Chamartin Station

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Charmartin Station

On the train

Travel Blog for August 1st:

Today is our final day in Madrid with Deanna, Jesús, and the kids. Deanna drove us into Pozuelo (the suburb they live in) to get school shoes for the kids and haircuts for Lillie and me. Lots of hair dye in the shop, and lots of women having their hair dyed. All ages. I’ve never seen so many tubes of hair color in one spot. I suppose in U.S. salons the dye tubes are just kept out of sight.

We went home and Lillie and I spent much of the time packing for train ride to Paris. We said goodbye to Deanna and the kids, and Chus drove us to Chamartin Station where we caught our train for Bilbao, and then transferred to the French train to Paris. The overnight train to Bilbao was uncomfortable to say the least. I’ll attach video. Lillie LOVED it!!! Not. She’s still mad. To sum it up in her words, “Man, Dad would have totally just got off the train and gone back to Deanna’s!†and “No WAY would Dad have taken this train ride.†and “I hate you.â€

We switched trains at about 7:45am and rode 5 hours to Paris. The train made a few quick stops in southern towns of France to pick up short distance commuters and other travelers going all the way to Paris. I have to say I’m all for public transportation, particularly these types of trains, and it’s great that they afford travelers the opportunity to freshen up after a long night of traveling, but when people wash their faces and/or mysterious nether regions and leave a mess behind, and the toilets smell like piss and the floors are saturated with God knows what fluids, I think the only thing bad about public transportation is the public part. I’ve said it before: people are pigs, but leaving the microwave dirty after exploding your enchilada in it has just been superceded by wet-floor, piss-smelling train toilet.

Aug_01_2007_-_VID00001.AVI

2 mn 5 s - 4 août 2007
Description : Chamartin

Aug_01_2007_-_VID00003.AVI

1 mn 8 s - 4 août 2007
Description : overnight train

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