Adventures by any other name

.This day may not have been what I imagined when I was planning my trip, the details of my point-to-point travel were a little murky.  OK, so I had no plans at all - I would figure it out when I got here.  And so I have - I think.

The hotel clerk instructed me to shuttle back to the aeropeurto, Terminal 4 and get on C1.  She wasn't real clear about what "C1" was or where it might take me, but after some wandering around Terminal 4, I found the RENFE signs, the Spanish European rail company.  Lo and behold, there was a C1 train that left Terminal 4.  I negotiated the automatic ticket purchase kiosk (wholly in Spanish, of course) and played "monkey see, monkey do" to get through the turnstile with the ticket.  Now, just where should I get off this C1 train?  I decided to get off at the second stop, which the map had indicated had a significant confluence of train routes, and therefore, I reasoned,  a good chance of having a real ticket office with live people working at it.  Yahoo!  Successful reasoning.  I pulled out my map of Spain and played "grunt and point" with the poor ticket agent.  I have a one-way ticket for San Sebastián.  Only one hitch - that was at 1 p.m. and the train leaves at 6:55 p.m.  So a few hours to wander the area.

In other news, my 'box/luggage' did not show up before I had to leave the hotel.  So I will be doing this trip without the benefit of my walking poles.  I do hope they find their way home to us eventually or else I owe Bill a new Leatherman as well.  Found a Farmacia and purchased some sunscreen - it's desert hot here in Madrid - sweating bolstered by hot flashes.

So I am settled in to wait here, happily I have a good book to read.  Who knows what I'll find in San Sebastián at midnight.  Hopefully a hotel with a vacancy.

7:55 p.m.  Haven't had access to wifi since I've left the hotel at noon.  Have been traveling north for the past hour, just had a stop and my young Italian seatmate disembarked.  The most English convo I've had in 24 hours and it wasn't much.  It's an incredible experience, really, and somewhat disconcerting.  

The countryside that I've glimpsed is not so different from home in some ways.  Crops are being harvested; looks like barley and wheat from my vantage point.  Homes are flat-roofed often, not much conern about snow I guess.  A few wooded areas with absolutely no undergrowth and the trees all sort of 'perfect' Grade Two artist tree-shaped.  In this small city we're currently passing through, there seems much old architecture along with post-war ugly buildings, 1960's sterile stuff also.  Lots of brick, and tiled roofs.  Soon it will be dark and I wn't be seeing much.

Adios for now.