Barcelona to Mallorca Great Continental Railway Journeys

I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that will take me

to the Western Mediterranean.

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.

On this journey through eastern Spain, I'll lift

the lid on Europe's Belle Epoque to uncover the revolutionary

fervour erupting in this newly industrialising nation.

According to my Bradshaw's, I'm in Spain,

but in 1913, many people felt a stronger allegiance

to their region than they did to the country.

And Spain was further divided between agricultural workers

and gentry, and factory workers and owners.

The ruling class, recently humiliated by the loss of Spain's American

colonies, was targeted by an anarchist bombing campaign.

And those tensions would build during the 1930s into a civil war

that divided my Spanish family and sent my Spanish father into exile.

I'll begin in Barcelona, capital of the Catalans,

and follow the coast to the Roman city of Tarragona.

From there, I'll head to Valencia.

An early 20th-century outbreak of railway mania

on the largest of the Balearic Islands draws me

to Palma in Majorca, from where I'll travel to Manacor.

I'll end my journey in the beautiful port of Soller.

'Along the way, I'm trampled underfoot at the bottom of a Catalan

'people steeple...'

We keep our heads down so we're not really even aware of what's going on.

Here comes someone else on top of me, I think. Yup, that's right!

'I pay homage to Barcelona's most famous architect...'

The reason it's so full of light is

because he was able to get rid of the structural impositions

that the Gothic masters weren't able to deal with themselves.

Mark, I've understood more in the last ten seconds than I had in years.

'I learn to make the perfect paella...'

He's being very nice.

He's saying that it seems I've been doing paellas all my life.

I've been eating them all my life!

TRAIN HOOTS

'..and spoil myself with a spectacular scenic

'ride aboard a sublime 1912 vintage Mallorcan railway.'

To be on a train in the open air, enjoying the sunshine,

this is absolutely perfect.

The port city of Barcelona lies between the Collserola mountains

and the Mediterranean Sea.

Visitors from all over the world are drawn to its cosmopolitan

avant-garde centre.

They come to admire the city's superb modernista architecture,

the fine art of Spain's most brilliant painters,

to sample the rich and sophisticated Catalan cuisine...

..and to party.

Rail tourists today arrive at the 1970s-built Barcelona Sants station.

"Barcelona," says Bradshaw's, "is the most important commercial

"and industrial city of Spain, the activity of the population

"contrasting with the dullness noticeable elsewhere."

I'm in Catalonia - a region that has its own language

and where independence is hotly debated.

At the start of the 20th century,

Barcelona had what Karl Marx called a proletariat -

urban workers who were aggrieved, politically conscious

and class conscious, a recipe for revolution.

In 1909, these workers called a general strike.

They were protesting against the call-up of reserve

soldiers from Catalonia to fight a last-ditch imperial war in Morocco.

Republican Catalonia wanted no part of it.

The strike was to escalate into open revolt.

I'm on my way to the castle of Montjuic on the heights

of the south side of the city, and Bradshaw's promises me

a fine view from the heights. Well, there's no doubt about that at all.

But the castle, like so many beautiful things in Spain,

has a darker history.

I've arranged a rendezvous up on its battlements with historian

professor Enric Ucelay-Da Cal to find out more about a bleak

chapter in Barcelona's past.

Enric, in 1909, I believe there was, in Barcelona,

a thing called the Tragic Week.

If we'd come up to a vantage point above the city,

what would we have seen at that time?

You would have seen columns of smoke from burning buildings...

..churches, religious buildings,

schools that were being burnt over several days.

So who was doing the burning and with what motive?

Urban workers, factory workers, shop workers.

They are tearing up the streets, putting up barricades

and burning the churches as a first response, a first attack,

against the powers that be.

They're burnt in the midst of a popular revolt.

What was it that they had against the Church?

My interpretation is this is a highly,

highly Catholic society, even for those who are unbelievers.

Consequently, when you have to be angry,

you're angry at those who have betrayed the message of God.

How many people are killed in this period?

In all of Catalonia, over 110. 76 or so in Barcelona city,

mostly civilians.

There's a lot of pressure to find a scapegoat for the revolt.

There are trials and five are shot.

Among the executed was the anarchist revolutionary,

Francesc Ferrer i Guardia.

Although he was many miles away from Barcelona

at the time, the authorities seized the chance to rid

themselves of a troublesome free thinker who'd set out to

undermine the Catholic Church's grip on education with

a network of secular schools.

He's found, arrested, tried. It's somewhat of a drumhead trial.

And he is shot just behind us.

These very violent events in 1909 seem to have

some of the elements of what becomes the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

-Am I exaggerating that?

-Not at all. I think you're absolutely right.

There's somewhat of a tradition.

If you have a revolution, you've got to go for the priests.

And so, in 1936, the first impulse is indeed to burn churches

and to kill priests and monks.

-And in 1937, there is a thoroughgoing revolution here.

-Oh, yes, indeed.

'36, '37, it is a thoroughgoing revolution.

Throughout Catalonia, workers took over management of railways,

factories and businesses and declared farmland under collective ownership.

But the revolution was crushed

when nationalist forces under General Francesc Franco finally

captured Catalonia and proclaimed victory in the Civil War.

-ARCHIVE:

-The new ruler of Spain rides into the city of his conquest.

Behind him, his Moors. His army lines the route.

Now, you and I have something in common, I think.

Your mother and my father both left Barcelona in January of 1939.

-Quite a coincidence.

-Yes, indeed.

We both have ghosts,

and those ghosts somehow have to be laid to rest.

And it's not always easy.

I think I'm going to see

whether I can find the ghost of poor old Ferrer.

-Hasta luego, Enric.

-Hasta luego.

It was in a cell like this that Francesc Ferrer was held

before he was taken out to the castle walls and shot by a firing squad.

He was one of the early victims of Spain's violent 20th century because,

although it didn't participate in the First World War or the Second, still,

hundreds of thousands of Spaniards died at the hands of other Spaniards.

A century ago, a visitor to Barcelona would have seen the first

signs of an extraordinarily ambitious building project.

And today, its spires soar into the sky.

When it's finished, it will be the tallest church building in the world.

It is the Church of the Holy Family - la Sagrada Familia.

Still a work in progress, Europe's most idiosyncratic church is the

emblem of the city and the greatest work of one extraordinary man.

The architect of the Holy Family Church was Antoni Gaudi,

whose works are to be found all over Barcelona.

But this is a tribute to Gothic cathedrals from all over Spain,

reinterpreted in a highly personal style by a genius.

And when it's eventually finished, it will have taken

a century-and-a-half to build, as many cathedrals did.

And the modern cranes today are achieving wonders,

as Gothic builders did with ropes and pulleys.

It's said that Gaudi conceived the Sagrada Familia as an atonement

for the city's sins.

And every detail of this vast space exudes his piety and devotion.

Three richly ornamented facades tell of the Nativity, the Passion

and the Glory. Words from the Bible adorn the towers.

And when completed, 18 spires will represent Christ,

the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and the 12 Apostles.

I want to understand what Gaudi was trying to achieve.

And who better to ask than the architect who's taken

on the responsibility of completing his vision, New Zealander Mark Burry?

Mark, hello. This is THE most stunning church.

I mean, really breathtaking. And you have the privilege of working on it.

How on earth does that feel?

One feels humbled to be part of a very talented team on such

-an extraordinary architect.

-What brought you here?

Oh, the fact that it was allegedly unfinishable and abandoned.

And you're trying to do, here, his concept, are you?

-You haven't changed his concept very much?

-Not at all.

We have the plan of the building, as he originally set it out.

The nave that we're currently in,

this was all modelled at a scale of one to ten and,

over the decades, it's been sort of unpeeling

the secrets from the models and finding just how

rich his architectural vocabulary was and how deep his ambition.

And, as you've worked on the building,

what impression have you gained of Gaudi, the architect?

It's a personal quest to improve on the Gothic.

Gothic architecture produced the great cathedrals of Europe but they

have their Achilles heels or the crutches, as he'd call them.

The roofs and the walls of the great Gothic cathedrals were

supported by vast buttresses,

but Gaudi managed to balance the structure of the Sagrada Familia

without them, and specified the stone for each column

according to the load that it would have to bear in ascending order,

beginning with granite then basalt and, finally, porphyry.

And so, this building, the reason it's so full of light is

because he was able to get rid of the structural impositions that the

Gothic masters weren't able to deal with themselves.

Mike, I've often been to this building.

I've understood more in the last ten seconds than I have in years.

Gaudi dies in 1926. What were the circumstances of his death?

It was very sudden. He was living on site and had a terrible accident.

He went to Mass, as he did every evening,

and on his return was hit by a tram.

Haunted by the violence of the Tragic Week and the damage that it

wreaked on Barcelona's Gothic fabric, Gaudi had withdrawn from public life.

When he was found, his clothing was such that he just

appeared to be a sort of vagabond.

And it was just to do with his modesty.

He just simply devoted himself to the task of getting the building

finished, including actually living on-site in his studio.

I don't think there's any greater tribute to Gaudi as an architect

than to meet someone who's literally devoted his life to him.

Thank you very much indeed. Bye.

Gaudi wrote, "There's no reason to regret that

"I cannot finish the church.

"I will grow old but others will come after me." How right he was.

Few cities in Europe boast more cafes,

restaurants or bars per square kilometre than Barcelona.

-Buenas tardes!

-Buenas tardes!

-A beautiful cafe.

-Si, gracias.

When is it... When did it start?

HE TRANSLATES INTO SPANISH

-IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH:

-1929.

-1929?

-Like a coffee...

-Like a coffee shop?

-Yes.

-Excellent. It's so beautiful.

Now, I want to have something typically Catalan. What shall I have?

-Crema catalana,

-cava. Exactly! Crema catalana y cava. Thank you.

-OK.

Crema catalana is very much like the French creme brulee. It's custard.

It tends to be flavoured either with orange zest or lemon zest

but it's got cinnamon in it and then it's got the caramelised top.

And cava is a sparkling wine from Catalonia.

I know Spanish people who tell me that they

invented how to make sparkling wine before they did in Champagne.

Now, I don't know whether that's true or not,

but it tends to be very good and, of course, much cheaper.

Mm!

In medieval times, Catalonia was already an advanced society with

its own governmental institutions, paying homage to the King of Aragon.

That history is a source of regional pride

expressed in a distinctive language and distinctive music.

The pride that Catalans feel for their distinct identity can be

seen all over Barcelona,

and the exquisite Art Nouveau Palau de la Musica,

dedicated to the music of Catalonia, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

and an acutely emotional symbol of the region's cultural heritage.

I want to discover more about this unique building from deputy

artistic director Victor Garcia.

-Hello, welcome.

-Hello, Victor.

-Hello. Nice to meet you.

This is just the most beautiful building!

It would have been quite new at the time of my Bradshaw's guide.

I imagined tourists arriving then to hear concerts. Why was it built?

Well, Orfeo Catala, which is the owner of the building,

is an amateur choir, and they were looking for a house to make

rehearsals, to make their own concerts.

So the founder asks a leading architect from that moment to

-build this wonderful concert hall.

-I mean, it is so wonderful.

What sort of a style would you describe this?

It's called Jugendstil. It's just a movement.

The people who are working all around this quarter,

they were building different clothes,

and so, people wanted to have a sort of magical moment

entering in this space where it's magical

and where all the botanic flowers and magical animals are all around.

It's like entering in a very sort of fantasy space.

Now, this was built for a Catalan choir,

so was it, in itself, an expression of Catalan pride, nationalism, even?

Yes. This amateur choir, Orfeo Catala,

was founded in 1891, and Palau de la Musica was built later on...

some years later, in 1904.

So they had, in the repertoire, always the Catalan

music as one of the biggest aims.

But I think, after the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language

-and other expressions of Catalan nationalism were suppressed.

-Yes.

So presumably, there could be no performances in the Catalan

-language in that period.

-Yes.

For several years, the Palau de la Musica was really closed.

So Orfeo Catala was not allowed to sing, especially all

the traditional Catalan music, and that continued for years.

To defy the ban during the Franco dictatorship was dangerous.

Political opponents of the regime could expect to be jailed, especially

for singing the emotionally-charged anthem el Cant De La Senyera.

Cant De La Senyera - canta, song. Senyera - what does that mean?

Senyera is a sort of flag.

Still today, we always put this flag inside the concert hall,

so it's quite important.

So it was the song, the anthem, for the flag,

that it's one of the symbols from the choir.

MUSIC: Cant De La Senyera

# Alcarem els ulls al cel

# Per mirar-te sobirana

# Alcarem els ulls al cel

# Al damunt dels nostres cants... #

Young people singing in their own Catalan

language about their own Catalan choir and its Catalan flag.

Emotional stuff.

# Mes triomfants. #

-ALL:

-Cheese!

THEY CLAP AND CHEER

I'm back at Barcelona Sants station.

The first railway line in Spain was built from Barcelona

north to Mataro in 1848.

But I'll head south-west along the beautiful coast of Catalonia.

Spanish railways apparently love to give their trains special names.

There's Ave, Avant, Talgo.

This one's called Alvia and it's one of the now very extensive

family of high-speed trains in Spain.

Many Spanish towns and cities were found by the Romans.

After my stop, this train goes on to Zaragoza, which was Caesar Augustus.

I'm going to get off at Tarragona and if you think that's a mouthful,

its Roman name was Colonia Iulia Urbs Triumphalis Tarraco for short.

The Romans clearly knew a good thing when they conquered it.

Back in the third century BC,

the ideal combination of strategic location, mild climate and good

local wine made Tarragona the capital of Rome's biggest Spanish province.

Bradshaw's tells me that fragments of the Romans are to be seen everywhere.

Well, this magnificent amphitheatre, which had a capacity of 13,000,

is more than a fragment!

The Romans burnt a Christian bishop here in the year 259 AD,

and those jeering from up here in the stands might have been

surprised that, years later, the whole Roman Empire became Christian.

And then Christianity in Spain saw off

and overcame centuries of Islamic occupation.

And by the time of my Bradshaw's guide, the Catholic Church

in Spain was one of the most powerful and entrenched in Europe.

And that's my potted history of Spain.

By an amazing chance, I've arrived in L'Ametlla de Mar on the one

Sunday in the year when they have the tuna race.

All these men and women will be taken out by boats to the tuna cages,

where the tuna are fattened up, and they will swim back the 5km.

It's a race and, when they get here, they will celebrate by...guess what?

Eating tuna.

HORN HOOTS

It's apparently not the only thing going on here today.

A lot of people in red headscarves are preparing to build

one of those terrifying people steeples, or castells,

as they call them in Catalonia.

How long have you been participating in making the castells?

Three years because I love that there's such teamwork

and that you feel so needed here and that you can't do anything alone -

you have to do it all with the other people and you're always helping.

And even if you're little, even if you're super-old, you can

-always help.

-What sort of ages are the ones that go to the top?

-Um...

-We have a girl that's five or six years old.

-Five or six?

-Yeah.

-Climbing to the top?

-Yeah, that's normal here.

-What, to six storeys or something?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-Or taller.

So, excuse me, what happens if she falls?

-Well, she's wearing a helmet, so...

-Yes...

So it doesn't have to be dangerous.

Anyone can be involved in the pinya at the bottom, can they?

-Yeah, everyone.

-Could I do it today?

-Yes, of course.

I do like to look the part but, apparently,

this cummerbund will do more than help me to blend in with the crowd.

This should prevent any accident happening to my midriff

while I'm exerting pressure on the tower.

What is so fantastic about all of Spain is the enthusiasm.

There's such a sense of community still,

and people of all ages turn out for these festivals

and they're just so committed and so happy and so sociable.

Makes it a wonderful country!

When they're three years old, they start training to go up

the castell, and when they're four years old, they can already do it!

Bueno! Pobrecito!

-Perdon, como te llamas?

-Mariona.

-Mariona. So this is Mariona.

-Cuantos anos tienes?

-Siete.

-Tienes siete anos.

You're seven years old and you're going up. She's going up today.

No te da miedo? No?

-Y desde cuando has subido?

-Desde el ano pasado.

And she started going up last year. Bueno. Buena suerte!

Que te vaya muy bien!

La vamos a pasar muy bien. We're going to have a wonderful time

seeing Mariona go to the top.

Hasta luego.

THEY CLAP

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE Mm-hm.

Push, push, push? Si. Si, si.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Si, si.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

So my job here is to hold on to the man's arms in front of me,

apply pressure, keep my feet in place,

keep the pressure going as they begin the ascent.

We're all nice and tight now,

the muscles are closing in all around me, there we are.

Someone's coming over the top of me...

There we go.

Down here in the base, we keep our heads down, so we're not

really even aware of what's going on above us, we're just applying pressure.

Here comes someone else on top of me, I think?

Yeah, that's right.

Catalans have been building castells for 300 years.

Castellers clamber up to form the tower,

often nine or ten storeys high,

before the enxaneta climbs to the top

and raises four fingers to symbolise the four stripes of the Catalan flag.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

Now the tower has been built, you can really feel the pressure.

I'm being pushed back, but I'm holding my ground

and someone behind me is pushing me and we're all keeping our heads down.

Time for Mariana to make her bid for the summit.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

HE EXHALES

Wow! That was much tougher than I thought.

-That was...

-Fine?

-Yeah, that was good, well done!

Magnifico castell! Magnifico!

I'm completely exhausted.

When I arrived in Tarragona, it was on the new,

high-speed standard gauge network

which tends to have modern stations built out of town.

I'm now back on Spain's traditional wide gauge railway,

which for more than a century,

had the effect of separating Spain from the rest of Europe.

On my brief journey down the Mediterranean coast from Tarragona,

I've moved from the region of Catalonia to that of Valencia.

And another change of lingo.

In medieval times, the people of Valencia,

like those of Catalonia, owed their allegiance to the

King of Aragon rather than the king of Castile, in central Spain.

So you can see how complicated are Spanish politics.

I'm going to leave my exploration of the city of Valencia

until the morning, because evening is already drawing on.

I awake from a blissfully undisturbed sleep,

despite being in this, the city of a hundred bell towers.

The third-largest city in Spain, Valencia is capital of

another fiercely distinctive region.

I'm standing by the bullring, which is

so obviously based on a Roman coliseum.

Indeed, our word "arena" derives from the Latin word for the fine sand

that was used to collect the blood.

It's still used in bullrings today.

It was built in the middle of the 19th century,

about the same time as the railway station,

and you could imagine town planners thinking that the aficionados of

the red cape would be able to arrive easily for bullfights by train.

One of those aficionados was the American writer, Ernest Hemingway,

who first fell in love with Spain

when he came to see the bulls in Pamplona in 1923.

Later, during the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway

returned as a journalist to report from the front line

and famously became a supporter of the Republican cause.

Bradshaw's recommends that I use the electric tramways.

Spain, like many countries, has reintroduced trams in the modern age.

And Valencia was the first city to do so, in 1994.

Although we think of Valencia as a coastal city,

actually the beach is some distance away.

But now Valencians find that they can use the tram

and be there in just 15 minutes.

Bradshaw's tells me that Valencia

is situated on a fertile plain on the River Turia.

And that plain produces vast quantities of rice.

Ask a citizen of the world what is the national dish of Spain,

and he's likely to tell you paella.

But ask a Spaniard, and the answer will be that paella

is a regional dish from Valencia.

La Pepica restaurant opened in 1898 and has been serving

its own special paella ever since.

I'm hoping to learn the tricks of the trade.

-Ola, Roberto!

-Ola.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

-Paella Pepica!

-Pepica!

So the Pepica paella has all the fish

and the seafood already prepared, chopped up and skinned.

Here are our peeled prawns going in.

And here is our chopped up fish.

That's going just on top of oil.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

We're going very well, he says.

Paprika! "Pimenton" in Spanish.

Paprika is what we say. Ooh!

Got to keep this moving.

Fresh tomato, of course. Lovely. Look at that.

So the rice goes in at this early stage

and is going to pick up all the flavour of the fish and the tomato.

For now, he's adding fish stock.

He's obviously prepared that before in these great big vats.

It is very important that it shouldn't stick.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Ah...

So the rice will come out nice and loose

if we keep it moving at this point.

There goes the saffron. Now, saffron is what gives it the yellow colour.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

He's being very nice, he's saying that it seems

I've been doing paellas all my life.

I've been eating them all my life!

Once the paella has reduced, it's put in the oven for five minutes

and then it's ready to be served.

I'm going to enjoy this traditional farm labourer's meal with

the current proprietor, Pepe Balaguer,

grandson of the original owners.

HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Pepe suggests that we eat the paella in the traditional way,

straight from the pan, with each person using his own wooden spoon.

This restaurant has always been popular

with devotees of bullfighting.

And among those who used to dine here was one very famous guest.

Having encountered paella, sangria and the bullfight,

which might strike you as Spanish cliches,

but nonetheless genuine for that, what's left?

The guitar. Perfected in Valencia.

HE PLAYS TRADITIONAL MUSIC

-Bravo! What a lovely, resonant sound.

-Nice, isn't it?

-Very nice.

How do you feel, having played that?

Really good, because it's very easy to get a nice and clear sound.

The effort made by the fingers is just...almost nothing.

But the sound coming out is round and straight... It's very nice.

That's why it's so-called "Catedral", it's round and big.

This glorious instrument was made by master guitar-maker

Manuel Adalid Jr.

And I find him in his workshop at the Esteve factory.

-Don Manuel!

-Ola.

-Ola. Michael Portillo. Gracias.

It's been Don Manuel's life's work.

Manuel crafts up to 25 guitars a year,

which can sell for £10,000 each.

The cultural heritage of eastern Spain is vibrant

and everywhere to be seen.

And it retains an authenticity which reassures and delights me.

It's not just for tourists, it's real and straight from the heart.

My heart quickens now for a different reason.

I'm on the trail of an early 20th-century outbreak

of offshore railway mania.

I'm now really looking forward to going to the island of Majorca,

and according to my very helpful Bradshaw's guide,

there is a steamer at 4pm every Thursday.

Now, the early 20th-century traveller would welcome

the opportunity of having to stay a few more days in the city.

But I'm of the modern sort, and I need to hurry on.

And so this Valencia metro is taking me to the airport.

Can you forgive me?

I'm drawn to the largest of the Balearics, Majorca.

Strategically positioned on ancient trading routes,

these islands have been conquered by Arabs, Catalans, French and British.

Tomorrow, I'll explore.

A new day finds me in the Majorcan capital of Palma.

On an island associated with mass tourism,

you might be surprised by the cultural wealth of the capital,

with Moorish fountains and courtyards,

grand Romanesque buildings, and splendid churches.

I'll begin my discovery of the island

from Palma's modern Placa d'Espanya station.

Tourists travelling on the first railway line to be built

here in 1875 would have left Palma for Inca on British-made

rolling stock, pulled by British-built steam locomotives.

I'm on my way to Manacor. Bradshaw's tells me that it has a population

of 15,000 and is the second largest town on the island.

It might have added that it is a kind of jewel in the crown of Majorca.

It had only become a town in 1912,

based largely on the wealth of manufacturing pearls -

a system designed to make oysters redundant.

And so my journey has strings attached.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

63, 64km from Palma to Manacor.

Ah. We've got to change trains at a place called Inca, and that is

because we are on the electric line now, but the last bit has not been

electrified, so we have to get off this electric train

and onto a diesel.

This final leg to Manacor was completed in 1879.

We're now passing through an area of vineyards and olive groves.

I see little stone farmhouses, animals grazing.

This is quite a long way from most people's

idea of the island of Majorca.

The train is taking me through the fertile plain of Es Pla.

The Edwardian tourist would have been drawn to Manacor by the prospect

of shopping, for the latest must-have fashion accessory, an artificial

pearl necklace from the Majorica factory, established here in 1902.

I'll find out more from export manager Didier Grupposo.

So, Didier, I guess that we are at the very heart of the process here.

What is it that these ladies are doing?

Well, they are applying a layer of the famous

Majorica pearl essence.

It may be famous to you, but I don't know what it is.

What is this essence?

Well, it is a big secret, but I will say to you that it is organic lemons

from the Mediterranean Sea. I can't tell you more.

Had I come here 100 years ago, with this guidebook,

would I have seen the same process?

Well, at the very beginning, we need people to blow glass,

and that is why we came here to Manacor.

There was a long tradition of blown glass.

Blown glass pearls would be weighted with white wax and then tinted.

But they were fragile and not as realistic as today's Majorica pearls.

Now, not only the look and feel, but even the weight

is exactly the same as a natural pearl.

I mean, if I take a natural pearl and a Majorica pearl,

you can't see the difference.

Now, what's happened to the real sea creatures? Because these things used

to come from oysters, didn't they?

No, it is forbidden. You can't...

You can't go and dive in the sea and catch an oyster,

so with Majorica pearl, you've got a definitive solution.

And this area... You and I have just walked in here, but presumably

-you don't invite people off the streets to come...

-No, no, no...

This is because of you, otherwise it is a very secret space here.

One part of the process hasn't changed in 100 years.

The pearls continue to be strung by hand.

Maria has been doing the job for 25 years.

Putting the knots into this string of pearls.

Both her grandmother and her aunt worked here.

They began very, very young. 14 or 15 years old when they began.

'When the factory opened,

'nearly every family in town had a member working here.

'And it's still a major employer.'

Muy bien. Estupendo.

'How hard can it be?'

I must get the string around my little finger. Si, no?

Si. A si.

-Bien.

-A

-si. Bien.

-Bien.

Ah! Si.

SHE LAUGHS

Got to go through the pearl.

-A

-si?

-Si. Ah, bien, bien, bien, bien, bien.

SHE LAUGHS

A si. Si.

Maria, I think this is absolutely impossible. I'm very sorry.

I'm going to leave it to you.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

SHE LAUGHS

As I return to Palma, I'm struck by how my impression

of the island has been transformed by following the tracks.

If you're used to thinking about Majorca as a sun

and sand resort, then you will find it full of surprises.

You don't expect a Gothic cathedral with one of the highest

naves in the world.

Nor to have an evening drink in a 17th-century palace.

I didn't expect an extensive system of railways.

And my last surprise of the day is a glass of red Majorca wine.

I'm on my way to Soller.

Bradshaw's tells me it is in a fine situation at the base of Puig Major,

which rises to 4,740 feet.

The harbour is about two miles north,

and the lemon is extensively cultivated.

Indeed, this railway was built around the time of my Bradshaw's guide,

partly to carry citrus fruits. It's known as the Orange Express.

It's a train with appeal.

This is absolutely perfect.

To be on a train in the open air, enjoying the sunshine,

the blue sky, the landscape.

If you do only one thing when you come to Majorca, it is

not the beach, it is the Orange Express.

This wonderful line opened in 1912.

It was so new when my Bradshaw's was published that it is not mentioned.

But canny tourists abandoning my guidebook would have enjoyed

a spectacular ride.

The narrow gauge line rises close to 200 metres.

Why have we stopped here for ten minutes?

Well, we stopped to have a view of Soller,

and now we are waiting for another train to cross.

-Are we OK to stand here?

-Yes, it is safe.

-Thank you.

I feel in good hands.

HORN BLARES

So now the town of Soller, which was on the right of the train,

appears on the left of the train

because we have looped down from the mountain and gradually come

alongside amongst the beautiful buildings of this exquisite town.

And all the way along, the lemons are within

touching distance of the crate.

Oranges and lemons have grown here for nearly 1,000 years.

Once their role in preventing scurvy had been

discovered in the 18th century, the British Royal Navy became

an important customer, and business blossomed.

I'm hoping to discover what makes this area so perfect for citrus

from farmer Franz Kraus.

Franz, this is such a divine place. It is really beautiful.

Yes, thank you very much. It is called "the paradise".

It is our paradise.

Why does the island lend itself so well

to the cultivation of oranges and lemons?

Well, each plant has to have its own microclimate.

And this place is a very special place

for the microclimate of the oranges.

So we've got a lot of water here, we get the heat,

and we don't get the freeze.

I had a delightful journey here, on the railway to Soller.

How important was that for oranges and lemons?

You have to understand, before there was a train,

this valley was isolated

from Majorca, and therefore it was called "the island on the island".

And there was a small revolution with a fast-going train,

40km the hour until Palma.

And now it's a perfect machine to come back from the big

-cities on a slower life.

-I feel completely slowed down, myself.

Thank you.

'Franz is proud of the marmalade that he makes from his fruit,

'and has kindly invited me to a tasting on the terrace.'

Now, a lovely array of marmalades.

What sorts of marmalades do we have here?

Well, this one is bitter orange.

This one is Canoneta orange.

And this one is lemon.

I'm going to try the orange

because I'm most familiar with British orange marmalades.

-Mmm! Franz, it is quite different. Quite different.

-Yes.

-It is very, very fruity, not so very sugary.

-Yes.

And a kind of purity to it.

-Yes.

-I think we've been making marmalade in Britain

for, I don't know, hundreds of years,

but this offers pretty zesty competition.

HORN TOOTS

The harbour at Soller will be my last port of call.

And I've found another beautiful vehicle with which to make tracks.

The tram was built in 1913 to connect town to port,

and opened just after the inauguration

of the Palma to Soller railway line.

The Mediterranean is stunningly beautiful.

But if you want to enjoy the sea without getting

sand between your toes, do it from a tram.

The astute rail traveller a century ago might have

detected in Spain social tensions.

And been worried, quite rightly,

about the future of my father's generation of Spaniards.

On my journey through a single country, I've encountered

four indigenous languages, and there are others elsewhere.

The fierce regional loyalties are even more evident today than

they were when my guidebook was published, because now

the minority languages are used officially and taught in schools.

That may pose some political challenges to the unity of Spain.

But the tourist today can simply delight in the rich

diversity of cultures in this country.