The train to Barcelona was a regional train and the only seats available were in 2nd class. We were at the back of our car and I must say it was the worst train we were on for the whole trip. Every time the engineer slowed down or stopped the couplings right behind us seemed to bang into each other producing a big bang and a big jolt. After about the 5th time, it became a joke to the passengers and we'd all just laugh.
This was one of the more interesting train experiences on the trip. After Narbonne we didn't have to change trains and the normal trip time was posted as about 5 hours so we would arrive in Barcelona at about 8:00 pm. That would be plenty early enough to get to our hotel, to dinner, etc.
However the train was boarded twice by law enforcement guys who checked our passports and tickets. Normally a conductor checks the tickets, so this was unusual and it was the only time we ever had our passports checked on any of the trains on the trip. The 2nd time, a young backpacking male was removed from our car. When we looked out the window, it appeared that others were also removed. The boardings and removals caused a delay of over an hour and made our arrival in Barcelona quite late.
When we boarded the train in Narbonne we didn't experience the heightened security at the station that we were later to experience in most of Spain. You may remember that in March, 2004 the Atocha train station in Madrid was bombed and about 175 people were killed. As a result, the Spanish train stations had the most stringent security of any on the trip. In fact, train travel in Spain is similar to flying these days.
This is the route we took from Carcassonne to Barcelona. Fortunately, most of it was during daylight so we got to see a lot. There's a lot more of Spain on the Mediterranean south of Barcelona to see. You can see how much if you check the link to the Wikipedia article. Maybe next time and with a car.
We hailed a cab for the trip to our hotel, the Hotel Continental, right on the Ramblas. I'm sure glad we did because we were tired and hungry and would never have figured out the metro system that night. We arrived at the Barcelona Franca train station and public transportation seemed very complicated at that late hour. The taxi got us to our hotel very quickly and we got checked in very easily. This was our room Sorry, but I had to move the picture so you can't click on it to make it bigger.
I was concerned about arriving so late and not getting dinner. Silly me. We were in Spain. Dinner doesn't really start until 8:30 at the earliest and lasts until the early morning. On top of that, our hotel had a 24 hour buffet. It wasn't the greatest but it could help out in a pinch.
The Ramblas is known for its human statues, entertainment, beauty and pickpockets. Fortunately, we experienced only the 3 former and not the last. Search Google images for some great pictures of the Ramblas in Barcelona.
We only had 2 nights in Barcelona and were leaving about noon on October 2nd for Madrid, so we had to cram a lot into our only real day there.
I love Juan Miro, so my main objective was to go to the museum dedicated to his work, the Fundacio Juan Miro. We took public transportation there from our hotel. The museum is on top of a hill, so part of the trip was on a funicular. The linked picture gives a good illustration of what a funicular is like if you've never been on one. The train car is slanted.
The only other site on my must see list for Barcelona was Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Trout wasn't particularly hot to go -- until we got there. Then he said it was his favorite thing on the trip so far. It's been under construction for over 120 years.
We arrived by metro and went to the park on the newer side of the church. We sat at a little open air place and ate ice cream and just stared. Then we walked around the church counterclockwise. These are some of the pictures I got, but there are many more online.
I think this crusader knight was my favorite.
These cranes are enormous and are working constantly.
This is the oldest part.
After the Sagrada Familia, we popped in a bar for a snack across the street from the Casa Mila, but we didn't visit it. We caught the end of the business lunch crowd at the bar which was all decorated up to be a Chicago pizza place.We headed back toward home for a bit of a rest before going out to dinner. This was a challenge the whole time we were in Spain. We were always tempted to just stay in the room and sleep instead of going out so late for dinner. But we did manage to get up and find a recommended place in the Barrio Gothic (the Medieval part of the city) adjacent to the Ramblas that turned out to be quite good. It was in one of the many narrow streets. There were actually 2 restaurants across from each other and they shared tables so our waitress had to walk across the alley to serve us and her other customers.
The next morning we took a cab to the Barcelona Sants train station to go to Madrid. That was great because we got to see a lot of the city we didn't see the day before.
We took a 1st class fast AVE train to Madrid, complete with a meal served to us like they used to do on planes. It was great.
This is about as fast as we went on any train the whole trip. I loved being able to see this in our car. Although the train we were on coming into Spain was the worst of the trip, I think this one between Barcelona and Madrid was the best of the trip.
We arrived at the Puerta de Atocha train station. This is the one that was bombed in 2004. The people watching here was great during the times we had to wait. It's like a jungle in this part with a pond with turtles.
I have practically no pictures from Madrid. We were here two nights and our primary goals were to go to the Prado and to the Reina Sofia. Trout had a great time outside the Prado listening to a classical Spanish guitarist. We even bought a CD of his music.Our hotel, the Lope de Vega, was a business person's hotel within easy walking distance of the Atocha train station, the Prado and The Reina Sofia. It was also in a great little area of restaurants. In preparation for the trip I detected a certain snobbery around staying in a place like this but we found it very comfortable, they had a great buffet breakfast and a senior discount, so what's not to like?
The Prado has one of the best collections of paintings in the world. You could probably spend a week in Madrid just visiting it. We concentrated on the Spanish and Flemish painters. You can see many of the works we saw by going to the 3-hour What to See section of the website.
There was one other painting I had to see, Picasso's Guernica. It's in the Reina Sofia, which concentrates on contemporary art. The museum had other interesting work in it and is definitely worth another visit.
After getting those things done and doing our laundry, we had some time left over so we walked through Buen Retiro Park and had lunch at an open air place there. Many pictures make this lake look enormous, but it really is quite small. The park itself is gigantic, though.
From the park we walked back past the Prado and on to our hotel to rest a bit before dinner. We never did quite get on Spanish time and our last night in Madrid was a prime example.When we did our laundry, we noticed a good looking restaurant about 2 blocks from our hotel. I stepped in to see what time they closed and I thought the young Asian woman behind the counter said 9 pm. It's typical for real Spanish restaurants to be open until about 4 for lunch, to close and then to reopen no earlier than 8 or 9 for dinner. Touristy spots tend to stay open in the afternoon and to close early, around 9.
So I thought by closing at 9 it meant that this was kind of a touristy place. Still it looked good, so we did our best to get there by 8:30 for dinner. It was closed. So I thought maybe she meant it would open at 9 in the morning for breakfast.
We walked on down the street and found another place for dinner that was good, but without the ambiance of the 1st one. We finished up dinner about 10 or so were heading back to the room. We had to walk by the place we wanted to go first and sure enough, it was open and full of people.
Obviously my American Spanish and her Asian Spanish didn't translate very well!
The next morning we caught the train for Sevilla and some absolutely unforgetable auditory and visual experiences.
