Santiago to Madrid

Today is finally the day on which I must leave Santiago, and take the high speed AVE train to Madrid, from where I’ll fly back to Heathrow this afternoon.

It felt strange to be packing up my rucksack for the final time on this journey, and then to hoist it once more onto my back after a whole day of not wearing it!

The station was a 15 minute walk from my albergue, and I joined an intermittent stream of mostly pilgrims on their way to the station to begin their journeys back home.

I was at the station in good time to pass through security, which involves all luggage going through an airport style scanner while security guards randomly scan travellers.

The train arrived on time and turned out to be pretty full.

We were soon at our cruising altitude of 5 feet and around 300 km/h (or 187.5 mph).

In just 3 hours, we’ll arrive in Madrid.Läs mer