Nik lives in Essex, UK and works in London as the editor of MacUser magazine. The posts and comments on this site do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions of values of his employers.
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So it’s Wednesday, which must mean this is Barcelona. Madrid was great. My first time there, so nice to see a new city, and particularly good to get out of the heat of Seville. In fact, the more time we spent in Madrid the less and less I liked Seville. It has so little to offer in comparison.
The Spanish trains have been fantastic. They have ceiling-slung monitors so you can watch films (Spy Kids today, unfortunately), complimentary headphones, those displays that show your progress across the country, the time and the weather, and so on.
Oh, and so much leg room you actually have to recline your seat to be able to get your feet on the footrest in front of you.
They are clean, efficient and filled with helpful staff. Shame the same can’t be said for the booking offices, but there you go.
It’s all a lot more like flying than taking the train, largely down to all the security. Since the Madrid bombs they are scanning every piece of baggage, and they check your tickets twice before you board any train, but it is so well done that it is not intrusive and it doesn’t hold you up at all. I doubt we could ever do it so efficiently at home, though.
It really helps to put Spain in context travelling across it by land, as before it was always a series of disconnected blobs - just the coastal bits I’ve visited in the past. Now, though, it is desert, arable land, dried rivers, hillside villages and big cities, and far more beautiful, in a stark and barren way, than I’d ever imagined.
I’ve just booked the last leg of my journey: Avignon to Paris to catch the Eurostar. Having left it a bit late, availability is limited, but on what’s left it’s only
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