Waiting to board for a flight to Lisbon and then on to Madrid. This trip I will be staying at the house in Alcalá la Real for a month. After the first week I will have lots of company. Mike and Alpha will be arriving in a week for two weeks of cycling. Before or overlapping, Albert - the cyclist I met at the top of the mountain in Colombia and on the flats of Colorado - will be cycling through and staying for a few days. As they leave my brother and his wife and a few days later my old Boss Painting and Landscaping partner and his wife come in. Should be an exciting month for cycling, tourism and old friends.
My plan this time is to fly into Madrid and rent a car for the month. I would like to try it without a car but I still have a lot of errands this trip so it just makes sense.
I think that with the more compact Orucase I could manage the train and bus to ALR. There is a train from the airport to the main train station and then a highspeed train to Cordoba. Then a bus to ALR. The total time is under 6 hours and the longest walk is in theadrid airport (so my research says). The sister of Laurie's sister friend is just finishing up a month in ALR and she did not have a car. Interested in hearing about her public transportation story.
While sitting in the airport lounge I struck up a very interesting conversation with Stuart, a local of English origin. He caught a cheap flight in 1977 and stayed. He eventually ended up in med school and married.
Buenos Días Leo, Muchas Gracias para todo!!! I really appreciate you allowing me to stay at your house in Alcalá. It’s was a nice and peaceful retreat. I was able to visit Valencia, Mallorca and Córdoba from there during my stay.
ReplyDeleteIn preparation for my flight back to New York I purchased my express train ticket online to Madrid from Cordoba. It cost 35€ and scheduled to leave at 11:35 am. Yesterday I took a 9:25am bus from Alcalá la real (13€.). The bus ran late arriving in Cordoba at 11:25. I was very nervous and ran across the street from the bus station to the train station and miraculously caught the train just in time. I prayed a lot and thanked the angels for helping me.
When I got to Madrid I had to catch another bus (5€.) to the airport. Getting through Madrid airport was not easy to say the least. I made a mistake of thinking I was flying Air Europa instead of Air Ibera. Which was in different terminals. They provided buses to go to different terminals. And within the terminal 4 I had to catch the “S” train to get to my gate. No wonder they suggested to arrive 4 hours before departure. (I didn’t read this suggestion in my email until I was already en route.)
I feel very lucky and exhausted that I made my flight at 4:20pm to JFK.