Madrid to Figueres

We pass one night at Madrid’s Melodia Hotel, not a beautiful accommodation, but clean and VERY convenient to the Atoche Train station even if crossing the eight lane boulevard to get to it means taking your life in your hands. We survive, board the train and rumble onto Girona, yet another short hop RENFE (Spain’s railway company) insists we take before getting on a local train that will haul us onto the little town of Port-Bou to catch another train to Perpignan and, finally, Lyon.

The train odyssey through Europe continues.

I snatch up a couple of empanadas and we stand on the platform, waiting. I feel we are crawling across Spain by inches. Dutifully we board and sit down on seats more like street cars than trains. I remind myself that the most aggravating experiences are the ones that make the best stories, but it doesn't relieve my frustration much until I look out the window, and see a man driving along a parallel road in a little Volvo wailing and singing away, utterly oblivious to the world’s cares. He’s so happy I can’t help laughing out loud.

Two stops from Port Bou, a conductor comes by and explains that there has been a fire and we must get off the train. He says this as though he’s announcing the time of day. At first, I think that he is saying “a fight” in his French-English accent, but further clarification reveals that the Pyrenees mountains are on fire, or at least the portion that is in the way of our train. His best guess is that it will be at least two days before the trains will be running again. The language barrier muddles more details, but we manage to make out that it's better to debark the next station, Figueres, rather than Port Bou.

"It's a more interesting town," says the conductor.

We drag our bags off the train with nearly everyone else including a German kid with his bike. He and the bike look like they’ve come clear across Asia. He debates whether to stay or bike the 30 miles to Port Bou.

Then abruptly he says, “I’m leaving.” And off he went. Now THAT, I thought, is a vagabond.

What next? Much gnashing of teeth. Perhaps a bus to Permignan? Assuming that was possible. (Turns out it wasn’t.) Our GPS tells us we are about an hour and a half away. A ticketmistress in the train station directs us to the bus station just a few blocks away. Once there language barriers continue. We attempt communication with a tiny dark-haired woman with large sad eyes who truly wants to help us, but it takes many mangled conversations and gesticulations to comprehend that a schedule on the wall has the answer to our next leg of the journey. The only bus we can take is to another town: Il Vólo. At least that’s the name in Spanish (where we are now), but in fact the town falls within the borders of France, and there it goes by the name of Le Boulou. Once the bus gets us there, then we must take a taxi to Perpignan! I did not think it was possible to take more connecting forms of transportation to get from Portugal to France, but the little dark-haired woman has once again proven Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

We have no choice but to stay the night. Nowhere to go and nothing more to do about it. Cyn works her magic and finds a hotel. The schedule tells us that we can grab a bus at 8:10 AM the next morning, lane two. Buy the ticket on the bus the next morning, says our soulful helper. She looks relieved now that all of the fuss has been worked out.

Off we go, bags bouncing, through the streets of Figueres to find the Duran Hotel and Restaurant. Turns out we are walking the very same streets that the great Spanish painter Salvador Dali once trod. He grew up here and then returned toward the end of his life to design and build his museum. During both times of his life he often dined at the Duran in the very restaurant we plan to have dinner (see below) — once we have hauled ourselves to our room that is.

Other pix: the Atoche Train Station, standing and waiting for the train to Perpignan and some of Salvador Dali's drawing at the Hotel Duran.

Recommendations

If you’re traveling to Spain, consider some of these recommendations. Or see our entire catalog of recommendations here.