February 25, 2025
Day 8: Madrid to Plasencia
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With the help of the GPS Dodie unerringly guided us back to the Atocha station from which we had disembarked in Madrid yesterday.
It had been a bit of a challenge yesterday to find our way out of the station, so I rather anticipated some casting about to find our way to the proper track for our trip now to Plasencia. I must admit I was glad when as usual Dodie undertook to ask the various Renfe staffers about where we should go. Standing back a bit, I am a student of the facial expressions and head nods, as our tickets (printed at home by me without really knowing what I was doing) got scanned and then the workers pointed this way and that, saying who knows what to Dodie. Usually this works out, but this time we were walking into a whole nest of challenges. I won't try to accurately trace all the exact sordid details, but just to give the flavour.
The first worker consulted was presiding over a "Media Distancia Check In" area. Beyond her gate was a down escalator and some steep steps. Dodie of course questioned how we were supposed to take the loaded bikes on that. So we got directed over to somewhere and onto an elevator that went up and not down, to some other area, that was not what we needed. Back where we started we were then told we would just have to go down the stairs, to get to the track. But which track did we need?
Aha, the familiar issue of which track! I slowly learned (by repeated asking) that the track would be revealed on the big screen, out somewhere, 5 minutes (yes, 5 minutes!) before departure time. I spent some time staring at this screen, out somewhere, to find the track for our 10:55 departure. Here, you can stare at it for a bit too:
I myself started my staring career at 10:07, until I learned that there was no use, until 10:50.
I went back to where Dodie was, just inside the Media Distancia check in gate. The lady guarding that gate was getting used to me going back and forth, so I didn't have to keep showing my ticket. We put in some time staring at the steps and the escalator. Like this:
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Somebody (on Cycleblaze, I think) had mentioned flying head over heels down an escalator with a heavy ebike, so I thought I would give that a miss. Instead, we took off all the packs, and I carried the bikes down. At the bottom of the steps was a waiting room, and hidden in there was a screen that would also report the track number, 5 minutes before.
At this level there were various exits, with track number signs. Once we would know the number we would obviously follow its sign. But what challenges would lie beyond the sign? I undertook to go see, taking track 8 as a demo. What I found was, you guessed it, more steps and an escalator, except the steps were narrower - bad for my rather sideways bike carrying style. I went down those steps to see what else would be ahead, and found the actual track! But I also spied a nearby elevator. Could that be our way down? I got on the elevator, and got spat out .. up, somewhere. Although an elevator does not cover much (or any) horizontal distance, I had no idea where I was. So I wisely got back in, and went down again. But where I got out, I now simply could not recognize the route I had taken to reach the elevator in the first place. I was completely and totally lost, and well aware that the clock was now rapidly counting down to 10:55!
I doubled or tripled my pace, and began scouting around. I asked a worker and got directed way down somewhere. I redoubled my pace. Eventually I stumbled out to where that lady was tending the Media Distancia check in. I approached it from the opposite direction that I had left the general area in. The lady, of course, still recognized me. I went down the stairs and found Dodie not quite at the bikes but peering off in the direction I had left in. But here I was arriving from behind her - how did I manage that?
No time to puzzle that out, because now the little screen in the waiting room revealed our track - 4! So we began to move our bikes and all our bags - now off the bikes - toward 4, while dodging a crowd of people going in the same direction.
A member of that crowd materialized and began to ask me some of the "Usual Questions" (UQ). Where were we from and were we headed to Santiago de Compostella? Being naturally good natured, and Canadian to boot, I tried to answer, all the time struggling with the bikes and bags. I bumped one bike down the steps, using both brakes to (barely) keep from going flying. But behind me, Dodie turned lemons into lemonade by recruiting the UQ man to bring the next bike. This really saved the day!
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1 month ago
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We found the carriage that had the level entrance, and secured the bikes against one wall, while dumping the bags somewhere opposite. Things were now looking pretty good!
That was, until a conductor came along. The bikes could not stay there, he claimed. They needed to go up some steps into the next car and to hang from hooks. We have faced down many a conductor with a story like this in the past. But this one was really insistent. In the the negotiations that followed, the bikes would move up the steps, but would avoid "the hook".
The bikes were now farther from where we could keep an eye on them, but what the hell. But the result was that only half way through the trip we went to have a check on them. This is what we found:
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1 month ago
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One pedal was through the spokes of the other bike's wheel, so it took careful lifting to avoid damage. This could have been avoided by using those wire cable things that can be seen on the right. However they not only needed a euro to operate but I could not figure them out!
We arrived at Plasencia, having begun to get our bikes down the steps, oriented correctly to exit, and the bags assembled, at Montfregue, the stop before. We were ejected onto the platform, concluding the saga that had started with the page "The Fingers Tremble and the Memory Fails", written fourteen blog days earlier.
We were glad to finally be on our own four wheels, but it was a bit shocking to find that after the bike lanes of Valencia and the quiet barrios of Madrid, we were into some fairly active traffic.
This, I guess, was the low point of the story, but things soon looked up. We had not cycled far when we looked up to see that Plasencia is actually a walled city, and inside that wall are the beautiful and restful things we search for .
Once we had crossed into the walled city, it was beauty and quaint views everywhere:
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The town was just so pleasant, with nice building arrangements to be seen all around:
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Here are some more views of the town.
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It took a fair bit of time sitting on the train to Plasencia, for our pulse rates to return to normal. And the walled Plasencia town was very soothing. So now we will rest up, to begin our actual cycle tour tomorrow. This cat has the right idea:
Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 77 km (48 miles)
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