From Galicia to La Mancha

Funny things happen at railway stations.

We left the hotel early, as usual and the cab took us to the station in A Coruña. Being an hour early... as is our habit... we had time for a cafe con leche and a croissant.

Sitting there minding our own business an elderly lady asked if we had done the Camino and what we thought of Galicia.

As we have walked the Camino previously and like Galicia very much. This was easy to be pleasant, if not entirely understandable. Then the lady sitting next to us weighed in and explained to her what we'd said.

The little old lady asked me to fill in a lottery entry for her "because you have done the Camino". It would have been churlish to have refused.

As the old lady went on her way, we started talking the lady on our to our tabl who happened to be atour guide. With lots of historical knowledge and explained to us about Maria Pita. She explained that Maria had been married 5 times, and Frances Drake's second-in-command had killed her fifth – and favourite husband. This enraged her and the story is that Maria, tore the English flag off its staff and used the staff to kill the second in command. This scared the English so much they ran away.

I've heard as believeable stories on thames river cruises, so there's probably some truth to it.

The train arrived, our bags were x-rayed and we boarded. We stopped at Santiago and that's when the train was full.

Everyone had a seat it was comfortable, the toiltes worked. All the luggage was safely stowed. In the overheads. Avanti could learn a thing. We went on our merry way to Madrid hitting 330km/h (204mph) on a couple of occasions. We arrived on time.

There are two main stations on Madrid, Charmartin and Atocha. Should they ever finish improving both of them, its my dream that trains will be able to run between them making things easier.

As it is, we had to get a cab between the stations. It might be possible to get a metro... but only of absolutely necessary.

After an excursion to the jammed ring road, we went back into town and drove around for a bit. We passed the home of the Spanish Symphony Orchestra. We passed this famous arch, the Puerta de Alcala.

We passed along one side of the El Retirio park.

And 40 minutes later and €20 lighter we arrived at Atocha.

The whole experience was backed by the kind of pumping Eurotechno bangers, that could easily have filled floors from Den Haag to De Panne at any time in the first 10 years of this century.

The building work at Atocha was a relief. But the two hour gap between trains paid off well.

We have our bags x-rayed again go through the barrier. Were approached by a lady from Newfoundland, who's going to Toledo and will walk from here to Santiago.

Honestly, we were just standing there, we were chatting in English I suppose. We probably don't look much like the locals. And she saw the St James shells on our bags.

On the train a couple from Nebraska told us about thir neice's wedding. Which is being held here as a destination wedding.

Now in our hotel in Toledo. We've got two nights here and were going to stay at an other while we look around on Friday

Tomorrow and Thursday, we're planning to loll by the pool. And with views like this, wouldn't you?