Day 5 of France and Spain by Train

We started the day with breakfast at a local café. I had churros with hot chocolate and of course I had to dip the churros into the chocolate. We made the short trip to the station before checking our bags through security. Once through security we stopped at a café to wait for the platform number to appear. It drew closer and closer to our departure time, and only 10 minutes before we were due to leave our platform number materialised and we rushed to join the queue to get our tickets scanned and get onto the platform. Our tickets were located on the lower deck of the double decker TGV ouigo train. Both the exterior and interior of the train were quiet tired looking but the seats were comfortable and we made ourselves at home quite quickly.  As we pulled away from Barcelona the landscape gave way to arid hills and scrubland. The dryness of the land mirrored the 30-degree heat as we sped through the countryside. We were delighted to find a sit-down restaurant car a few coaches down and we sat there on the upper deck sipping coffee watching the landscape rise and fall into arid rocky hills and valleys.

A mere two and a half hours later we arrived at Madrid Atocha station. The station is the oldest in Madrid, with the first station on the site being built in 1851. Since then, the station has been remodelled several times and is currently undergoing major renovation works which was evident as we walked through the station. We had a brief stopover in Madrid before our next train and decided to find the Real Madrid stadium. We encountered some confusion over trying to find the train to get us there as Madrid has both a metro service and a commuter rail service called Cercanías which both operate in a similar way. Once we realised the difference, we got on a Cercanías train C10 to Nuevos Ministerios where it was a short walk to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Back on the train it was one stop to Madrid Chamartín station where our train to Salamanca was departing from.  Madrid Chamartín, located some way north of the city centre is the second largest station in Madrid with 25 platforms. We went to a vendor in the station for lunch where two sandwiches cost a ridiculous 30 Euros, I recommend finding food elsewhere as everything in the station was extortionately priced. Soon we got on the train to our final destination, Salamanca. On the train, which was a standard train – not high speed, the carriages were crammed with every seat filled but I was quite comfortable with my window seat, staring out as the landscape evolved. As we reached the suburbs of Madrid the high-rise buildings soon turned into desert like fields with the occasional vineyard or orchard dotting the horizon.

 We arrived in Salamanca a few minutes late, the first late train of the trip! We walked the short distance to our hotel where we had a little rest. We spoke to another tourist staying in the same apartment block who told us the restaurants didn’t open until 8pm! We decided to extend our rest and emerged from our apartment at 19.50 to check out a restaurant recommended by our host. The restaurant was called Vinodiario and I highly recommend it. The staff were lovely and we feasted upon chicken, oyster mushrooms, potatoes and plenty of pan tomate. We were even given complimentary cheesecake to finish. We then made the short trip across the road back to our apartment where we settled down for the night.