Achievement Unlocked: Purchase Ticket in Spanglish

Sixty days from today, I fly to Spain. Sixty days in advance is the earliest you can purchase a train ticket in Spain using Renfe‘s web site.

Since I need to get from Madrid to Pamplona (and thence to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port), I figured I would buy a train ticket today.

Here’s what I learned: the train takes three hours and the ticket is more than twice the cost of a bus ticket. The bus does take five hours, but has the added advantage of leaving directly from the airport.

So I went to the Alsa site and worked my way through the mix of English and Spanish on the site’s “English” pages. Thank goodness for Google Translator.

So that’s one more thing off my rapidly shrinking list of Things To Take Care Of Before I Leave.

The next big one is, of course, Francine’s air tickets. We’ve been holding off for a better fare, since she doesn’t leave for Spain until 17 April. I continue to be amazed that the fares can vary by several hundred dollars on any given day.

Once that’s taken care of, we’ll look for RyanAir or train tickets to get us back to Madrid from Santiago de Compostela after our Camino.

We’ll also have to get her a train ticket from Madrid to León to start her Camino, but I’m hoping those will be cheaper since it’s a commuter train.

And phones! Got to get a pair of burner phones.

Still, the list is shrinking.