Travel Tips

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* This album will be completed over time. Please consult the link to the FEVE site shown below for a complete description of the itinerary. Usually there could be a couple of deviations, but it's pretty much as shown.*

* Additional pictures for each place visited will be under the individual travel pages for each city*

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El Transcantabrico is a cruise by train which can be taken from Leon to Santiago de Compostela or in reverse, from Santiago to Leon. The trip covers some of the most beautiful scenery from Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla/Leon, and a little piece of Basque country. I personally like the Leon starting point, because the scenery becomes more dramatic going west. For the next seven days and nights you will be transported and pampered across northern Spain, traveling in beautiful surroundings and treated to some of the best food each region has to offer.

The trip includes lodging in the train, breakfast, lunch, dinner, a guide to the places visited (local experts in some places), and all entry fees. A bus complements the train as needed to get to/from some of the areas visited. Places where free time is available are documented in the itinerary.

The only extra items are any drinks ordered in the train outside breakfast (although water is free). Breakfasts are in the train, and all meals except for one lunch are done in beautiful restaurants offering regional food.

http://www.transcantabrico.feve.es/

To start the trip the travellers will get picked by the bus at the Parador de San Marcos in Leon. The bus will drop everyone off in the old town in Leon where a local guide will provide details about the city (usually in English, Spanish, and sometimes French) and answer any questions. In the meantime the luggage is taken to the train where it will be taken to your rooms.

After the tour of the city the bus takes everyone back to the Parador for lunch. Lunches are around 2 PM, dinners around 9 PM. Breakfast is usually around 8:30 AM.

After lunch the bus takes everyone to the train for the first time, where the crew will be waiting and will be introduced to the travellers.

The train travels to Cistierna where it will stay overnight. Dinner the first night is at the restaurant La Arquilla. I speculate these restaurants will be the same in all trips, but this is just my speculation.

The train will stop at the station overnight.

Every night an itinerary for the following day is handed out - the first day's itinerary is handed at the first lunch, which is usually on a Saturday.

The day started with a one-hour train trip from Cistierna to Guardo where we took the bus to the Roman Villa in La Tejada.

Following this visit the bus took us to Carrion de los Condes, a beautiful town still in Castilla Leon. The day we arrived the town was celebrating Corpus Christi day and was ready for the procession. It is customary to cover the streets with flower carpets so the procession can walk over the flowers after the noon Mass Communion. These carpets are very diverse but all beautiful and elaborate. There are also many children with local customes who will go on the procession.