Our trip to Madrid began with a trip back to Paris on a really slow but rather comfortable train. The trip on the TGV high speed train to Tours was only an hour, but our return trip was 3 hours. The nice part was that we got to see several other small towns of the Loire Valley and a few chateaus on our way back to Paris.
The second leg of our journey was an overnight train from Paris to the border city of Irun, France. We had be bracing ourselves for 8 hours in a reclining chair, which is what we thought our tickets were for (we bought them from a woman who spoke as much English as we speak French). We were more than pleasantly surprised when we discovered that we actually couchettes (little beds) for the night. There were 6 couchettes stacked three on each side in a tiny little room within the train. Not the most comfortable accommodations, but far better than what we thought we would have. We were both able to rest up a bit for our third train ride.
Train #3 took us from Irun to Madrid, Spain. The trains here are set up very much like an airplane, except you are firmly planted on the ground. Plus, trains make for much better sightseeing on the trip. Our train followed the coastline for a while and we also traveled through the mountains. We enjoyed watching the scenery, and even saw the occasional castle in the distance. Our train arrived in Madrid around 2pm. We were glad to finally hear Spanish over the intercom, as we can usually catch enough words to have a good idea of what is going on.
After a short ride on the metro we arrived at the RC Miguel Angel hostel- located right in the center of Madrid just off of the Puerta del Sol. The location is perfect, as most of the sights are within a reasonable walking distance. The hostel itself is also really nice, we even have a balcony overlooking the city! Last night we only had one other roommate in our four bed room. He was a college student on his last night in Europe after spending a semester studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain. Interestingly enough, he is from Louisville, KaY and goes to the University of Kentucky. He even went to Crosby Middle School (the same as Nick)! Small world. He gave us a few good ideas of things to do in Madrid- so we will see how much we can cram in before we leave for Barcelona tomorrow.
After checking into our hostel yesterday afternoon we took a walk around the city to orient ourselves a bit. We ended up at huge city park that was filled with trails, ponds, and fountains. We walked around the park for quite a while and took in the sights. There was a large pond with an impressive monument on one side and row boat rentals on the other. A local entertainer was playing Italian love songs on the accordion- for a moment we thought we were in Venice!
Following our visit in the park we headed back tour our hostel, grabbed some food from the grocery store (conveniently located across the street), and spent the remainder of the evening hanging out in the hostel. Today we are going to see as many sights as possible, and plan on trying out some Tapas for dinner. More to come later. Adios!
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