The Joys of Public Transport

There's another long weekend due at the end of the month so I thought I'd go and see Maggie.

Problems in getting the transport sorted have included a bus company website not working for three days, a ticket office that only opens weekdays for two hours per day and a strike by one of the companies which may or may not mean that there is a coach for me to catch!

The best route involves me driving to the nearest big town to catch the bus (at 1am in the morning), hanging around a couple of hours in Madrid bus station and Maggie driving the 100kms from her home to Salamanca to pick me up. The reverse route also needs a car at each end and includes a three hour wait in Madrid.

Train times weren't any better and the cost was a fair bit higher; and we'd still need the two cars.

I considered hiring a car, it would have been much quicker but it would have cost about twice as much as the train. Mind you, if I hadn't been travelling alone it would have won hands down as the cheapest and fastest way.

And that in a country that still has a good public transport system.