1979 The Train in Spain is Mainly a Pain (7/31-8/1/1979)

Tuesday, July 31, 1979 continued

Arrived in Algeciras to join a long line going through customs again! These guys actually opened each and every bag to search them. Then we walked Rick to the bus station where he had only an hour wait for the 17:00 bus to Malaga. Kathy and I went to the train station to find that an express train left for Madrid at 21:15. We decided to take a walk into the downtown area of Algeciras, but managed to walk completely around it at first! It was really nice with palm trees lining the streets and neat fairly modern stores. Went to an ice cream shop and tried a “blanco y negro” which turned out to be iced coffee with whipped cream. Not too sweet. Kathy re-found a store she had been to where we bought a large bottle of water and chocolate milk to immediately slake our thirst from the heat and our illnesses. Sat in a real neat square with tiled benches and a fountain in the center. 

Algeciras: Plaza Alta

Algeciras: Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Palma

Returned to the station where the ticket man wouldn't validate Kathy’s Eurailpass until he was ready to sell tickets for the train she was taking. So now we are waiting and talking to a Montrealian who thought we might be Canadian because of our accents. Funny thing, because we were fooling around and using our Virginia accents.

Finally got in line to get our boarding passes and Kathy’s validation. A fellow in line asked Kathy where she was from. She answered “America.” Turned out he was from Texas. The ticket seller had to be prodded to stamp the Eurailpass and he left it up to her to fill in the dates! Got on the train looking for a non-existent empty compartment. Were invited to fill empty seats of a compartment full of guys who were only slightly disappointed that we couldn't speak Spanish. One soldier talked nearly non-stop the whole time he was on the train to past Madrid, and he spoke as if we totally understood him. Kathy would answer as if she understood, often using ridiculous English phrases. If one listened to only the tone of the voices, it was an intelligent conversation. One of the fellows knew a little English and he knew that we understood very few words of Spanish.  But he thought we understood more than we let on. Later at night Kathy and the chattering soldier almost got into a fight as she tried to shush him up to let people sleep. I think they both got the most sleep during an hour stop in Cordoba.

Wednesday, August 1, 1979

Slept on and off during the whole day train ride taking us through basically rugged farm country. The buildings still have flat rooftops. Madrid was just another stop on this train that ended up taking us all the way to France. Kathy and I hadn't brought any food along, so during the 27-hour trip through Spain we shared a couple candy bars and a getting-stale-and-hot bottle of water. One of our fellow passengers forced a couple bottles of lemonsoda on us. We were reluctant to share other people's food because we both had been sick, but I think they were insulted that we wouldn't. I still had a terrific headache and was starting to get achy all over, probably from odd sleeping positions. Later the train seemed to pick up a little speed, especially after Madrid. And the scenery became hilly with towns with red-tile roofed buildings.