Story by Robert Riche and Photographs by Fran Riche

They come on foot, on horseback, on bicycles, on motorcycles and in mobile homes, even in wheelchairs. They are among the 20 million worshippers, penitents, tourists, and the just plain curious from all over Europe and beyond who make the trek each year to Spain’s magnificent Romanesque Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Christ’s apostle St. James are believed to be preserved.

The original, and one of the popular routes today through Spain to Santiago (the Spanish equivalent of St. James), is the northern route known also as the Cantabrian route, or High Way, so-called because it hugs the Atlantic coastline of the country along the Cantabrian Sea.

It begins in San Sebastian near the French border, and continues along the verdant Costa Verde, passing through the historic provinces of Pais Vasco (Basque country), Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia on the way.

Between short advances of the train, there are stops and excursions by motor coach to charming little fishing villages, up winding mountain passes to snow-capped mountain peaks, a visit to the town where Columbus’ fleet was built, and explorations of jewel-like 12th-century chapels and monasteries, and always the stunning views of the sea and the green Costa Verde countryside.

For a mere tourist who wishes to experience a bit of pilgrimage history without the effort of making the 500-mile trek on foot, it is possible to travel the route of the pilgrims in a decidedly effortless way by taking a leisurely 8-day, 7-night journey on the renovated vintage railway train known as El Trans-Cantabrico Express.

St. James was one of Christ’s favorite disciples. After the ascension, the apostle embarked on preaching Christianity “in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts I, 8). Legend has it that the “uttermost part of the earth” meant Spain.

After preaching abroad, it is known that St. James returned to Jerusalem where he was promptly beheaded by Herod the Great. His followers are said to have returned the body to Spain, where it was buried in an undisclosed and forgotten place until the early ninth century, when a shepherd discovered the tomb, guided by the light of an angel and a field of stars (Campus stellae—hence the name Compostela).

Moorish raids prevented the immediate construction of a permanent monument over the site, but in 1075, during the reign of Alfonso VI, construction began on the magnificent Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which was completed in 1211.

In the 12th century, more pilgrims began arriving at Santiago de Compostela than visited Rome or Jerusalem.

The journey via El Trans-Cantabrico Express makes no claims to being a pilgrimage. It does follow the northern route, however, and leads inexorably to Santiago de Compostela, where it is impossible not to feel some of the uplifting spiritual energy of the place.

My wife Fran and I took the Trans-Cantabrico trip last spring. At night, the train pulled off to quiet sidings, affording us a comfortable night’s sleep. We munched breakfast in one of the train’s two dining salons while we moved along the edge of the sea on the right, with green valleys and pasturelands and the distant snow-capped limestone Cantabrian Range on the left.

The trip began with a walking tour of stylish San Sebastian, known as “The Pearl of the Cantabrian Coast,” near the French border. After lunch at the five-star Hotel Maria Christina—I remember very well the duck confit—we motored by coach to nearby Bilbao for a visit to the new Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, with its soaring metal flanges. Its massive indoor spaces can be altered to accommodate the most avant- garde paintings and sculptures and art installations that are being created today.

We boarded the train at Bilbao, and Fran and I got our first look at our accommodations. There are standard doubles and suites. The suites are more commodious with double beds and a private toilet, shower and a mini-bar. It should be pointed out that the train runs on what is known as a narrow gauge track, and thus is about a meter narrower than the Orient-Express or Spain’s very own El Andalus Express, which offers a similar one-week journey through Andalusia in the south of the country.

Interestingly, the three public salons were originally designed in the 1920s—are you ready for this?—for the London underground. Brought to Spain in the 1960s and renovated, they were first used for VIP travel. They are absolutely beautiful, with inlaid wood, comfortable lounge chairs, tables with small lamps, and of course, a well-stocked bar.

The coach cars and suites were all built in the 1990s and reconditioned in 1999. There were altogether 28 passengers aboard the train. A total crew of 13 included five stewards, two technicians, two engine drivers, a musician (for late-night revelry in the discotheque—yes, a discotheque with a D.J., flashing lights and blasting music—mostly Spanish), the bus driver, and our multi-lingual guide, Natalia.

Hugging the coastline, the train would stop at some of the better-known northern Spanish towns, and the motor coach would take us to local destinations of interest, or we could wander about charming old town centers on our own.

The train operators do everything that they can to make El Trans-Cantabrico Express experience interesting and varied. For example, on the second day we boarded a ferryboat at Santona for a cruise across the bay to a seaside restaurant. On the fourth day we arrived in Santillana del Mar (Santillana by the Sea) which is nowhere near the sea…well, about five miles away from the sea…but a delightful medieval town almost perfectly preserved in its original state, with narrow cobbled streets, old stone houses with flowered balconies, medieval towers and a cloister.

Although we visited many towns, Oviedo is memorable because of the grand botanical park of San Francisco, and the never to be forgotten El Raitan restaurant, where they served us six main courses and three desserts, white and red wines, and after-lunch liquers.

The next day, we cruised inland into the Cantabrian range to the Picos de Europa, where a funicular took us to the top of the peaks. It had snowed the night before (in late April), and we slid around on the edge of a somewhat perilous precipice, threw snowballs and looked off across the green mountains toward the Cantabrico Sea and the blue Atlantic Ocean.

Back down to the seacoast there was a fishing village known as Luarca, renowned (at least, locally) as the “white city” because all of the buildings are whitewashed and gleaming. Right next to it is the fishing village of Cudillero, where all of the houses are brightly painted in different colors. Fishing boats drawn up on the shore are painted the same colors as the houses of their owners, so that no one can make the mistake of taking the wrong boat.

Toward the end of the trip, we took another ferryboat from Ferrol, a Spanish Navy Center, across the bay to Coruna. It was rough going, but we arrived at Coruna which was, and still is, the landing point for Compostela pilgrims approaching Spain by ship.

From the 16th century until recently, the pilgrims were given sanctuary in the Castle of San Antone, which served both as hospital and refugio. It is also noteworthy that Coruna was the last port from which the Spanish Armada departed in 1588 to be defeated by Sir Francis Drake in the English Channel.

Last stop was our destination city, Santiago de Compostela. Suso, our bus driver, drove us on the autoroute from Coruna to Compostela in a pouring rainstorm. We passed the age-old, still functioning refugio, Mountain of Joy, where pilgrims approaching from the East catch their first sight of the spires of the Cathedral. The refugio offers 1,000 beds at no charge to those pilgrims who can show that they have marched on foot or horseback 100 kilometers, or bicycled 200 kilometers (picking up stamped certifications by church officials in towns along the way, and finally receiving at the cathedral itself “The Compostela,” or Credencia del Peregrino, the official certificate issued since the 14th century).

At the center of Santiago de Compostela is the massive Plaza del Obradoiro, packed with pedestrians and rising above them on one side stands the imposing Romanesque Cathedral of Santiago. Its front doors at the top of a wide balustrade are open to the thousands of pilgrims, tourists and curious gawkers who all day long file inside to pay homage to Saint James, or to just view the soaring arches of the impressive interior.

Inside the doors to the cathedral one is confronted immediately by the so-called Portico of Glory, a stone mullion on top of which there is a statue of St. James. It is traditional to place the right hand on the identification in the pillar formed by the hands of millions of earlier pilgrims. The devout then bang their head three times against the stone for transmittal of the wisdom of the “Headbanging” Saint, Master Mateo.

Every day at noon there is a celebratory pilgrims’ mass, and in the nave of the transept the giant censer (bota fumeiro), the largest in the world, is swung by four priests pulling on the ropes. Located on the square adjacent to the cathedral is the five-star parador, Hotel de los Reyes Catolicos (Hotel of the Catholic Monarchs), originally built in 1511 as a hospital by order of Ferdinand and Isabella. Although the doormen today tend to frown on some of the scruffier looking pilgrims, it is nonetheless still possible for those with proper Compostela certification to eat at the hotel for three days without paying.

Fran and I, lacking proper certification, stayed at the hotel anyway, paying a hefty five-star fee. It is a very elegant place, and the restaurant located in a stone cavern serves excellent authentic Galician food and wines, and for dessert, the famous Compostelan almond tart.

Quite aside from our visit to the cathedral, it was great fun wandering about the narrow alleyways of Santiago, which like the Plaza del Obradoiro are largely pedestrianized. The city has a population of 89,000, and is the site of one of Spain’s most prestigious universities. As a result, there is nothing sanctimonious about the town. Those pilgrims and others looking for a bit of diversion find plenty of action day and night in Santiago.

At the farewell luncheon held in the Hotel do los Reyes Catolico, we toasted the good health of our traveling companions, and they responded in kind. We exchanged business or calling cards, and Fran and I have every reason to believe that we may, in the not so distant future, be seeing on our doorstep in “Connecteecoot” several of our newly acquired friends. That is, if they don’t find us first standing at the gates of their villas in Catalonia on the Mediterranean Sea.

for more information...

GuggenheimBilbao - The official site of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain.

VIRTOURIST.COM: Santiago de Compostela - Take a photographic tour of the cathedral.

The Sudarium of Oviedo - Evidence links the Cloth of Oviedo, the face cloth of Jesus, to the Shroud of Turin.

The Road to Santiago - Master Mateo, the head-banging saint, transmits wisdom this way.