The Train to Spain is better than the Plane

It’s an early start. The plan is to travel by train from Madrid in Spain to my house in Wiltshire, UK, in a day.

Getting to Spain overland went like clockwork, every train was on time, connections were made with ease. Views were marvellous and made me wonder why I spend so much time working and not enough travelling for pleasure. But then each leg of my outward journey gave me hours of work time - blissfully uninterrupted by calls – allowing me to gaze out of the window and think.

I left my home station on Tuesday just before 7am to get to London in time for the 0930 Eurostar to Paris. With guidance from the marvellous Man in Seat 61 website getting from Gare du Nord to Gare du Lyon on the Metro was a doddle. The wait at Gare du Lyon was longer than I’d have liked, had I had company I’d have lunched at the marvellous looking Train Bleu restaurant but since I didn’t I watched the world go by for an hour or so on the concourse. Paris to Barcelona is a 6hour 20 min journey. Wifi was good and I powered through work, ate macarons and got to Barcelona for an overnight stay in a hotel just above the station. That they upgraded me to a Suite was a bonus that wouldn’t be replicated on future journeys so I did my best to make the most of it. The next morning’s journey to Madrid took a couple of hours speeding through the plains of Spain dotted with wind turbines contributing to my 100% renewable powered travel. Once in Madrid I checked in to my hotel, completed a few more tasks before visiting the Musee Sofia Reine and saw Picasso and Dali for free close up. Thursday was spent at the ShipEnergy conference where I presented some of the difficulties we experienced in getting funded and met lots of really interesting delegates. Madrid was experiencing record breaking temperatures which rather underlined my assertation that we’re already experiencing a climate emergency and waiting to do something until 2050 is madness.  

Now I’m reversing the journey. The Barcelona change over was easy, the long leg back North through France is effectively a normal working day hot-desking in a mobile office. Unlike an office though I was able to take advantage of an empty adjacent seat and take a nap. Arriving in Paris Gare du Lyon bang on time I was across Paris to Gare du Nord swiftly; simply reversing my learning from the outward journey. I was early enough to get the earlier Eurostar, or so I thought. Unfortunately the gates were closed a minute before I rocked up so I had to wait for over an hour for the connection I’d originally booked – which I’d planned that way to avoid any stress. I passed most of that time waiting to get through the double layer passport control (thanks Brexit). I’m back in the UK on time. Happily I was allocated Seat 61.

Next I whip across from Kings Cross to Paddington and back to Chippenham to get the Great Western train back to where I started in time for the weekend.

It’s taken longer than flying but it’s been really enjoyable and I’ve had considerably more usable time than  had I flown – driving to airport, usually at some ungodly hour, then hanging around for ages in the zoo-like environment that is the modern airport, before being herded onto a cramped plane with no room to spread out. This way I’ve come as close to clearing my in-box as I have in ages which is hugely satisfying, and I have a nice warm green glow.