Morocco, day two: Madrid

I was up quite early this morning.

For some reason, I didn’t sleep particularly well. This was nothing to do with the accommodation which was exactly as advertised, but perhaps because I was inwardly squeeing with excitement for most of the night, barely able to contain myself. After a coffee (yay Aeropress) and a chat with another guest about what to do in Morocco, I was out and ready to go at about 8am with time to find myself something yummy to eat and stock up on supplies for the journey knowing that it was showing on the Renfe site as “sin restoración”.

I found a little bakery where a croissant à la plancha set me back 3,85€ and came with a little pot of jam and a big cup of coffee. I’ve not had a croissant toasted before, and would usually baulk at the mere suggestion of spreading butter onto a croissant, but oh my goodness that was lovely. I didn't have time to savour it languorously as I could have as I was keen to get to the station and be on time, which was probably a good decision as I had not been prepared for tickets to be checked on the platform and not on the train.

San Sebastian/Donostia Renfe station is currently something of a building site and not really a nice place to start a journey, although it’ll probably be much better when it’s finished and all shiny and new again. The station was inaugurated on August 15, 1864 and was then fiddled with in 1881 by a Frenchman who extended the main building and added a metal canopy over the tracks made in Gustave Eiffel's workshop. The canopy was removed in March 2023 for restoration, and the following month, the entire remaining station building was demolished to accommodate the new high-speed line from Vitoria to the French border, but some of the original façade has survived, thus far, and will make up part of the new station which is due to open in 2026.

I was really pleased with myself when I found a one-way ticket to Madrid in first for just 45€ (after my 10% discount for signing up to Más Renfe) so was a bit annoyed this morning when the train turned up without any first class accommodation, any catering, or any other things befitting getting out of bed before 8am for nearly six hours on a train. I bought a couple of savoury things and a bottle of water from a shop just next to the steps up to the platforms for sustenance as the train had been marked as being sen restoración when I bought the tickets. What I didn't know was that the train also going to be sen clase de confort, something the woman checking tickets told me very apologetically before herding me up the steps onto one of the two only working platforms. I consoled myself knowing that I’d found some non-meaty sustenance for my journey so found myself a window seat in the front carriage and settled down for five hours of window-licking.

My advice for anyone travelling from Donostia to Madrid who likes a bit of a view would probably be to sit on the right hand side of the train, which was not the side of the train I chose. My frosty views were stunning, make no mistake, but the sun was coming in from that side – of course – and the snow-capped mountains seemed to be, for the most part, on the other side. This side of the train also had cleaner windows, but by Burgos the train was full so it wasn’t really easy to bounce around from side-to-side taking pictures of pretty things so I contented myself with my window seat of choice. On boarding in Donostia, a pair of mature Spanish ladies sat in the seats in front of me and immediately set to demonstrating an ability to speak continuously without drawing breath, but with their advancing years were quietly fast asleep by the time we'd passed Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The journey proper was perfectly pleasant. I split my time between trying to read but being distracted by the pretty outside the window, or trying to get photos of pretty things without distracting my fellow passengers too much. I had a little wander up and down the train a couple of times to stretch my legs, but as it was all one class it's fair to say that one carriage pretty much resembled another so there was not much to be seen inside. The first part of the journey south was slow as we wended our way through the foothills of the Pyrenees, and then continued our slow progress between the mountains of the Natural Parks as the first part of the line from San Sebastián is not high speed. There was plenty of time to reflect on my choice of which-side-of-train but also to enjoy the views as, really, from either side it was really pretty. At Burgos we joined the high-speed line and hooned our way through the Spanish countryside at about 250kph (according to my phone) for the final leg to Madrid.

We arrived in Madrid Charmatin about twenty minutes late. I'm not entirely sure I enjoyed the station experience as it too seems to be undergoing extensive work, and I don't know whether we could have been deposited any further away from the actual station building than we were, which seemed to be an extremity of an incredibly long platform. Buying a metro ticket was more of a faff than I'd have liked and I hadn't noticed that someone had left a blank metro card in the machine before spending 2,50€ on another, to which I then added 2€ for the one-way journey to Tirso de Molina a metro station with grand white and cerulean blue tiling in the ticket hall named after a 17-century Spanish playwright.

My hostel was less than two minutes on foot from the triangular square and after checking in, I deposited my bag and set off to explore. There was not much time to stop and take in all of the touristy places, but within easy walking distance I soon found the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, and (a) cathedral before stumbling upon the Mercado de San Miguel, completely by chance, where after much deliberation I had some tasty cheesy tapas with a generous glass of a nice red wine.

There was plenty I could have eaten – an extensive olive selection nearly won over the cheese – and tourists lurching around aimlessly mingled with madrileños knowing what they wanted. On the whole the offering is quite meat heavy, but cheese, olives, and omelettes await those who look hard enough. I decided not to overdo the afternoon grazing as I had plans for my evening meal.

After a power-nap, I ventured out in the evening to sample some falafely goodness at Falafeleria, a chance stumbling-upon of my earlier explorations, where a really tasty and well accessorised falafel in pitta set me back 7,90€. It was very nice, and the atmosphere was fun – think classy fast food – and the service wonderful. I felt a bit guilty as I spent far too much money on food today, especially considering I’ve not really had much chance to burn any of it off.

To rectify this, I wandered around a little looking at my little corner of Madrid in the dark before deciding it was time for bed. In the hostel, a group of youths were sitting in the communal area watching football. I sat with them for a while, then remembered that my train tomorrow morning is at 8am, so prepared myself for bed.