Concluded an eight day trip to Spain. Hit the three major metros and surrounds - starting in Barcelona to the southern city of Seville and then touching the capital Madrid on the way back. Phenomenally beautiful, modern and clean was my first impression compared to Paris, France.
The 1992 Olympics did a lot to boost infrastructure development a benefit of which was the modern high speed rail system that we benefited from. Spotless, efficient, quiet and reaching speeds in excess of 300 km per hour this was very enjoyable travel from end to end. The local metro tubes also are fairly evolved - more in some cities than others and allow travelers to shunt between over ground and under ground options on a multi use pass.
What was at times frustrating is to figure out if a multi use ticket would let us travel on another rail line going in some other direction out of the Centro Cuidad or city center. This all depends we learned on the rail company that operates a particular service. This in itself was amazing that multiple owners could share the underground tunnels and run train services but for a user sometimes the ticket valid on one system got rejected on another causing some downtime. All in all very smooth travels.
As far as scenery the Spanish metros only extend out perhaps 30 or so km out of the center and then everything turns rural as witnessed by leaving a city by train and running along meadows and old castles within minutes. The country is sparse and filled with ancient villages each with a castle of its own or an old church like building made to blend in the brown or red earth with its imposing clock tower or steeple.
Language it appears is something one picks up when forced into speaking it for the life of one's existence. Food purchase to rail ticket bookings to getting off on the right side of the station required navigating the language and hand signs - Arriba and Atocha sound similar but mean different things - Pardon was used in plenty to get past sticky wickets and eventually all was sorted out.
Food was fairly mild flavored although did get some decent seafood. Tapas are not all that they are cracked up to be - perhaps my appetite being what it is left me hungry for something more.
Regal - baroque - ancient - moorish to traditional and contemporary are all adjectives designed to express the amazing plethora of architecture that we witnessed in all the metros. Also the accessibility to all of these is relatively easy and allowed the visitor to spend as much or as little time dwelling in its surrounds. Each metro has its own 'Plaza Espanya' which is a major square for celebrations and historic memorabilia. It just got confusing to remember which city we were in since they all had the same names.
A specialty of Spain - fresh churros with thick dark chocolate that you can stand a spoon in was fun - delivered from a 120 year shop that resembled a Chitale Bandhu affair with uniformed and fast moving staff only focused on delivering the freshly made confection out of the kitchen to waiting customers. For about 4 Euro (or $5) you could get a sweet fix right in the center of old Madrid.
More on population behavior observed in the next post.
The 1992 Olympics did a lot to boost infrastructure development a benefit of which was the modern high speed rail system that we benefited from. Spotless, efficient, quiet and reaching speeds in excess of 300 km per hour this was very enjoyable travel from end to end. The local metro tubes also are fairly evolved - more in some cities than others and allow travelers to shunt between over ground and under ground options on a multi use pass.
What was at times frustrating is to figure out if a multi use ticket would let us travel on another rail line going in some other direction out of the Centro Cuidad or city center. This all depends we learned on the rail company that operates a particular service. This in itself was amazing that multiple owners could share the underground tunnels and run train services but for a user sometimes the ticket valid on one system got rejected on another causing some downtime. All in all very smooth travels.
As far as scenery the Spanish metros only extend out perhaps 30 or so km out of the center and then everything turns rural as witnessed by leaving a city by train and running along meadows and old castles within minutes. The country is sparse and filled with ancient villages each with a castle of its own or an old church like building made to blend in the brown or red earth with its imposing clock tower or steeple.
Language it appears is something one picks up when forced into speaking it for the life of one's existence. Food purchase to rail ticket bookings to getting off on the right side of the station required navigating the language and hand signs - Arriba and Atocha sound similar but mean different things - Pardon was used in plenty to get past sticky wickets and eventually all was sorted out.
Food was fairly mild flavored although did get some decent seafood. Tapas are not all that they are cracked up to be - perhaps my appetite being what it is left me hungry for something more.
Regal - baroque - ancient - moorish to traditional and contemporary are all adjectives designed to express the amazing plethora of architecture that we witnessed in all the metros. Also the accessibility to all of these is relatively easy and allowed the visitor to spend as much or as little time dwelling in its surrounds. Each metro has its own 'Plaza Espanya' which is a major square for celebrations and historic memorabilia. It just got confusing to remember which city we were in since they all had the same names.
A specialty of Spain - fresh churros with thick dark chocolate that you can stand a spoon in was fun - delivered from a 120 year shop that resembled a Chitale Bandhu affair with uniformed and fast moving staff only focused on delivering the freshly made confection out of the kitchen to waiting customers. For about 4 Euro (or $5) you could get a sweet fix right in the center of old Madrid.
More on population behavior observed in the next post.
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