Al-Andalus Train Trip – Seville to Madrid

Jump on a high-speed Spanish train in Seville – capital of Andalusia, stunning architecture, sunny weather, flamenco dancing – and you can be in the capital, Madrid, in less than three hours. Well straight line the two cities are less than 400km apart, even by road it’s not much over 500km. Maureen and I took a week to make the trip – we were on the luxurious Al-Andalus train trip.

▲ The beautifully restored vintage train departs from Seville on Saturday and the following Saturday travels from Madrid in the opposite direction.

◄ The Al-Andalus Train Route – from Jerez to Cadiz and from Aranjuez to Toledo and to Madrid the travel is by the Al-Andalus bus. The nights are spent on the train stopped at a station along the route although the Al-Andalus train’s lengthy collection of carriages is too long for the platforms at Cádiz and Toledo. We travelled to those towns by the bus which followed our entire journey, ready to convey us into town at any of our stops.

▲ The dining, bar and lounge carriages may be luxurious, but the rooms are inevitably a little cramped, although they all come with en-suite facilities. The food – and wine – is terrific and there’s a lot of it, some meals were in restaurants in the towns we visited, others on board the train, sometimes as we travelled with the passing scenery to entertain us.

◄ apart from one minor delay with engine problems our train was reliable although in Jerez de la Frontera we were entertained by the bomberos – firemen – coming on board to rescue one of our party trapped by a jammed toilet door. The bomberos appeared to be prepared to batter the door down, but in fact only had to break the lock.

▲ Station Jerez de la Frontera – Spain certainly has some beautiful train stations, Jerez de la Frontera was a good example

▲ ditto for the station at Aranjuez

▲ Since the trip was kicking off from the stylish old Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville, Maureen and I stayed there the night before the trip.

▲ Cathedral, Seville – and explored the wonderful city on our own before joining the group. The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See is the largest Gothic Cathedral in Spain and the burial place of Christopher Colombus, a native of Genoa in Italy, who sailed to North America in 1492.

▲ Seville is a major centre for Flamenco dancing, whirling and foot stamping at the Casa de la Memoria

▲ The Mezquita Mosque-Cathedral in Córdoba features a mass of double arches, reflecting its Islamic history and then a Renaissance Cathedral was popped down in the middle.

▲ Choir stalls in the Mosque-Cathedral

At Córdoba we made a U-turn and headed back to Seville, passing the hilltop Castillo de Almodóvar del Río mid-lunch and mid-trip before parking the train at Jerez de la Frontera and continuing by bus to Cádiz where we walked the town and dined before heading back to the train for the night.

◄ The next day we walked around Jerez de la Frontera, checking out the Iglesia de San Miguel and watching horses prancing around at the Real Escuela Andaluza de Arte Ecuestra. Great if you’re enthusiastic about prancing Spanish horses. From there it’s on the bus to Sanlucar on the coast for another long and leisurely lunch, this time it’s seafood at Casa Bigote.

▲ At La Gitana Winery – Bodega La Gitana – I cannot believe how much sherry they turn out, endless rows of huge 800-litre barrels. And where do they bottle the stuff? They never empty the barrels? So some sherry has been in barrels for 225 years? ‘Traditional sherry barrels (called botas or butts) are measured using an old Spanish unit of volume called the arroba, represented by the symbol @), which is equal to approximately 16.67 litres.’

From Jerez de la Frontera there’s another leisurely long dinner as we roll through the countryside en route to Zafra, where we spent the night, before departing early for and passing by Mérida en route to …

▲ Cáceres – a wonderful town to look around, so many old buildings, so much conquistador money. The Iglesia de San Francisco Javier on Plaza de San Jorge is particularly impressive, with its statue of St George and the Dragon down below and two workmen abseiling across one of the tower roofs. Then there’s the Concatedral de Santa Maria on Plaza Santa Maria which has an assortment of interesting art.

▲ Back on the train we roll back to Mérida, passing this terrific looking aqueduct just as we arrive into town, I make the short walk back to the aqueduct after lunch.

▲ Mérida is all about its ancient Roman connections, like the mosaics in the town’s very big National Museum of Roman Art. The museum a. doesn’t have enough ‘stuff’ to fill it and b. wastes the opportunity to tell most of us anything about it. Why have signs only in Spanish when there is so much empty wall space on which you could offer just minimal translations into other languages? There’s a Roman amphitheatre and theatre adjacent to the museum and not far away a Temple of Diana, which we don’t get to – on our walking tour – although I make a quick sprint back to it. Anyway I saw it on a previous trip to Spain, 30 years back!

The town also features an excellent Roman bridge, built in the 1st century AD it’s the longest surviving bridge in the world of that age and still features 60 arches. Unfortunately we don’t have time to inspect the bridge although we do enjoy a ‘Roman’ dinner at El Parador Nacional de Mérida. It features a huge amount of roast piglet, eating on this trip is really over the top all the time.

▲ Windmills at Campo de Criptana – from Mérida we should have made an early departure to Alcázar de San Juan, but something goes wrong with one of our locomotives. When we do reach our destination the bus soon takes us to nearby Campo de Criptana to check out Don Quixote’s windmills, there are 10 left of the 34 back in Cervantes’ day. Three of them still working, but all of them very picturesque. We have lunch in the La Musas Restaurant – and a wine tasting – and check out the windmills, inside and outside, plus the windmill explanation and interpretation centre.

Next morning while we’re breakfasting the train moves on from Alcázar de San Juan to Aranjuez from where the bus whisks us to nearby Toledo, another station with a platform too short to accommodate our lengthy train. There are escalators to convey visitors up to the hilltop town, but for some of our group even an escalator is too much and they take taxis up the hill. The train passengers definitely trend towards ‘elderly’ and some of them are unhappy about how much walking they have to do.

▲ Golden altarpiece (retablo), Main Chapel (Capilla Mayor),Toledo Cathedral, Toledo

Driving around Spain, many years ago, we listened on the car sound system to Toledo, the ‘Spanish citadel’ Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach sing about, contrasting it with the less glorious version in Ohio. Today our visit starts with the big – and badly lit – cathedral and is followed by assorted wandering and a visit to a marzipan production specialist.

▲ Gate to San Martin Bridge, Toledo – then back down to the riverside, crossing the picturesque San Martin Bridge to our waiting bus. Next stop another too-large-lunch, this one overlooking the town.

▲ Aranjuez Palace – the porcelain room – back at Aranjuez the town’s big attraction is indeed big, but certainly doesn’t attract lots of visitors even if three Spanish kings resided here. There are certainly no problems with tourist crowding. I do like the over-the-top porcelain room.

▲ Plaza Mayor, Madrid – after breakfast on our final morning we farewell our ever-attentive Al-Andalus train staff and our vintage train before taking the bus to our end point in Madrid. The walking tour – there’s a bus tour too – of the capital naturally features the impressive Plaza Mayor, before one final big lunch and a taxi to the airport. With so much publicity about delays and difficulties with the new European entry and exit system we’re relieved to sail through security and immigration with zero problems and super efficiency.