Canfranc

Hello Everyone,

On January 29^th, I went to the pueblo of Canfranc. It’s a small village in the Pyrenees Mountains in the north of Spain. It is very close to the border of France. It is famous because of its enormous train station that was the main station connecting Spain and France by rail. Many years ago, a tunnel between France and Spain caved in, which of course block the tracks and closed the connection between Spain and France. The tunnel was never fixed and the Canfranero railway connection between Spain and France has been closed and remains closed since the 1950s. I wanted to go because in my Spanish class I had learned about it and the Canfranero, the famous little train that winds up through the mountains to Canfranc.

The Canfranero left Zaragoza at 7 am and I arrived in Canfranc at about 12:15 pm. Although it was a four hour train ride, it was very comfortable, beautiful, and very enjoyable. It was sunny during most of the train ride but when we got close to Canfranc it started to snow and it was like a blizzard! I was wearing boots but I was only wearing jeans, not snow pants! I walked around the little village, went into all of the little shops, visited the church, and walked to a lookout point to see the valley below. There are many great trails and other sites to see if you go hiking there but I wasn’t prepared as I wasn’t wearing my snow pants. Although I wish I could have gone hiking to see a bit more, the snow was absolutely wonderful, especially since it doesn’t snow in Zaragoza. It made it so much more beautiful. I really enjoyed the surprise blizzard. I hope to return to Canfranc sometime in the spring to visit some of the other sites a bit outside of the village and to go hiking.

Until next time, Brian