Day 1 Saturday 13 December 2025 Edinburgh to Paris
8.30 LNER from Edinburgh to London KX a pleasant, sunny trip south. Train fills at Newcastle and empties at Darlington. Discover that, because we have booked ten travel days on the Interrail card, the validity is two rather than one month. We agree that it is enough to be away for a month. Tickets for Carmen in Madrid are €90 to €276 for restricted view seats – not this year I think.
Staff training evident at eurostar St Pancras where people are noticably friendlier than in the past though there are still no seats by shortly before the trains depart. GF menu we booked satisfactory though the pannacotta is rubbery, no doubt because of the six special requirements it is meeting.
Short walk to Little Regina Hotel where I am a bit sad that J, who doesn’t speak the langauge, understands the receptionist better than I do until he points out that the man is speaking English. We are in the same room as last year.
Day 2 Sunday 14th Paris to Bilbao
Metro 4 to Gare Montparnasse-Bienvenue where, most unusually, there is a ticket check.
The main station is cold and expensive. Coffee and delicious macarons from Hermé.
Very misty start to the journey with intermittent sun and fog thereafter. Bordeaux in two hours and we spin along in some comfort at 300 kmph spotting vineyards as we leave Bordeaux.
Arrive Hendaye at 1448 and easily find the metro station where a fare dodger is being taken to the ground by the police. Metro to San Sebastian gets us there but the train to Bilbao is an identical vehicle. The contrast between the French TGV and the tram clanking its way up hill and down dale for 2½ hours could not be more marked. The bus would apparently be an hour quicker.
Arrive at Bilbao Chamartin and walk along the river with the Guggenheim an impressive view on the other side.
Another night-time highlight is the ground of Athletica Bilbao, clearly a magnificent stadium. Our hotel, Ilunion San Manes, is above the Bilbao Intermodal, or bus station in old money which again makes one think that alternative transport might have been a better bet.
Day 3 Monday 15th Bilbao
Although it is shut on Mondays, we walk to the Guggenheim to see it in the sunshine which is not forecast for tomorrow. It does not disappoint – very large and splendid.
The city is nestled under steep hills and there are public lifts that take us up to the houses there and to a local pub with good tapas for lunch. As the restaurants don’t seem to open until 8pm, which is rather late for us, we have a similar evening meal in a stylish establishment where the seating is crowded with women of a certain age who seem much more numerous in town this evening than we see at home.
Day 4 Tuesday 16th Bilbao
Coffee before the Guggenheim opens at 10am – today is indeed wetter and more overcast than yesterday.
Inside there are a number of huge galleries with things of interest in each one.
Highlights are Mark Leckie’s in situ which is a sculptural recreation of the subject of a 1425 picture that was one of the first cityscapes.
We are also impressed by Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time which is huge slabs of cast steel which one walks round and between.
Metro from the Hotel to Bilbao Abando which is cold and not very busy.
One person checking boarding passes and ID cards of the 3pm Barcelona train while two others stand by. Misty, unhurried journey to Miranda de Ebro where we have to change trains for Madrid.
This is a large station, grown from the convergence of two different rail services; The arrival of the railway in 1862 marked the beginning of the industrial revolution in the city. The junction of the lines from Madrid to Irun and Castejón to Bilbao was at Miranda railway station, making it the most important rail junction in northern Spain.
Today it is entirely devoid of trains; people cross the lines and walk their dogs on platform 12 where we are located at a far end, beyond the reach of shelter or tannoy. There is no first class on the Madrid train. The guard checks our tickets and passports but not our reservations. A shoogly journey to the capital though we arrive on time.
At Madrid Chamartin the choice between regional train and metro is confusing for those who are tired and hungry but we make it to Gran Via which is a huge street busy in a manner reminiscent of the worst excesses of London. Our Smart Rental apartment looks satisfactory and the receptionist’s recommendation of Vinitus further down the road is certainly a good place to eat.
Day 5 Wednesday 17th El Escorial
Walk to Atocha station where we have a familiar fraught experience locating our train, this time a local one to El Escorial. The barrier doesn’t recognise our Interrail cards but a member of staff lets us through. The 9.25 wanders through tunnels to Madrid Chamertin where we arrived yesterday before giving up, leaving us again train hunting. The replacement service gets us to our destination for 11am.
Two cafes fail to produce coffee, Google maps takes us a bit round the houses so we miss the ticket office for the palace and all-in-all we are a bit stressed by the time we start.
The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a complex that includes a royal palace, a basilica, a pantheon, a library, a college, and a monastery. It was built between 1563 and 1584 as a multifunctional complex, both monastic and palatial. A colossal work of great monumentality, it covers an area of 33,327m². El Escorial is the crystallization of the ideas and will of its driving force, King Philip II, a Renaissance prince.
However, its granite appearance doesn’t appeal in the overcast conditions; the library seems rather dark.
The church is huge and reminiscent of the set of a production of Tosca we saw a few years back.
Even the palace, though huge, seems in some ways basic. Fortunately there is a hall lined with nearly sixty misericords which provides some interest -written up here.
These two portraits by Antonio Ponz (1725 to 1792) who did much work in the palace are unusually specky.
We totter down the hill to a bar near the station that is doing tapas. In addition to the usual tortilla, there are tasty (though unhealthy) pork scratchings, pork soup in a glass and a pork breast, the last inedible – all from the same pig? On arrival back at Atocha the unreadability of the pass presents a significant issue as the barriers are unstaffed and the staff in sight studiously ignore our increasingly frantic gestures.
Shop for the ingredients of rizotto in the basement of Corte Inglès department store which continues to be classy.
Day 6 Thursday 18th A day round Madrid city centre.
People queuing for lottery tickets and some form of charity and to see Belèns. These are cribs of the birth of Jesus which appear in churches, shop windows, halls and streets. The quality varies from the exquisite down.
Although some commercial establishments and public squares sport Christmas trees, there are none in people’s windows though some people decorate their homes with lights.
Wandering through town we come across the Foreign Office where horseguards are welcoming some dignitary.
Everywhere there are large groups of young people on organised visits. Chocolate covered crystalised fruit and marzipan sweets from a shop where the police also purchase and coffee in a bar where the guards in uniform and medals are having coffee too – we feel establishment life coming over us.
Disappointly, the Cathedral was only consecrated in 1993 albeit after 110 years’ work. None of the postcards for sale features the modern glasswork which is rather characterful.
Evening to The Pillars of the Earth, a musical based on a novel by Ken Follett. This is an epic of the midle ages, lavishly and elaborately staged in a forest of pencils with many visual effects and changes of scene. Well received by the audience most of whom also look back on middle age. The town is hugely busy as we make our way back along the Gran Via.
Day 7 Friday 19th Madrid to Cadiz
Metro from Gran Via to Atocha where we are a few minutes too early to have our luggage scanned at the departure area which is limited to an hour before travel.
Inside, there are only seats in the Sala de espera (waiting room; Hope is esperanza) which smells of the nearby lavatories. Every train has a massive queue though when our turn comes, things move reasonably fast no doubt helped by the absence of passport checks. A gloomy day; not sorry to be spending it on a train. Progressively warmer outside as we head south – even a little sunshine. Nearly 250 kmph but no internet. With half an hour to go, the only table in our coach becomes free and I am struck by how much difference this makes to my enjoyment. An older English couple have come all the way from Brighton by train and ferry for Christmas with their daughter which they describe as a sort of holiday.
Hotel Argantonio junior suite has an inadequate partition between the room and the lavatory but is otherwise stylish. The Cadiz Christmas lights are stylish and extensive but it is rather cold walking round the city in the rain. Better after a bath which is certainly the sign of a good room.
undivided-back postcards 