Day 35. Train Ride to Madrid

As I walked to the train early in the morning, the old city was shrouded in mist and looking lovely though my picture didn't catch what I was seeing

The train ride was uneventful. The landscape gradually shifted from the green hills of Galicia to the dry plains in the middle part of Spain surrounding Madrid.

As the comedy team of Flanders and Swann noted, despite everything you may have heard to the contrary, the rain in Spain stays almost invariably in the hills. 

Arrival in Madrid was a shock. This is a big city! (Duh!). With two main railroad stations, both a metro and an intra city rail system. I was nowhere near my hotel, and unprepared to navigate. But the information center got me straightened out and I found my way to The Hat, a hostel fairly near the sites I thought I might like to see. This is a hostel and I'm paying for a room with two bunk beds. They've given me an upper bunk, which proves torturous to climb into given my ankle. The last step is about 18 inches high and I have a hard time with it. Tomorrow I'll arrange for a lower bunk. I'm glad I paid for the smaller room. There are huge tour groups of college and teenagers using the big rooms and I'm seeing some serious horseplay through the windows in the hallway. My room is older young career folks, wanting to save money while traveling. On the Camino I was frequently in rooms with many fellow travelers but people were extremely courteous to letting fellow peregrinos get rest. We all knew how exhausted we felt. 

The Plaza Mayor is right up the street from me and I got dinner there.