We made it to Madrid

This is a late posting.

We arrived at Frankfurt Airport at 8:15am this morning, then had to find our way to the gate for our flight to Madrid.  We arrived in Madrid just before 12:30pm.  MrMacD had worked out a route from the airport to the hotel, but the information wasn’t quite correct and it took us a while to work out that we had to take the Metro, not a bus.  Down to the Metro we descended and I think we were lucky to ever get out.  We took the first train then had to change.  Finding the next train was a bit of a nightmare as the signage was quite confusing.  Eventually we got to the correct platform, caught the train and got off at the correct station.  It was extremely difficult to find the platform for the last train but we eventually did, caught the train and got off at the right station.  From there it was a short walk to our hotel.  We checked in and went up to our room.  Logging onto the WiFi was a first priority.  MrMacD managed it straight away but my phone played up and it was only after rebooting twice that I was confident all was well.

Our first priority was to walk to the station to make the reservations for the trains we need to take in Spain. These are not able to be booked online, but have to be booked in a mainline station in Europe. The first mainline station is, of course, Madrid so we had no way of booking any earlier. We arrived just on 5pm and left just before 7pm, absolutely exhausted.  Firstly we had to take a ticket then watch for our number to come up.  That took well over an hour.  Finally our number was called and we went to booth number 3.  The booking agent was extremely helpful but the train we wanted to take to Granada on Friday was completely full, as were all trains that day and also on Thursday.  She did some searching and finally managed to find us two 2nd class seats on Saturday. Unfortunately that train doesn’t leave until 5:35pm and we won’t arrive in Granada until 9:57pm, having had to wait almost an hour in Cordoba. It was extremely disappointing, as it will cut down the time we have to spend with our friends in Monachil. The booking agent managed to book the train from Granada to Barcelona, but was unable to book Barcelona to Paris.  She said that she’s never been able to book that train.  When we got back to the hotel I had to amend our Eurail Passes to show the correct trains from Madrid to Granada and the correct start date.  I then went onto the Eurail website and managed to book the train from Barcelona to Paris, which was quite a relief. Thankfully the hotel could accommodate us on Friday, and in the same room.  

We decided to go out for some light tapas and a drink to cheer ourselves up after the disappointment of the train booking.  We had an enjoyable evening, did some people watching and returned to the hotel in a much more cheerful mood.

I am way, way behind responding to lovely comments and dipping into blippers’ journals.  The WiFi at the hotel wasn’t good and there hasn’t been much spare time.  Apologies if I don’t catch up for a while.

The main blip shows Madrid-Puerta De Atocha station, the Ministry of Agriculture, two lovely doors we walked by and an interesting piece of art in front of the Museo National Centro de Art Reina Sofia.  The first extra shows the countryside as we started to descend towards Madrid for landing, plus three buildings seen on our walk, and the second extra was taken where we had supper.  The plate on the wall was huge.