Friday & Saturday
April 6 & 7, 2023

Traveling to Asia or Europe from southern California is a long process. I will be making the 1000 kilometer pilgrimage walk from Seville to Santiago de Compostela with my long-time friend Tom from Sydney, Australia. We will start the walk on April 10, the day after Easter Sunday. Tom has been in Seville all of Easter Holy Week, and has sent me a few pictures of the elaborate pageantry and celebrations taking place. It is said that the pageantry in Seville is larger than that in Madrid or Barcelona, even though Seville is a much smaller city. [The metropolitan area of Madrid has a population of about 6.2 million, that of Barcelona 5.2 million, and Seville, 1.2 million.] So, knowing that there are massive crowds in Seville, I set out to get there over Easter weekend.

Delta Flight 559

I left from Los Angeles early on Friday morning, April 6, very early. My flight was Delta 559 Los Angeles to Atlanta at 7:00 AM, and I had been advised to arrive at the airport 3 hours before my flight, or 4:00 AM. I actually arrived at 4:30, and with TSA-Precheck, was through check-in, security, and at the gate before 5:00 AM. More waiting for the actual boarding and flight.

The flight was on a Boeing 767-300, and while completely full, boarding went smoothly and we pushed back from the gate about 5 minutes early and started the journey. The 4-hour flight was smooth and we arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport on time at 2:00 PM Eastern time. Then after changing to Terminal I (for International), another long wait of 4 hours for Delta flight 108 to Madrid, Spain.

Delta Flight 108

Delta flight 108 was also on a Boeing 767-300, and the 8 hour and 30 minute flight was one of the most turbulent I can remember. For more than half of the trip across the Atlantic Ocean we were in constant turbulence, in spite of the captain telling us a few times that they were trying their best to avoid it. I did see from the monitor that we changed the flight level several times from 35,000 feet to 36,000 to 40,000, even 42,000 for a time. After about 5 hours of bouncing around, the air smoothed out and we continued at 36,000 feet until close to Madrid. Not my favorite flight.

Madrid Barajas Airport

After landing and officially entering Spain with a stamp in my passport, I collected my checked bag (TSA does not allow hiking poles in carry-on luggage). I needed to somehow get to Madrid Atocha train station. Similar to Paris, there are two major train stations in Madrid, Charmatin and Atocha. The trains heading south and east leave from Atocha, so since I was going south to Seville, I asked at the information place how to get to Atocha. It was not at all difficult:

First, take the free terminal-to-terminal bus to Terminal 4 (I arrived at Terminal 1)
Second, go to the lowest level and take the Renfe Cencancias C1 or C10 train to Atocha station. She showed me on my train ticket that it was a “combination” ticket so it included the train from the airport to the Atocha station.
Third, get on the Renfe AVE train 2140 to Seville.

More waiting was involved. The “rules” for the free Cercancias train are that you can only use it 4 hours before the train time, and since it was 9:30 and my train time was 2:00 PM, I had to wait for a half hour before getting on the Cercancias train to Atocha. While waiting I met two men from India who are engineers working for a contractor to Boeing and were to be working in Seville for two months. We scanned our tickets, got on the train, and found that we passed Charmatin station before getting to Atocha three stops later. I now know better how to negotiate getting from Madrid Barajas airport to either of the major train stations.

Madrid Atocha Train Station

When we arrived at Atocha, it was before 11 AM and our train to Seville was not leaving until 2 PM. Atocha is a very busy station, with about 16 tracks on which high speed trains were coming and going. We walked around a bit, and stopped at a cafateria for a snack/lunch. I had cafe con leche and a smaller ham and cheese bocadillo (“smaller” is fairly large for a sandwich). Then we walked around a bit. Most of the train station is underground and I went outside because I had been told that the outside structure was dramatic.

Here is the dramatic part:

Inside, under this structure was also dramatic:

Once the time came, we went down to board the train to Seville. Here are two pictures of the Renfe AVE train 2140 about to leave for Seville:

After getting to my seat, the train left exactly on time at 2:00 PM. This is what can be thought of as an express train, with only one stop between Madrid and Seville. And, this is a high-speed train. Much of the time, the train was going 280 kilometers per hour, or 174 miles per hour.

Seville

We arrived at the Seville Santa Justa train station on time at 4:30 PM. This station is also large and busy. I found Tom, and we got a taxi to my hotel, the Hotel Pasarela in central Seville. I was at my hotel at about 5 PM, 28 hours after leaving the hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. I got a shower, changed clothes, and Tom and I went out to explore a little and have dinner.

In Seville, Easter Holy Week, called Semana Santa, is a big, week-long celebration with much pageantry, religious processions, marching bands, partying, and very large crowds along the streets taking it all in. We are fairly close to the cathedral, and the parades are all over this area. After finding a place for dinner, we passed by another procession on our way to find ice cream for desert.

This is a very small part of one of many processions in Seville for Semana Santa.

I’m due for a rest before we start our 1000 kilometer walk on Monday.

Next: The pilgrimage begins