Gabe’s 1st Train Experience … EVER!

There are several ways to travel around Europe, but non seemed to meet our expectations like traveling by train. 

To start, I (Gabe) had never been on a train before. Ever. 

Not even to NYC… Yes, I’ve been on the subway but never purchased a train ticket and rode a train for long distances.

Courtney actually remembers when she was a little girl taking the train in the snow to see Santa on the “Polar Express” back in the 90’s! So to hear me say, “I’ve never been on a train” was very shocking to her to say the least!

We originally looked up flights from Madrid to Barcelona. After viewing the high prices of airfare, we turned our focus to trains. Although the time in the air was significantly faster (roughly an hour and a half faster then taking a train), if you calculate the time you have to arrive prior to taking off and the time once you land, all in it’s roughly the same (not to mention much, much more expensive to fly). 

So, we decided to embark on our first European train experience. 

We were blown away by how much more convenient traveling by train was than by air. Let me set the scene.

Take into consideration that we were up until 2am in Madrid partying in the streets with Liverpool fans the night before. Then, we woke up at 8am the next morning with a train to depart at 10:30am (roughly 20 minutes away). By the time we jumped out of bed and started making moves, it was almost 9am. Now if you are flying by air and you were leaving at this time, you probably are experiencing a series of tight chest compressions, stressful nail biting and bickering with your partner of “I knew we should have left earlier…we’ll never make it!”

Well for us, we kind of felt that way because we didn’t know what to expect from the train station. The website clearly states, “please arrive with enough time to get through security and board your train”. The part about getting through security was the scary part. We assumed it was just like the airport and if we were running late, we wouldn’t make it in time.

If you ask Courtney, she would tell you that she wanted to head straight to the train station, have time to relax and know 100% they would make the train. Well, I clearly had other plans…

Minutes before 9am, we went to see the Royal Palace of Madrid. We won’t go into detail about all of its beauty, we will leave that for another post BUT by the time we left the palace, it was approaching 10am. The train station luckily was only five minutes away. We grabbed a taxi and got to the station at five after 10am. We rushed inside and thought we would miss the train due to security.

We were through security in two minutes.

We made our way to our gate and realized we would make it on time. Gabriel hopped in line at a café to get some much needed water, coffee and jamon y queso (because you know, we are in Spain). Unfortunately for us, the line at the café took longer than the taxi ride and security line combined. We could not make our way to the front. We had to get on the train. 

Now, if you know us well, you know that you do not want to be near us when we are hangry. We walked on the train, defeated, with that sense of hanger creeping with a two hour and 45-minute train ride ahead of us. We quickly scarfed down two Quest bars to hold us over and took our seats.

As the train departed, something happened. Perhaps it was the Quest bar to the rescue holding off our hunger (shout out Quest). However, we forgot all about our hunger because we were preoccupied by sightseeing out the window. It is a fact, you truly get to see a country and all its beauty when you take the train. You see the terrain, the small villages and if you are lucky, you will even stop by cities on the way to your final destination. 

Halfway through our train ride, our stomach’s started to rumble in hunger. It was not full blown hangry stage yet, but another 30-minutes and we’d be entering a danger spot. Watching the Spanish movie on the train, I saw a man walk past us with a beer and sandwich in his hands. Eyes big and wide, I jumped up and headed to the back of the train.

What I found was everything I wanted and more: A full blown kitchen service.

Yes, we had no idea that most trains have food service. Of course, we both scarfed down two jamon y quesos and got our bottles of water (one was ready to go with crystal light energy packets).

We are so thankful we were able to find food on the train. Without food, we might have wasted an hour right when we got off the train stopping to eat.

If you travel with us sometime, you know we do not like to waste any minute when we can be sightseeing. The itinerary usually scares away friends and family but we make the most of our time while out exploring!

Here are a few tips and notes to consider:

GQ Tip on Trains:

I would recommend trains if you are someone who runs a bit late to travels. If you are someone who like to arrive last minute to the airport, take the train. It’s less stress. 

For longer distances, sure a flight might make more sense. However, if the destination is within three or four hours, take the train. You will see the country side more in detail and appreciate its beauty more. 

If you are not a sightseer, think about how much more rest you could get on a train as opposed to a flight. I.E- Flight from Madrid to Barcelona is an hour and 15 minutes. You sleep about an hour. A train ride is two hours and 45-minutes. Either sleep the entire time and be more refreshed to hit the day, or sight see half and sleep the other. 

Food on trains? Legit…and affordable. Food on flights? If they are not included are non existent or pricey. 

Security line at the airport requires you to take so many things out of your bag and of yourself. Not to mention in the best case scenario takes you a minimum of 15-20 minutes. Security at the train station is just as safe, but allows you to put your luggage through the x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector without taking too much off. Time frame for us the one time was a total of five minutes. 

So, next time you are looking up flights to travel within Europe, look at trains. It is a bucket list check for sure and you will be able to capture beautiful pictures of a country that you would not be able to by air. 

We can’t wait to go back and have a month long Rail Pass. This means we can just go from country to country, city to city, just exploring the world and traveling quick, safe, and affordably!