Day two started in the Madrid airport, with an overpriced Sprite and a complete lack of interrnet. It was easy to find my way to the shuttle bus that takes you from terminal 1 to terminal 4. Terminal 4 is the beautiful new terminal in the airport, with great architecture. I made my way all the way down to the ground floor of terminal 4 to the Renfe section. I was under the impression that by purchasing an AVE ticket with Renfe (high speed long distance train), I would have a code on my ticket that I could use to get on the cercanias (municipal trains). However, the customer service desk at Renfe informed me that the price I got my train ticket for (30 euros) did not include any other perks. One of the attendants helped me purchase a cercanias ticket from T4 to Atocha, and was very happy that I was Canadian and not American. So I bought my ticket and headed towards the platform for the train.
The train was beautiful- my first glimpse into how great trains are in Europe. Mind you, this was a commuter train. But still. I had a short trip from terminal 4 to Atocha, the downtown station in Madrid. It took about 20 minutes, at which time I got to relax without carrying bags all around the airport. I looked out the window at what seemed like a very industrial and concrete Madrid.
Once I got to Atocha, I started to get the most confused. The signs really didn't make sense on where to go to catch the train I needed for Malaga, and the station was HUGE so it was hard to navigate. I just followed all the people from the platform area to the ticketing area. The ticketing area was insanse... people everywhere, everything in Spanish, no clue where to go to wait for my train to leave. I got to this train station at 1:30, and my train didn't leave until 5:30. I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to navigate from the airport to the train. Finally I spotted a Renfe customer service desk, where the man there ushered me up to the top floor (the terminal to catch my particular train). By this point, I was sick of carrying around my heavy luggage (you need to haul it on to a security x-ray belt) and I knew my parents would be wondering where I was (I was supposed to email them at the airport, but that didn't work so well). So I sat my bags down and made my way over to these incredibly complicated and stupid pay phones. After making about a billion mistakes, I finally figured out how to make a call to let my parents know I was alright. Then I saw these cool cart things that carry around your luggage, so I made a deposit on that as well. The cart was extremely noisy, but it was better than hauling my luggage around like I was before.
So with about 3 hours to kill and an empty stomach, I decided to eat at what seemed like the most reasonably cheap restaurant in the station - Burger King. And so, my first meal is Spain came from an American fast food chain. I ate my whopper and enjoyed people watching (FYI- the combos at Burger King in Spain can come with a beer instead of a soft drink... I was temped but too drowsy). The Atocha train station is actually quite beautiful. They have a botanical garden right in the middle of the station that you can walk through, it was really exotic. After my lunch, I ordered a Cafe con leche (coffee with milk) which turned out being a shot of espresso and some milk (I was warned about the coffee in Spain!). Luckily, I like my coffee bitter and dark, so I enjoyed the espresso-with-a-little-milk drink.
Finally, the train to Malaga was boarding. I heard that it is first come first served for luggage storage on Renfe trains, so I ran down to the train to try and stow my luggage. I ended up putting all my luggage in the wrong car, and had to get someome to help me move it to my correct car. I learned that it really isn't that hard to find a place to store luggage in the AVE trains, so I definitely won't panic as much next time. Now, these high speed AVE trains are GORGEOUS. They are ultra modern with automatic sliding glass doors between the cars, and a cafeteria car that serves snacks and drinks. They even play movies on these trains (they were playing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on my ride). The scenery was also very very gorgeous all the way down... there were mountains and fields and little towns zipping by as we traveled at 300km an hour towards Malaga. I had really wanted to stay awake for most of it to look out the window, but I crashed from my second dose of gravol. Finally, I woke up an hour from Malaga, bought another cafe con leche to stay awake, and watched the European countryside go by.
Tips for anyone doing this trip:
1) Don't worry about navigating Madrid's airport, its easy.
2) Keep your cercanias ticket even after you enter the station, because you will need it to scan to leave the station.
3) Ask for help at the Renfe customer service desk, they speak English and can point you in the right direction.
4) If you are at Atocha, remember there are three levels. The very bottom level is the cercanias trains and some AVE trains. The second level are ticket vendors, the street, restaurants and shops. The top floor is the rest of the AVE trains, and some other longer distance trains.
5) You will have to go through a mini-security station on the top floor before you enter the terminal with all the trains. You can pass in and out of this security station freely, but you will have to scan your bags each time.
6) There is no wifi at the Atocha train station
7) There is plenty of space on the train for your luggage, and they don't limit you for what luggage you can bring on the trains.
The train was beautiful- my first glimpse into how great trains are in Europe. Mind you, this was a commuter train. But still. I had a short trip from terminal 4 to Atocha, the downtown station in Madrid. It took about 20 minutes, at which time I got to relax without carrying bags all around the airport. I looked out the window at what seemed like a very industrial and concrete Madrid.
Once I got to Atocha, I started to get the most confused. The signs really didn't make sense on where to go to catch the train I needed for Malaga, and the station was HUGE so it was hard to navigate. I just followed all the people from the platform area to the ticketing area. The ticketing area was insanse... people everywhere, everything in Spanish, no clue where to go to wait for my train to leave. I got to this train station at 1:30, and my train didn't leave until 5:30. I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to navigate from the airport to the train. Finally I spotted a Renfe customer service desk, where the man there ushered me up to the top floor (the terminal to catch my particular train). By this point, I was sick of carrying around my heavy luggage (you need to haul it on to a security x-ray belt) and I knew my parents would be wondering where I was (I was supposed to email them at the airport, but that didn't work so well). So I sat my bags down and made my way over to these incredibly complicated and stupid pay phones. After making about a billion mistakes, I finally figured out how to make a call to let my parents know I was alright. Then I saw these cool cart things that carry around your luggage, so I made a deposit on that as well. The cart was extremely noisy, but it was better than hauling my luggage around like I was before.
So with about 3 hours to kill and an empty stomach, I decided to eat at what seemed like the most reasonably cheap restaurant in the station - Burger King. And so, my first meal is Spain came from an American fast food chain. I ate my whopper and enjoyed people watching (FYI- the combos at Burger King in Spain can come with a beer instead of a soft drink... I was temped but too drowsy). The Atocha train station is actually quite beautiful. They have a botanical garden right in the middle of the station that you can walk through, it was really exotic. After my lunch, I ordered a Cafe con leche (coffee with milk) which turned out being a shot of espresso and some milk (I was warned about the coffee in Spain!). Luckily, I like my coffee bitter and dark, so I enjoyed the espresso-with-a-little-milk drink.
Finally, the train to Malaga was boarding. I heard that it is first come first served for luggage storage on Renfe trains, so I ran down to the train to try and stow my luggage. I ended up putting all my luggage in the wrong car, and had to get someome to help me move it to my correct car. I learned that it really isn't that hard to find a place to store luggage in the AVE trains, so I definitely won't panic as much next time. Now, these high speed AVE trains are GORGEOUS. They are ultra modern with automatic sliding glass doors between the cars, and a cafeteria car that serves snacks and drinks. They even play movies on these trains (they were playing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on my ride). The scenery was also very very gorgeous all the way down... there were mountains and fields and little towns zipping by as we traveled at 300km an hour towards Malaga. I had really wanted to stay awake for most of it to look out the window, but I crashed from my second dose of gravol. Finally, I woke up an hour from Malaga, bought another cafe con leche to stay awake, and watched the European countryside go by.
Tips for anyone doing this trip:
1) Don't worry about navigating Madrid's airport, its easy.
2) Keep your cercanias ticket even after you enter the station, because you will need it to scan to leave the station.
3) Ask for help at the Renfe customer service desk, they speak English and can point you in the right direction.
4) If you are at Atocha, remember there are three levels. The very bottom level is the cercanias trains and some AVE trains. The second level are ticket vendors, the street, restaurants and shops. The top floor is the rest of the AVE trains, and some other longer distance trains.
5) You will have to go through a mini-security station on the top floor before you enter the terminal with all the trains. You can pass in and out of this security station freely, but you will have to scan your bags each time.
6) There is no wifi at the Atocha train station
7) There is plenty of space on the train for your luggage, and they don't limit you for what luggage you can bring on the trains.
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