The title of this page comes from the song "The Dealer (Down and Losin') by Bob Ruzicka, a Canadian singer from the old days, the song usually performed by Judy Collins. Some of the words may be familiar:

"You can't win and you can't break even

You can't get out of the game

You shouldn't stay but you ain't leavin'

'Cos your luck may change again"

It's a bit of a stretch as to why this is relevant in this cycling blog, but it relates to dealing with the "video gambling game" that we call the Renfe (Spanish rail system)  train booking site.

Heart

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It starts with the fact that very few trains in Spain will take  bikes unless the bikes are folded and bagged- as explained in the preceding post. Plus trains that might take a bike, plus many another train, are not put up for sale until some random time prior to the travel date. And then, when trains do go up, they seem to get sold out immediately.

With this background, we managed to find and book a train from Valencia part way to Madrid, and then in turn the rest of the  way to Madrid. But Madrid is 250 km from Plasencia, where we intended to start our tour, on the Via de la Plata.  And through January, a train from Madrid to Plasencia in mid February simply was not on offer.

We reacted to this in typically reckless fashion. We gambled that we would get the train, and that then our tour would start on time. We took a huge pile of "chips", in the form of about 90 hotel reservations for specific dates thereafter, and we pushed these onto the "board".  They were theoretically cancellable, but sheesh. Then we began to play the "video game" by logging onto Renfe two to four times each day, for weeks!, checking for our train to be there.  At times, just for a change, we would try "Omio", or "Trainline" and others. But Renfe was our main game.

After a while with no success (and including two Skype calls to Renfe in Spain) we started to develop some Plan B's. Working with advice from Scott Anderson, we dug out our "Alsa" (Spanish bus company) bags, and began to figure how to disassemble our big bikes enough for them to fit in there. An Alsa bag is anyway too big to go on a high speed train, but maybe we could take the bus out of Madrid?

And so it came to pass that one day (at the end of January) I spun the wheel on "Renfe" and, did my eyes deceive me?, the train we needed was posted! Knowing that there are only three bike spots on these trains, and assuming that hordes of keen eyed Spanish cyclists had spotted this opening as well, my fingers trembled as my memory searched for my VISA and passport numbers, to try to nail down the train spots. My blood pressure spiked, as my bank, CIBC, moved to "help" me, by insisting on sending a secret code to my phone, to make sure I really wanted to spend money on train tickets in this weird foreign city. The code did not come first time, and in the delay, Renfe decided I really was not interested. Start again! Keep that heart rate down!  

I finally was able to print the tickets, for us and the bikes, but no kidding, for the rest of the day I felt like I had been through a wringer. This cycle touring stuff sure is fun!