[Gocamino] Renfe booking problem

[Robert Spenger]

One more try brought out this one:

Ref.: G001. |
The process cannot continue right now. We apologise for any  
inconvenience

Whatever that means. I also found a site under tripadvisor that gave a  
long list of tips for trying to deal with the Renfe site, which they  
found to be rather deplorable — as did several people who sent in  
comments. One of the  tips was that one should use Microsoft Internet  
Explorer, V 6.1 or higher. Since I was using Safari, that might be the  
problem. I do have MS IE here on my desktop computer, so I will try  
that, but there is also a suggestion that it would be best to be using  
Windows. I have that installed on my Mac laptop, but I really hate to  
use it. I would have to switch my printer over from this iMac (a  
desktop computer) to the laptop and that is quite a nuisance. Note:  
the printer is necessary since the tickets have to be printed out.  
Also, using Windows on a Mac is not all what it is made out to be.

Again, has anyone had experience with this. My flight is due into  
Madrid fairly early in the day and the train doesn't leave until  
almost midnight, so I am tempted to just wing it and show up without a  
ticket and reservation. I think that I have it right that  the Madrid  
station to use for this route is Chamartin. I  don't know how to get  
there from the airport, but I assume that I can get a good Metro  
connection and maybe even get that scoped out on the net before I get  
there — unless the Metro website is as "Alice in  
Wonderland" (tripadvisor's words for it) as the Renfe site.

Bob S.


On Mar 13, 2009, at 9:13 PM, Robert Spenger wrote:

I logged on to Renfre with:

http://www.renfe.es/

(And also with the Google translation version of that site.)

There was no problem with the starting point, Madrid, but Sarria was  
not on the list of destinations available. I did find it on another  
site, but that one did not have a booking function. No matter, Lugo is  
listed and Sarria is listed on the Madrid-Lugo route as the last stop  
just a few minutes before Lugo. I don't know whether or not that would  
give a problem if I booked from Madrid to Lugo and then told the  
conductor that I wanted to get off in Sarria. But I went ahead and  
entered my travel date and accommodation preferences and clicked the  
continue button. A  window showed up on the screen that said  
"operation in process." I clicked the O.K. in that window and waited  
---and waited --- and waited, but finally gave up. That was last  
night. Tonight I tried again and this time I got one step further. A  
page came up immediately that asked if I wanted a cama for a man or a  
woman. I licked on the button for man and clicked on continue. At this  
click, the "operation in process" window came up again and I was no  
better off than last night, even though there had been a small advance  
in the protocol.

Has anyone out there had any experience with this?

Bob S.