Post by Charlie: The tourist office at the airport told us that our plan to go into Madrid on the subway would not be a good idea because they were on strike and offering minimal service so we might have to wait a long time. She suggested the shuttle bus. We went over there and ran the last 100 yards to catch a bus that was just leaving, good luck. On the bus we talked to a woman for Portland OR who lives in Madrid. She said the bus was a lot easier anyway. But she had waited an hour for a bus that is supposed to run every ten minutes. then she said this was not just to subway strike but a general strike for all public transportation in the whole country. Our plan was to take the train to Toledo where we had a B&B reservation. Normally the train runs every hour and takes 30 minutes. She was skeptical of our chances of getting to Toledo. Apparently the law is that that can only do an 80% strike and must have “servicios minimos” of 20% capacity. But she said they often ignore that.
We got to the main train station and went to the phone store and got Vodaphone SIMS for our (unlocked) phones. Easy peasy and nine euro for nine euro of call time, at about 8 euro cents a minute. So that worked. Next went over to where the Toledo trains were prepared for a wait. No trains for you! They said no train was going to Toledo (or anywhere) today and suggested the bus. The train station was pretty empty, just some tourists like us walking around looking lost and wondering how they were going to get where they were going. We were thinking we might have to stay in Madrid for one night.
We stopped at a coffee place to have our first cafe con leche but they only had cafe latte and cappuccinos. We checked and found we had wandered into an Italian coffee place but they made us a coffee con leche anyway.
We called our hotel (hostel actually) in Toledo and talked with the manager and he thought there were buses but he would check and call back. He called after a while and said there was a bus from Plaza Eliptico at 3pm. It was about 11am then so not too bad. We took a taxi over there and went down to where the buses loaded. Again not much happening. the information window was closed and a few people were wandering around looking lost and/or disappointed. We looked around and found a ticket window open and the guy in a uniform comes up and says something like “bus to Toledo?” We can’t figure out how he knew. Buses went to dozens of places from this terminal. Anyway there were lots of signs about “servicos minimos” and this included a bus to Toledo at 3pm. It was the local but we were glad for anything. It was 10 euro for us both, the train would have been 20.
We walked around the area and asked about restaurants and found a place. It was okay but not great but lots of food and pretty cheap, 10 euro each for the menu of the day including two courses, dessert, wine, and coffee (con leche, of course).
The bus was very local and took an hour and 15 minutes but we saw a lot of places around Madrid. The area is quite dry, more than we expected it to be. We took another taxi to near the hostel, which is in an area where cars cannot go and we were finally there.
The place is very nice. It was a relief after 26 hours of travel to be able to unpack our bags and rest a bit. Then out for a bit of Toledo.