good for paper.  However as a monoculture they are blamed for hitting the local wildlife, even the bears, and planting them is banned, although it still goes on apparently.

The Trip to Ribadesella

Ribadesella station is close to the town centre - the old part of town.  The town is most famous for the Tito Bustillo cave-art;  I went on the tour, which lasts about an hour including a lot of walking through caves and passages and cost 4 euros.  The tour was in Spanish but the guide tried to cover the important information in English.  The highlight is a purple horse, there are also deer and other animals, some very faded though.

Ribadesella is famous also for its long sandy beach (lots of surfers were there) across the long bridge in the newer part of town.  

Not far from the beach I spent an hour at a great bird-watching area on the edge of town, with hides, bridges and walkways. 

Back near my hotel, I tried a cider in one of the many sidreria's in the old town.  Cider is taken very seriously in Asturias.  There were apples growing everywhere (harvest is October and November).  Quite a few towns and villages have cider festivals;  the biggest is at Nava, which I passed through on the train. 

My bottle of Sidra Natural (cloudy, quite bitter, not very fizzy) was €3.40.  It came with a machine to pour it at just the right height, very important apparently.

Also in the old-town, the Iglesia de Santa María Magdalena built in the 1920s has an amazing ceiling painted by 2 local brothers.

The Trip to Oviedo

One day I got up early, headed back to the railway station and stood alone in the dark waiting for a train.  Sure enough, it arrived on time.   The conductor told me to buy a ticket when I got to Oviedo, my destination.  It was a foggy morning as it gradually got lighter.  On this trip, we (me and 4 other passengers) were asked to change train at a tiny station in a foggy field.

At Oviedo, sure enough I was able to buy a ticket from a machine (single about 7 euros).  I had about 4 hours in Oviedo before the train back to Ribadesella (there are 2 trains a day in each direction).   The city Art Gallery exceeded expectations, and there is no charge for admission for some reason.  It is in 3 quite different but adjoining buildings, 3 floors in each,  and includes paintings by all the famous Spanish artists, old and new, with the exception of Velazquez.  There is a room of individual apostles by El Greco.  There are also a surprising number of paintings by the top Italian Baroque artists, and one by Aberdeen artist John Philip.

It was very pleasant in the medieval part of town, with Constitution Square and the old market.  There were only a few tourists about.