The Guardian came out with a great article today highlighting some of the lesser known train lines around Spain. They provide three leisurely alternatives to the high speed AVE trains that most tourist tend to zoom around in. The slower trains definitely open up the part of "Deep Spain" that few foreigners get to see. Here's the routes from the article with a few snippets:
Extremadura Region: Romans and Moors - Mérida to Almadén
From the track into Mérida in the hot south-western region of Extremadura, you are treated to one of the finest views from any train in Spain. Having crossed a parched plain into the remote city, the carriages clatter slowly into Extremadura’s capital, where the remains of a magnificent Roman aqueduct rise.
Through gaps between towering columns of orange-hued brick, windows of azure sky are framed, and it is hard not to marvel at the structure’s miraculous longevity as well as its striking presence. A crumbling reminder of an ancient civilisation, seen through the carriage windows.
This is just one of the Roman attractions of Mérida, once a place of peaceful retirement for the centurions of Hispania. You can see it from the station platform, from where the trains move eastwards across yet more arid landscape to the little-visited old cinnabar-mining town of Almadén. (continues)
Andalucía Region: Deserts and Mountains - Almería to Granada
Starting on the south coast, this out-of-the-way line takes you northwards and upwards into the mountains, covering 100 miles over nearly three hours on one of Spain’s most visually captivating rides.
Almería, on the eastern side of Andalucía, is often overlooked despite being home to a splendid cathedral, an ancient Moorish castle (the Alcazaba, in pride of place atop a hill) and the Cable Inglés. This extraordinary steel-and-wood structure is a former railway pier built to help shift iron, copper and silver from mines run by the British and French, which it did from 1904 to 1973.
Aside from these sights, Almería is also worth a detour on a Spanish train adventure for a local tradition of serving “free” tapas with each drink ordered at bars (you still have to pay for the drinks, obviously).
Trains to Granada set off from an ugly modern warehouse of a station next to a disused, incongruously glorious station dating from 1895, with lovely Moorish-style brickwork (you cannot help wondering how the new architects got it so wrong). (continues)
Aragon Region: Goya and Orwell - Zaragoza to Huesca (my favorite one)
This is a short one, 46 miles, taking just over an hour, from the capital of Aragon northwards to the small city of Huesca, close to where George Orwell was shot and almost died during the Spanish civil war – as he describes so vividly in Homage to Catalonia. This battlefield has become part of a little-visited Ruta de las Trincheras de Tierz (Route of the Tierz Trenches) hiking trail, and it was the target of my train ride.
There is plenty to detain the curious train traveller passing through Zaragoza, the fifth-largest city in Spain and roughly halfway between Barcelona and Madrid. Forming a triangle of attractions are the 11th-century Aljafería palace (a Moorish dream of marble passages and courtyards), the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (where the Virgin Mary is said to have descended before Saint James), and the Museo Goya, where the walls are alive with images by the local boy done good.
Appropriately, the train to Huesca departs from Zaragoza-Goya Station – a far cry from the city’s enormous station for high-speed AVE trains on the outskirts of town. Zaragoza-Goya is tiny and underground, complete with murals of Goya’s paintings to brighten things up (continues).
Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/feb/22/homage-to-spains-railways-take-the-slow-train-merida-almeria-granada-zaragoza