The train to Madrid

We have discovered that traveling by train in Europe makes a lot of sense...even though we have a car. The tickets for four people from Murcia to Madrid were just a little more expensive than the gas would have been, and parking in Europe is pretty expensive. We decided to go this route because the web site for the train station said that parking in the Murcia train depot was $31 Euros per week, and we thought that it would be less expensive than that for the four days we were planning to be away. So we booked our tickets on a discounter web site, and packed our bags.

The scenery between Murcia and Madrid is very reminiscent of central Utah or the desert areas in southern California. There were huge orchards or oranges, apples, lemons, olives, and lots of grapes set up with drip irrigation. Wherever there was water, there were farms, but the native soil looks pretty alkaline, and is native vegetation is similar to sage brush and pinion pine. Here are a couple of short video clips to illustrate.

We arrived at the Madrid Atocha train station, and, not realizing that there was a metro station right in the train station, we walked about a block, got on Madrid metro, and rode a short distance to the Gran Via station, and had about a five minute walk from there to the apartment, where we met our host. Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful train station.

The apartment was right on a minor square, surrounded by restaurants and high end shopping. What a beautiful city! Here is a view out of our front window, followed by a couple of shots from the square.

These are photos of the interior of the apartment. It had two "bedrooms" (in quotes, because one is really the living room, but has beds instead of a sitting area)...which was ok with us for a short stay, but would have been uncomfortable if we had stayed more than a few nights.

We had a great trip, and it was so much better having an apartment and not a hotel room for our stay. We love trying to live like the locals do, and getting to know a neighborhood in each city we visit. We make separate posts for some of our dining experiences and for the sites we visited.