Spaniens grüner Norden - Mit dem Zug entlang der Costa Verde

The rugged sides of Spain and Portugal - crossed and discovered by train, far away from holiday destination clichés: We cross on two different railway routes along the Atlantic coast: from Cabo da Roca, the furthest westerly point on the European mainland, up the mountains of Portugal’s only national park, the Peneda-Gerês. From lively Porto, the secret capital, as far as the Spanish border in the north east. The train travels from the blue sea to the green Douro valley, from the urban metropolis to the scorching heat of the deserted hinterland.

The “Costa Verde”, the green coast, is a part of Spain that has so far been spared from mass tourism. We travel on the North Spanish narrow-gauge railway FEVE through a contrast-rich landscape where the high inland mountains and the Atlantic coast are only 25 kilometres apart. From Bilbao in the Basque Country via Santander in Cantabria as far as Asturias. It takes a good eight hours for the train to travel 300 kilometres. A journey at a speed as low as in former centuries through a region that has retained its original natural state right up to the present day. (https://www.nordmedia.de/pages/service/produktionsspiegel/subpages/im_herzem_portugals___spaniens_gruener_norden/index.html)