- Date: Oct 27, 2024
- Starting Location: Madrid, Spain
- Ending Location: Malaga, Spain
Morning: Arrival in Madrid
We arrived in Madrid at about 10:30 AM local time. We had only 2 hours to clear customs and immigration, and then find our way to the metro station, which would transport us to the rail system. Once on the rail system, we’d take a high-speed bullet train all the way to Malaga, with only a few stops along the way.
Clearing customs and immigration
Clearing customs and immigration was a bit confusing. As expected, there are always different lines for EU, and Non-EU residents. However, on this morning, these lines were not well marked, and as we attempted to ask for help from the local airport workers, we received different information from each. Each person we spoke to seemed to describe what we would do next in different ways. So, we eventually got processed through customs and immigration, and began to make our way to the metro station.
Travel on Metro to the Atocha train station
On this particular morning, I didn’t feel like a seasoned traveler. Each attempt that I made to try to figure things out, caused more and more confusion. It seems that, from the airport, there are multiple types of train that we might take, and each train was organized differently, making the whole thing a bit of a mess.
We eventually found the right set of stairs that would lead us down to a platform, where we could wait for the next metro train, going in the right direction. The situation was further complicated because the metro line that we would have preferred, was undergoing maintained, so we had to take another line, to the preferred starting point from another metro route.
Travel on High-Speed rail to Malaga train station
Arrival
We arrived on the platform for the high-speed rail with about 10 – 15 minutes to spare. We boarded the train, placed our luggage in the overhead bins and luggage bins, and began the journey to Malaga.
Olives, Olives, Olives
As we ride along on our journey from Madrid to Malaga, it is impossible to miss that the landscape on both sides of the train is a never-ending series of Olive orchards. It is somewhat shocking, and hard to believe that there are so many olive groves.
The olives that are cultivated seem to be the large, Spanish olives. At speeds of over 100 mph, it’s hard to be sure of what we’re seeing, but it appears that there are lots of these large green olives on every plant. We’ve seen a few plants that seem to process the olives, but it is surprising that there are not more processing plans, considering how many olives we’ve seen.
Arriving in Malaga
We arrived in Malaga at about 3:45, exited the building and found a cab that would take us to the NH Malaga hotel. Well, our journey to Malaga had ended, but our journey throughout Spain, Portugal, and Morocco was just getting started.
