[Gocamino] Madrid Airport to Train Station

[Grant Spangler]

Patricia y todos,

I had to laugh at your last line. Patricia refers to COS .. that's Camino Obsessive Syndrome. Guilty as charged.

And for those who have never experienced Patricia de Miami, she is one of the most lovely and dynamic women on Earth.

To fill in the blanks for the Madrid connections, here are several common Metro trips from Barajas:

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_Aeropuerto_Atocha_Renfe.pdf

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_Aeropuerto_Chamartin.pdf

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_Aeropuerto_Gran_Via.pdf

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_Aeropuerto_Opera.pdf

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_Aeropuerto_Sol.pdf

http://elcaminosantiago.com/PDF/Map_City_Madrid_Metro_2008.pdf

Opera is the connection if you want to get your Credenciales at the Catedral de la Almudena.

Again, refrain from disembarking at ‘Atocha’, which will drop you by the Ministry of Agriculture, hold out for 'Atocha RENFE'. 

You can buy your train tickets in advance; all you need is a credit card and an Email address. Go to http://www.renfe.es and create an account.

Madrid – Pamplona on RENFE is http://horarios.renfe.es/hir/index.jsp?page=hjhir130.jsp&O=MADRI&D=80100

Here is my diatribe on mobile phones and practical alternatives.

Many Europeans carry their mobile phones with them on the Camino. US & Canadian mobile phones may or may not work in Europe, depending on your carrier. AT&T Wireless, Cellular One, Cingular, Fido, Rogers AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM system. GSM is the mobile phone standard throughout Europe. Verizon, Sprint and Nextel will not work on the GSM systems in Europe. When you buy a phone from your carrier, it is typically ‘locked’, meaning it will only work on their system. You should also check to see that your mobile is a tri-band or quad-band phone; we use slightly different frequency bands here versus there. Your carrier can tell you what kind of phone you have. Ask them for the unlock code for your device and they should give it to you. I have a Cingular phone for which they gave me the unlock code, so mine works on anyone’s system. They have generously given me the unlock code for three different mobiles over the years. Just tell them you will be in Europe for an extended period of time. You will need to give them the IMEI Number, it's located under the battery and is also found on the original box the phone came in.

A SIM card is a Subscriber Identity Module; it has your phone number and other info you may wish to store in it. Remove your battery, and you’ll see a thin little card underneath. Putting in a different SIM card changes your phone number and can also change the system you are talking on. Therefore you can take your unlocked phone to Europe, and simply pop in a new SIM card from Telefónica, Spain’s largest carrier. You can buy a prepaid SIM with X number of minutes, and of course they have different plans. Another way of having a phone is to rent one. http://www.gomadrid.com/cellular-phone/ has an assortment of rental or purchase plans for you to consider. I recommend Telefónica because we traverse rural areas. Other systems work well in metro areas, whereas Telefónica provides good coverage throughout Spain. Many Europeans will opt to buy a SIM card on the Telefónica system to avoid the pain of roaming charges.

Enter Skype. Skype is a free software download that can make phone calls from computer to computer, or computer to PSTN – the regular phone system. Skype to Skype VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls are free. Skype to PSTN (‘regular phones’) is usually 2 cents per minute. That means I can call my next door neighbor’s landline for 2 cents per minute, or call Paris for the same 2 cents per minute. A headset with an attached microphone is recommended; these come in two flavors, ‘USB’ and ‘regular’. You can create conference calls, and the security is so good it is illegal in mainland China. I have used it to North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East so far, with results ranging from fair to excellent. Skype exists on my PCs as a program installed on the hard drive. I also carry it in my pocket when I travel, just 10 grams on a U3 USB thumb drive – see the links below. I also carry Firefox on the same U3 drive. Both Firefox and Skype are carbon-copy identical to the software on my home machines. All my contacts on Skype and all my bookmarks and configs on Firefox are in sync. This makes Internet communications both simple and secure. There is no trace of any comms on a rented or borrowed machine.

Now, all that said, I have not carried a mobile with me on the Camino. I buy prepaid phone cards which work from most pay phones. You generally purchase a €6 or €12 card in the country you wish to use it in. Cards bought in France work only in France, cards from Spain only in Spain. These are generally found in tobacconist shops, called “Estanco”. Specify that you wish to be calling mainly to North America, and they will assist you in finding the best deal in a card. The most versatile phone cards are not the ones that plug into a Telefónica pay phone. The ones I use have a toll-free number, next you enter the access code, then dial the number. Some cards are rechargeable others are not, some have a 60 day expiration, so be aware. Occasionally a phone card will not work on a specific pay phone; you simply walk down the street and find another.

The advantage to a mobile phone is immediate contact both in and out of the country. The disadvantage is price and weight, the advantage of a phone card is price and weight, the disadvantage is no immediate contact. Skype lies somewhere in between. Decisions, decisions.


Buen Camino,

Grant

Grant Spangler
GASpangler at hotmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago
http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago