I thought 16 hour days were behind me, but this is a holiday, so I don't mind

Today sees us leaving one NH Hotel at 8.15am and reaching another at 12.15am, talk about 16 hour days!

We left the NH Madrid Atocha Hotel - this is the view across to the station:

and arrived in Paris, with the NH Gare De L'Est Hotel across the road from the front of the station of the same name

with the sense of completion. But before we head into the story of the day, let's look at how the plans developed. 

Booking Madrid to Paris 

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, when I booked the hotel in Madrid we were expecting to be on a train at 6.30am the following morning. Actually I realise now it was earlier than that. 

In the original plan it was:

6:09am from Madrid Atocha arriving at Barcelona Sants at 9:00am. Then catching the 9.26am from Barcelona Sants to arrive in Paris at 4.12pm. 

I'd booked this on the 13th of January and had confirmation from IRYO - the Spanish provider (an upmarket competitor to RENFE) and SNCF who do the second leg. I'd even made tentative plans for dinner on Friday night in one of our favourite restaurants, though thankfully I'd not confirmed this. 

Then in early April I got a message from IRYO saying:

The schedule of your journey has been updated for operational reasons beyond our control. Please find attached the updated ticket with the new timetable. Remember to use this new ticket when boarding, as the old one is no longer valid. We apologise for the inconvenience.

The 'operational reasons' were the slowing of part of the track imposed on all providers by the Spanish Rail Track authorities as I mentioned yesterday and in our reverse of this journey back on Saturday the 6th.

The new time still left at 6.09am but now arrived at 9.25am, one minute before the Paris train left. Back to the drawing board. 

The only other train to Paris on that Friday was the 4.24pm. Thankfully both our tickets were changeable, not tickets which can't be altered! So, with the help of Trainline we were able to change both the Paris ticket, the new one was £73 cheaper each than the original journey and the Madrid one where we could leave at a much more sensible time, 8.50am. The price for the Spanish journey was the same for both journeys, so no increase or decrease in price.

So, at the cost of a dinner in Paris on Friday night, we gain time for a reasonable paced breakfast in Madrid and a Lunch in one of the Gastronomic Capitals of the world. (The Spanish say it is the Capital, the French argue Lyon has that title sewn up.)  Not a bad outcome.

Early Morning

It seems I am starting to get ready for the journey home. No rush this morning. I woke at 4.45am. A long lie in. 

I began to edit photos from yesterday. The third train we were on yesterday had good wifi, but one which restricts the photo/video websites like Google Photos and Flickr. Being unable to edit the photos meant I wasn't able to do the prep work needed to be in a position to complete the Wednesday blog post on Thursday morning. 

I did manage to finish the post and load the pictures today, so it is only 24 hours late!

Breakfast

As I mentioned above, having time for breakfast this morning was a bonus of the change in train times. It was an excellent bonus as breakfast was of very high quality with a mix of foods we'd not seen elsewhere, including, reminding me of last year's holiday, pickled gherkins, pickled beetroot and pickled chillies, a pleasant surprise.

Drew began breakfast with his usual bacon and egg and added to it Tortilla Española 

I went with the thick greek yogurt, there were sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseed, chia seeds and walnuts, so tasty. 

I then had a selection of pre-chopped fruit including melon, pineapple, kiwi fruit and orange. 

Drew went back for more bacon and more Tortilla Española 

I then ventured to try the Tortilla Española alongside picked beetroot, pickled gherkin, pickled chillies and cheese. It's Friday, so there is no meat.

Drew moved on to three tasty treats, chocolate cake, plain cake and a danish pastry.

While I went back for more Tortilla Española and more pickles. They were so excellent.

Drew also went back for two more sweet treats - a tarte tartán and a danish pastry.

Feeling well fed and ready for the day we went back up to the hotel room and at 8.15am departed the hotel using the NH online check out, which worked as well as ever.

Madrid to Barcelona

Atocha, which looked so scary and complicated with its multiple levels and different station areas when we arrived on Saturday 6th of June, seems familiar and simple now. 

We cross the road from the hotel

And see that our 8.50am train to Barcelona Sants is ready for security checks but does not yet have a platform.    

When the platform is called we discover that Infinita customers, that's IRYO's equivalent of First Class, have seperate boarding arrangements. So, we are able to show our tickets and go down to the train before the people on the other six carriages can begin boarding. 

IRYO, as I mentioned briefly earlier, IRYO are a Private High-Speed Rail Company which runs trains on the lines from Madrid to Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and Seville. 

There trains are the Frecciarossa class, designed originally for Italian Rail with its 300kph top seed and its almost silent running. They look smart too:

here is Drew getting on the train

and sitting comfortably beside the big windows of the train.

The tables are also desk size, clearly designed for a laptop or other business equipment.

We depart promptly at 8.50am, this is a direct train. i.e. it is non-stop between Madrid and Barcelona. Drew takes advantage of the huge window to take shots of the countryside between Madrid and Barcelona. Here are some of the images

There is snack service at the seat and we have dos cafe solo 

agua con gas

 y Coke Cero. 

I was puzzled by the colour of Drew's can, apparently to mark Trump's World Cup Coca-Cola are selling cans in teams colour, today he is Brazil.

The train made good progress with the best speed seen being 296kph, by the time I took the photo we had lost 2 kph, so it shows 294kph. (Note this was just after 10am, the train clock was an hour out?

We arrive in Barcelona ahead of time at 11.43pm, that's 10 minutes early. 

Lunch in Barcelona

I had looked at restaurants in the area around Barcelona Sants and there are a dazzling selection. The Man in Seat 61 recommends one called Zaravtz - when we look at it on Google maps we realise it is just our kind of place. 

We arrive at Midday, it's a ten minute walk from the station, though less than that in reality as a large part of the walk is waiting for the green light at a major street crossing.

The owner who greets us explains in Spanish (I should say Castellano as will become clear later) that the Lunch menu is only open at 1pm, but is not phased by us wanting to have a snack now and then move to a lunch table, the place is segregated between a Pintxos area and a Restaurant one. 

Drew has a look at the Pintxos available, there is a bar selection that goes beyond the ones on the menu.

We sit and have a aqua con gas and cola cero, note that we are in Catalonia and it is the local Vichy Catalan that is the preferred aqua. The young lady who serves us offers to take out bags to the Sala de equipajes which is useful, as they were blocking the isle here. They are safely locked in.

We also have some olives.

Our Pintxos (for those who don't know Pintxos are the Basque equivalent to tapas, but instead of being served on a tapa, a lid, they are served on a toothpick or skewer). From our point of view they are out pre-pre-starter.

I, as its Friday have Tortilla Española and Bacalao estilo Zarautz, Drew opts for Morcilla.  

He clearly enjoyed his Pintxos 

At 1pm prompt we were invited to move to a lunch table, this was timely, not only because it was lunchtime, but because in the bar area our previous table was subsummed by five others to form a larger table for 20 people who arrive for Pintxos.

Having had a pre-pre-starter, it was time for the pre-starter. This was a delicious bowl of the amazing Pimientos de Padrón, each tasty in thier own right, every now and again you get a fiery one.

We then moved to our starters and Drew had chosen Ensalada de tomate, cebolla, ventresca de atún y piparras - Tuna Belly salad. The preparation was a performance. The fish and vegetables arrive in a jar

Olive Oil, Balsamic Vingar, salt and pepper are then added, this is the balsamic going in

then it is vigorously shaken, to vigorously for my phone camera to catch it.

then put down

and poured into the serving bowl

Drew loved it, particularly the soft juiciness of the tomatoes and crunchy onions.

I opted for Gulas con gambas al ajillo, the little eels, though not actually switming still, do like like they might at any moment. They provide the bed for three gambas and a delicious garlic and olive oil sauce - wonderful. Soft, delicate and full of flavour, or as Drew would have it: 'Eeely, eeely good'!

Drew was content after his salad

For mains, even though not constrained with a Friday Fast day, Drew opted for Bacalao gratinado con allell y tomate ústico. His beutiful plumb cod was poached then gratinated, so it was both soft, yet had an amazing crunch on top. It was served with patatas o lo pobre and Padron peppers. 

My dish was pulpo braseado con parmentier ahumada, yes my third octopus in a row. It has not that I have a vendetta against octopus, but that we don't serve it often enough in Britain, given it is a major export of ours, and the Spanish know how to cook it so well with the smoked paprika setting it off alongside the soft fluffy potato bed. The plate was empty at the end, as was Drew's.

I mentioned earlier that the owner of the restaurant spoke to me in Castellano, the reason this worth mentioning is that, apart from this being a Basque restaurant set in Catalonia, they have three language options for the menu - Catalan, Vasco or Euskara (i.e the basque language) and Castellano. How the waiters cope I don't know, sitting in listening distance to us we had all three languages being used!

We ordered espressos for each other and they came with little pieces of chocolate mint cookies.

Returning to the Station

As we walked to the restaurant we saw an area called Parc de l'Espanya Industrial, so on our return we agreed [Co-Pilot's Note: I wish, dear readers, to highlight that "We agreed" is in the sense that someone came up with the idea and I was told to do it] that I'd get back to the air-con of the Station while Drew would venture to take photos of the park. 

The park a former textile factory is undergoing further renovation, so Drew was somewhat disappointed by the photo opportunities - a drained lake not making for great shots.

It has a modern representation of a dragon

Some odd pillars

one entitled "Els Bous de l'Abundància" which for those who can't read Catalan represents Fortune and Poetry, embodied in two female figures, on top of two bulls that represent work.

Neptune stands astride the empty lake

and Monk Parakeets

I think Venus is missing her reflection in the absence of the water

Drew got back to the Station at 3pm and we had another coffee, water and coke each in the Lavazza cafe at the back of the station. Before preparing to board at 3.24pm

Barcelona to Paris

The boarding gates open for the SNCF train to Paris at 3.24am. 

We pass through the x-ray machines without any difficulties and stay in zone 3 until they decide the  platform number. This is announced at 3.45pm ready for boarding for the 4.24pm train. Boarding begins at 4.05am. 

We are on platform 6b, carriage 12, seats 255 and 258. I mention the seats before Drew gets excited that he may have some time to himself. I have to disappoint him and explain that the seats are in rows of three, so instead of beside each other, we are sitting face to face😂

Here is the train on the platform

and Drew boarding

Sitting in the comfort of his seating

opposite this

We depart at 4.24pm as scheduled. The route is the same as we came down via: 

We arrive in France at 5.40pm and reach Gare de Lyon at 11.34pm, 10 minutes before our scheduled time, let alone the delayed time projected when I took the above image.

The Hotel NH Gare De L'Est

It is a short walk from the rail to the metro part of Gare de Lyon and at 23:58pm we are on Metro 1 from Gare de Lyon to Gare de l'Est. We change at Bastille at midnight then on to Gare de l'Est arriving at 12:06am, our hotel, which bears its name, is just across the road as seen in the image at the top of the post.

We arrive at 12:20am and there is one couple ahead of us checking in (and a large group of well tempered soccer fans gathered at the top of the Metro steps outside. 

Having checked in we go to the room 428, it is significantly more spacious than last nights. But as we were staying for two nights I had upgraded to the Superior Room.

Captain Jack even gets his own chair.

We don't spend long settling in and having brushed our teeth we are in bed at 12.40am.