I’m told the last episode of this conquest of Europe was more diary than travel info, so sorry about that, lets talk train stuff instead that’s travel related right?
Canfranc Spain is a few kilometres from the French border has an elevation of – pretty high because they ski here and a population of – who knows or even cares. It’s all about the train station.
The station at the Spanish end of the Somport railway tunnel opened in 1928 it is 240 meters long and has 156 doors and 365 windows, one for each day of the year.
During World War Two the railway was used by those escaping the Nazis and by the Nazis to move some 90 tonnes of gold through Europe.
Since the destruction in 1970 of the bridge at nearby L’Estanguet, on the French side, no more trains stop here. The French decided it was all too difficult apparently so the station has been falling to bits since. There have been several plans to re-purpose the building ranging from Hotel to University. Nothing happening yet however.
Behind the Railway station is a collection of WW2 Bunkers for those with a military bent.
By the way in the former Somport railway tunnel there is now a research facility dedicated to dark matter detection by looking at the annual modulation of the expected interaction rates in a target of sodium iodide. So there!
leschalmers 