La Coruna to Lisbon Great Continental Railway Journeys

I'm embarking on a new railway adventure

that will take me across the heart of Europe.

I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,

dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

'It told travellers where to go, what to see,

'and how to navigate the thousands of miles of tracks

'crisscrossing the continent.

'Now, a century later, I'm using my copy

'to reveal an era of great optimism and energy,

'where technology, industry,

'science and the arts were flourishing.

I want to rediscover that lost Europe,

that in 1913 couldn't know that its way of life

would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.

Following my 1913 Bradshaw's, today I'm exploring

north-western Spain and Portugal.

Relatively little-known to visitors from Britain today,

in the early 20th-century, British tourism briefly flowered here.

Westward-facing and very different from the Spain I know best,

this part of the Iberian peninsula

is bursting with British connections,

which my guidebook will help me to enjoy.

I'm back in my beloved Spain, land of my father.

But, as Bradshaw says,

"Owing to the configuration of the country,

"there are as many variations in climate

"as there are contrasts in the character of the population."

This is Galicia, cradle of the Celts, with its own language,

and this green and rainy landscape

would be more home to a Briton than to many a Spaniard.

Travelling south into Portugal, as I will do,

the early 20th-century traveller

entered the warm embrace of England's oldest ally.

'From the Celtic ties that bind Galicia to the British Isles...'

-Muy bien. Gracias.

-Gracias. Gracias.

'..to the Atlantic fishing industry

'that courted early 20th-century tourists...'

Isn't that a beautiful beast? Isn't that fantastic?

Beginning in the seaside city of La Coruna,

my route will take me inland

to the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela,

then follow the Atlantic coast as I travel via Pontevedra into Portugal.

From Porto, I'll take the famous, scenic Douro valley line east

before heading south once more,

to the ancient university city of Coimbra

and on to my final stop in Lisbon.

My guidebook says of my first destination,

"La Coruna is a prosperous trading town

"and principal military station in North Spain."

Today, the city known to Galicians as 'A Coruna'

is still the region's economic powerhouse,

with a thriving industry and a busy harbour.

In 1900, barely a single British tourist had ventured here,

but by the time of my guidebook,

Galicia was a fashionable destination

welcoming hundreds of Britons every year.

And it's easy to see why this elegant city had such appeal.

I love these glassed-in balconies which are so typical of La Coruna.

They're practical. In winter, you shut the glass

and you keep out the Atlantic gale,

and then, in the summer, you open them up and the sun streams in.

I'm taking a tour with historian Kirsty Hooper

who has researched Galicia's early 20th-century tourism boom.

At the beginning of the 20th century,

what would have brought British travellers to La Coruna?

Well, first of all it was the first stop on the big transatlantic routes

from Southampton to South America,

so lots of British tourists would have taken the opportunity

to hop off after two days to see the city

and to see something more of Galicia themselves.

Galicia held lots of attractions for the British

at the beginning of the 20th century.

There was a large British business community

and also British industry was quite well established here.

We're talking about railways, the mines,

also the sea port and the shipyards.

These expatriate industrialists

clubbed together with steam liner companies and local businessmen

to woo visitors.

But La Coruna boasted an attraction that needed no marketing.

My Bradshaw's directs Edwardian tourists

to the Jardin de San Carlos, to the east of the harbour,

the burial place of Sir John Moore,

whose death in 1809 had made him a war hero.

At the time of my Bradshaw's guide,

would Sir John Moore still have been well remembered?

Absolutely, because your Bradshaw's was published

very shortly after the centenary of his death

which had brought him back into the British imagination,

and the tomb formed a very popular stop

on the battlefield tourism circuit

which had begun in 1815, straight after the Battle of Waterloo.

The Duke of Wellington's victory at Waterloo

marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars which had raged

as French forces occupied vast swathes of Europe.

Sir John Moore's final battle

had been part of a British attempt to oust them from Spain.

He was leading the British Army in a strategic retreat

from Salamanca further south, and when they arrived, they established

a strategic position up on a hill and they managed to hold off

the French until most of the army was able to embark

upon the waiting warships to leave.

Unfortunately, Sir John Moore didn't go with them

because at the front of his army, he was hit in the shoulder and died.

It's a sort of early version of Dunkirk, this, isn't it?

I mean, a retreat which is somehow converted into a victory.

Absolutely, that's a great comparison.

People at home, initially, were very unhappy.

They felt that Sir John Moore had let everybody down,

but when it became clear that this defensive manoeuvre

had in fact contributed to Wellington's victory overall,

he was converted into a hero,

and is remembered both here in Galicia and in Britain.

Sir John Moore had said that he wished to be buried where he fell,

and so a hasty grave was dug

before the rest of the troops made their escape to fight another day.

Today, his tomb,

and a nearby pavilion decorated with poetry written in his honour

still attract British tourists.

Hello. Hello. Have you come to see Sir John Moore?

ALL: Yes.

And what has brought you to see Sir John Moore?

Saga!

-Is Sir John Moore a little bit of a hero for you?

-I think so.

To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard about him before I came on this trip.

And he seems an extraordinary person. The things he achieved in his life.

How do you feel about the fact that

the British were retreating when he died?

Probably quite sensible!

THEY LAUGH

Who else wants to talk about Sir John Moore?

Sorry, do you want... No?

You're all running away now.

It seems the British still have a talent for the tactical retreat.

Edwardian travellers arriving in Galicia

were fascinated by local people's traditional costumes and customs.

Like the Irish, the Cornish and the Welsh, the people of Galicia

trace their roots back to pre-Roman Celtic tribes.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN SPANISH

And a vital symbol of their Celtic identity is the Gaita, or bagpipes.

Alvaro Seivane's family have been making them for 75 years.

How popular is the bagpipe now in Galicia compared with a century ago?

HE ANSWERS IN SPANISH

Even though a century ago it was popular, there's no comparison.

Now, there are thousands and thousands of people

playing the bagpipes.

Alvaro's family has played a leading role

in this extraordinary revival.

His daughter is a famous piper who plays at music festivals

all over the world.

BAGPIPES PLAY

And the family tradition looks set to continue.

Muy bien, muy bien, muy bien.

Who is this?

HE ANSWERS IN SPANISH

This is your grandson, Brice.

This is the youngest bagpipe player in the family?

HE ANSWERS IN SPANISH

He's just turned six but he's already spent two years

playing the bagpipe.

HE THANKS HIM IN SPANISH

Making bagpipes takes patience.

The wood for the pipes is seasoned for ten years

before it's ready to be worked,

and it takes another five years to complete the instrument.

BAGPIPES DRONE TUNELESSLY

Despite Brice's performance,

extracting music from the gaita isn't child's play.

It's a modern composition!

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

I have a big future as a bagpipe player, he says.

I don't think so but gracias.

In the middle years of the 20th century,

during General Franco's dictatorship,

Galicians were prevented from expressing their distinct identity.

But since the 1980s,

there's been a resurgence of interest in the local culture,

flamboyantly expressed in La Coruna through the traditional dances

that take place in the city square.

PIPES AND DRUMS PLAY

Edwardian tourists would have loved this spectacle.

Back home there was a Celtic revival in full swing

with renewed interest in folk dance and music.

To Galicians, keeping traditions like this alive helps set them apart

from their Latin Spanish neighbours.

-Muy bien. Gracias.

-Gracias, gracias.

Is this very important for you, as a Galician person, this dancing?

Yes, for sure it is.

Now, you're Celtic. Do you feel any connection with maybe Scotland,

with Ireland, with Cornwall, any of those places?

I definitely do. I do feel that we have similar characteristics

in traditional dancing and music and so on.

So, you feel Celtic, you feel Galician,

do you feel Spanish as well?

Yeah, I also do.

-And European?

-Yes, why not?

But first more Galician than Spanish and European.

First, I want to be Galician, then the rest.

Already, Galicia has been full of surprises.

But before I leave La Coruna, I'm keen to uncover one more.

-Ruben?

-Hola, Michael.

Ruben Ventureira is showing me round a small museum,

hidden away in this unassuming house.

Because this apartment is where Pablo Picasso came of age.

By the time of my guidebook,

Picasso was well on the way to becoming a 20th-century master,

though his more avant-garde works

were too radical for most Edwardian tastes.

But 20 years earlier, having moved to La Coruna with his family,

the adolescent Pablo was still learning formal painting

from his father, a tutor at the local Academy of Fine Art.

So, this is by Pablo Picasso's father,

it's the painting that has the most doves or pigeons in it.

It was his favourite subject.

It also then became the favourite subject of Pablo Picasso.

The anecdote that is told is that the feet of the birds

were actually done by Pablo Picasso, by the boy, by the son.

How would you describe the relationship

between Picasso and his father?

HE ANSWERS IN SPANISH

Here in La Coruna, the father and the son establish

a teacher-pupil relationship, in which,

curiously, the pupil ends up surpassing the teacher.

It was in La Coruna that Picasso held his first exhibition in 1895,

at the tender age of 13.

In the same year,

the family was touched by tragedy, when Pablo's seven-year-old sister

Conchita died of diphtheria in this very room.

THEY TALK IN SPANISH

Picasso, when his sister was so ill, swore an oath to God

that if God saved the girl he would never paint again.

God did not save the girl

and the world was given, instead of Conchita, the great artist Picasso.

Later that year, Pablo Picasso's family moved to Barcelona,

and it's time for me to wave goodbye to La Coruna too,

and to continue my journey following my 1913 Bradshaw's guide.

As evening sets in, I've bought myself a little snack.

I'm on my way to Santiago de Compostela which is perhaps

the most famous of all the destinations for pilgrims

and over the centuries, they used to sustain themselves

with this sort of Spanish pasty.

It's called an empanada and this one is filled with scallops.

The fresh taste of the sea on a train.

A new day, and I'm approaching my next destination not by rail,

but on foot, following the Camino de Santiago,

or the pathway of St James.

Pilgrims must come prepared to walk in all weathers,

for green and pleasant Galicia shares much by way of climate,

as well as culture, with the British Isles.

Some years ago, I walked for seven days

the last stretch of the pilgrims' trail into Santiago de Compostela

with my rucksack and my walking stick.

It was an unforgettable experience.

All the time, you are meeting other pilgrims

and there is a sort of etiquette that you catch up with them

for a short while and you have a chat.

You only ever give your first name,

you don't normally give much background

about your reasons for walking the way.

And all the time that I was walking,

I could see a line of pilgrims behind me

and a line of pilgrims ahead

and quite a thought that the line ahead really stretched out

for centuries since people first began to visit

the tomb of St James.

When I walked my little pilgrimage, I covered 130km,

just more than the shortest distance that you can do

to qualify officially as a pilgrim.

But walkers set out for Santiago from destinations across Europe.

Good day. Congratulations, you're very close to Santiago.

How far have you come?

Me, I come from St Jean Pied De Port, that's about 780km.

-That's a long, long walk. You've become friends on the Camino?

-Yes.

What made you think of doing the Camino?

For me, it's the fourth Camino.

It's like a drug, being on the Camino.

It's the first time for me, yes.

I have thought about doing the Camino for the last ten years,

but I was always afraid of doing it alone because I thought

I would be alone which turned out to be quite wrong, actually.

So, now you've only got a few kilometres to go.

You must be feeling what? Elated, excited, how do you feel?

Elated, but also I think I'm a bit sad that it's coming to an end.

I've done this for 30 straight days.

Thank you so much for stopping and Godspeed, pilgrims.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

The popularity of the Camino peaked in the Middle Ages,

but the Reformation stopped pilgrims from Britain in their tracks.

These days, around 100,000 people complete the challenge every year

and as they take the last weary steps on their journey,

the promise of reaching Santiago's magnificent cathedral

inspires them onward.

Bradshaw's is full of superlatives about this building.

"The cathedral is considered one the most impressive examples

"of early Romanesque architecture in Spain, dating from 1078 to 1211."

And then, "the Gothic cloisters are amongst the best in Spain.

"Altogether it's one of the greatest glories of Christian art."

This was the building that Christians felt

they had to construct to house the tomb of St James the Apostle.

And this is the destination

of pilgrims who have walked for hundreds of miles

and behind me, the Capilla Mayor,

housing the tomb of the saint himself.

The story goes that St James's body was brought to Spain

after he was martyred in Jerusalem in 44AD.

It was then rediscovered 800 years later,

and before long, people began to journey to venerate his tomb.

Medieval pilgrims didn't have the benefit of Bradshaw's.

-INTO INTERCOM:

-Buenos dias, Michael Portillo.

But the cathedral houses an ancient

illuminated manuscript that helped them on their way.

Jose Manuel Sanchez is the guardian of this prized Latin text.

Jose Manuel, I'm Michael.

Hi, nice to meet you.

-Well...

-So, what is this book?

This is the Codex Calixtinus.

It's one compilation of all the traditions

related with the apostle Santiago in the Middle Ages.

When was it written, do we think?

It was written in the middle of the 12th century.

The book is an important source of information

on the history of St James,

but it also lays claim to being one of the world's first guidebooks,

packed with handy hints for pilgrims.

Give me some practical tips for going on the Camino.

Yes, for example, we have, er...

HE READS IN LATIN

So, horses must not drink there because they could die.

Because the river is...

The river is dangerous.

READING LATIN

Very good water to drink or to refresh.

Limpha, dulcis and sana.

So, clean, sweet and healthy.

Yeah, great! You did great!

Next time I come on the walk, this will be the book I'll take.

The Codex is a remarkable relic, but to continue my railway journey,

I think I'll stick with Bradshaw's.

My 1913 guide is not complimentary about Spanish trains,

remarking on their slow speeds and uncomfortable facilities.

But Edwardian tourists taking the West Galician Railway

from Santiago might have been reassured to know

that the company manager was British born and bred.

I'm hearing the story from Javier Losada Boedo.

-Hello, Xavier.

-Hi, Michael.

Very good to see you.

I'm interested in a great British railway man, John Trulock,

and I believe that he is your ancestor. What's the connection?

He was the father of my grandmother.

He was the eldest of six brothers

but his father died really young, when he was 15.

So, he had to earn his living.

Trulock decided to seek his fortune in Galicia.

And by the 1880s,

he was running the West Galician Railway company.

So what sort of a railway was this?

It was the first railway in Galicia.

It was from Carril in the coast to Compostela,

Santiago de Compostela in the Galician centre.

Begun in 1862, construction was overseen by a British engineer,

and by Trulock's time,

the railway had been bought by a British company.

Trulock ruled the line for over 40 years,

setting up home in Galicia where he continued to live

in Edwardian English style.

By the turn of the 20th century,

James Trulock was helping to lure British tourists to Galicia.

In 1910, he laid on a special train

to carry journalists on a press tour.

I'm getting off in Pontevedra

to hunt down one of the more unusual sights that they saw.

I do love to be beside the seaside,

but here in the little village of Bueu, the sea is a place of work,

and what comes out of the sea gives rise to light industry close by

and that's the sort of light industry

that was a magnetic attraction for the discerning traveller

in the early 20th century.

Surprisingly, an Edwardian tourist's trip to Galicia wasn't complete

without a visit to a sardine cannery,

thanks to a local sardine entrepreneur

who was one of the main promoters of British tourism here.

I'm taking my own tour of this 21st-century fish canning factory,

guided by export manager Jose Emilio Dopazo.

Jose Emilio, it's an impressive and very noisy canning factory.

When did this business begin?

Well, this business has been here for 141 years now.

We founded the company, the family Alonso, in 1873,

and it has been kept in the same family for five generations.

Like so much in Galicia,

there's a British connection to the region's canning industry.

The idea of canning food came from a British merchant.

In the beginning of the 19th century,

he had the idea of preserving food in cans.

The initial idea was a Frenchman,

but the Frenchman was only doing it in glass,

and the English man said, "No, we can put this also in tins,"

The idea rapidly expanded to the continent and came here.

By Edwardian times,

canned fish had helped to transform British people's diets,

bringing delicacies like sardines within everyone's reach.

At the moment, it's not the sardine season,

but this factory packs plenty of other types of seafood

including a million tins of octopus every year.

-Hola.

-Hola, buenos tardes.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

They are washing the octopus.

Just like washing the laundry, isn't it?

Give that a good scrub

Let's get those tentacles in there.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

I asked her whether she could actually still eat octopus,

and she says she absolutely loves it.

The thriving canning trade on this stretch of coast is

thanks to the extraordinary bounty of the Atlantic

and the unique geography of the so-called 'rias' of Galicia.

So, the rias are part of an estuary,

and are they like long fingers, something like that?

They are long fingers.

The legend says that God, when constructing the world

put five fingers on the land, and these are the five Galician rias.

In these estuaries, fresh water from the rivers

mixes with the salty sea, creating ideal conditions for plankton,

which in turn feeds the fish and other sea creatures.

So, today we are fishing for octopus, are we?

Yes, we have here a big devotion for the octopus.

Devotion for the animal itself, for the taste,

for the role in the factory, for everything.

The fishermen have previously lowered traps,

and now it's time to see what they've caught.

-Oh, that is a weird feeling.

-Very big one!

It's a lovely big octopus, isn't it? Yeah, it is indeed,

I can feel it pulsing and wriggling in my hand.

Look at its tentacles now, whoo!

-Fantastic.

-Wow.

-Lovely one.

Well, you are a Spanish fisherman now!

-Wonderful.

-Isn't that a beautiful beast? Isn't that fantastic?

It's a fantastic one.

One of the things that's special about Galicia, eh?

I'm not sure that Edwardian tourists were quite so hands-on,

but if not, they missed out.

And there's one last treat in store for me in Bueu.

This is a wonderful way to end the day.

A beautiful presentation of octopus.

This is the very special recipe in Galicia.

It's boiled, olive oil, and paprika.

-How is it?

-It's magnificent.

I'm glad you like it.

My Galician fishing trip has been the perfect way to draw

the Spanish leg of my journey to a close.

In Portugal, on the second leg of my journey,

I'll explore this British home from home.

Oh, yes! This is a fantastic view.

And in Lisbon, uncover the turbulent events that shocked Edwardians.

They're a group of armed republicans.

In five minutes, they almost wiped out the entire Royal family.

So this square was the scene of appalling horror.