Madrid a Santiago de Compostela

UNDER CONSTRUCTION 🚧🏗️
[Pat attempts to reconstruct the morning events, as we departed our hotel and embarked on the train to our first overnight destination outside of Madrid. I had posted it previously, but it somehow seemed to have gone "poof, along with the photos that I had posted.

The only line to have survived was at the end of my narrative: "A very nice hotel, once we finally got there" in reference to our hotel in Santiago.]

We got up early, made coffee, and Pat polished off the paella and artichoke leftovers from our dinner a few nights earlier, as we finished packing to move on to the first of several rail trips to other areas of Spain.

Hoping to avoid the possibility of stairways (up and down) with all of our luggage, as experienced on our arrival in Madrid, we had already decided to take a taxi. Even easier, Laurie submitted a request for an Uber driver, who pulled up to the hotel entrance in good time. He loaded our bags into the trunk and off we went, bidding farewell to Colón and other sights along the Paseo de la Castellana as we headed to the Chamartín train station, where we were deposited just as we hoped alongside the area for boarding long-distance trains. Huzzah!

A track number had yet to be posted for our train, so we found seats in the waiting area for Laurie to hang out with our stuff while Pat went to find us some café con leche. Before long, we had a track number and proceeded to the platform area, passing through security where we loaded most of our things on the conveyor belt to be scanned. An unanticipated step for train travel, but at least we got to keep our shoes on. Having shown our boarding passes, we proceeded along the crowded platform to find our assigned car number, stepped aboard, and found our seats. With each future trip, we became more adept at getting ourselves and our luggage on and off the train, often with the assistance of other passengers.

We placed our larger bags on the overhead shelf, and settled in for the ride to Ourense, where we would change to another train to take us to Santiago. Announcements, in both Spanish and English, kept us advised of upcoming stops, and monitors also displayed the progress toward our destination.

Boarding the second train, we placed our larger bags in the designated area near the car entrance. Live and learn.

We watched beautiful scenery – lots of green – outside our window along the way, as we traveled to the Galicia region of northwestern Spain.

Laurie contributes:
We took a taxi to the station for our trip to Santiago de Compostela. The train ride was fine- and we opted to walk to the hotel; it appeared it would take only 15-18 minutes. What a mess. Google Maps took us around Robin Hood's barn and beyond, including several large hills. With our luggage. And though we packed conservatively, compared to our usual travel, it was heavy and awkward.

We finally located our lovely hotel- Plaza Santiago. The desk clerk was very helpful, and suggested that we really needed more than one night in Santiago - and we came to discover he was right (so much to do, so little time).

We settled our things in the room. then took a taxi to the tour company office for our tour of the Cathedral.

From Pat: A very nice hotel, once we finally got there.Read more