Train to Soller from Palma, Majorca, Spain: On board 'The Orange Express'

The morning began with us gazing at the blue Mediterranean, sparkling under the rising sun, from our cruise ship balcony. Now we're on a train clickety-clacking through what resembles the Old West, the parched landscapes scoured with craggy peaks as hazy parcels of smoke simmer from patches of arid farmland beside the tracks. The Americana vibe is further fuelled by the couple next to me. "Looks like West Texas," drawls the man. "Yep. More trees, though," says his wife.

We're actually trundling into the mountainous interior of Majorca, the largest of Spain's Balearic islands. And the scenery, visible through the rolled-down windows of our polished wood-panelled train carriage, grows increasingly leafier, and classically Mediterranean.

We spot almond trees, carobs (great for the local herbal liqueurs, apparently), olive trees on tiered dry-stone terraces, distant thickets of pine and, later, citrus groves galore, some so close you could probably grab fruit from the branches if you fancied chancing your arm. This train isn't known as "The Orange Express" for nothing.

Officially the Tren de Soller, it connects Palma, Majorca's vibrant capital, with the postcard-pretty rural town of Soller (on this shore excursion with Norwegian Cruise Line, we're transferred by coach from Palma's port and board the train at a dusty, outback-like stop just beyond the city limits). Inaugurated on April 16, 1912 - the day the world learned of the Titanic's sinking - this narrow-gauge railway was bankrolled by the businessmen of Soller, whose citrus trade was hampered by the town's isolated inland location, cut off from Palma by brooding mountains.

Electrified in 1929, the line stretches 27 kilometres via bridges, viaducts and tunnels, hastening a journey previously made over a mountain pass by animal-hauled stagecoaches loaded with lemons and oranges. Near the end of our hour-long ride, we emerge from the longest (almost three-kilometre) tunnel and stop to survey Soller from a panoramic mirador or lookout. It sits in a bowl-shaped valley, dwarfed by the mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana (which reach 1445 metres in height).

Soller's name is said to derive from an Arabic word, "Suljer", meaning "golden valley", and harks back to the Muslim Moors, who occupied Majorca in the Middle Ages. The Moorish legacy infuses the island still, from its dialects and irrigation systems to its cuisine and annual celebrations.

Each May, for instance, Es Firo: the Festival of Moors and Christians (Moros y Cristianos), stages parades, fireworks and mock battles in Soller and neighbouring seaside resort-village, Port de Soller. A tram, launched in 1913, links the pair, departing from outside Soller's quaint train terminal.