[Gocamino] Madrid Airport to Train Station

[Wes & Rita]

Hello to everyone on gocamino:  It is nearly one year since Wes and I cancelled our Camino due to my back injury (three weeks before we were to depart) and we said "Next year!" and now we are here, ready to depart September 8.  Thank you to everyone for keeping our energies high with all your contributions to the site.  I look forward to it every day.

I am having trouble figuring out how to get from the Madrid airport (where we will arrive on Iberia from Boston) to the train station for Pamploma.  First I couldn't figure out from the Renfe site whether we'd be leaving from the old station (Chamartin) from which most northern bound trains leave, or the new station (Atocha) which seems to get most of the attention in the web sites.  If we are leaving from Chamartin, it didn't seem like there was a metro route there from the airport at this time.  Can anyone advise us if Chamartin is the station we want and how to get to that station from the airport?

We are planning on going to Pamploma from the airport by train as that seems considerably faster than by bus.  Then we will take a bus to Roncesvalles and then get a taxi to SJPP (hopefully shared with other pilgrims).  Can we arrive early in the morning in Madrid and get to SJPP by evening that day and still find a place to stay or must we make a reservation in advance?  Albergue l'Esprit de Chemin seems to be booked for the night of 9 September and I'm wondering if there are any other inexpensive options if we can't count on the municipal albergue having room.  Any recommendations?

Lastly, we have an AT&T cell phone and according to AT&T there is decent reception all across northern Spain.  We would only use it to call ahead for reservations in private albergues if we find that public ones are too full to count on in September.  It looks like that would be less expensive than renting a mobile phone in Spain.  Has anyone ever used their US phones (AT&T in particular) on the Camino and do you have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance -- Rita