Originally Posted by Shareholder
However, as Techgirl discovered, you need to book your train in advance. She arrived in MAD on Friday and could not get a train seat [I think that was the story]. There was a RR ticket office at the airport, so I booked and purchased my seat there on Thursday when I arrived, then overnighted in Madrid and caught a morning train into Valencia. Most trains were fully booked, so I was lucky to snag a seat. [Trains are fast, comfortable, and feature music and movies.]
Yep... that was exactly what happened.
LastClass and I showed up at the Atocia station the day before we planned to leave for Valencia, fully expecting to catch a train sometime the next day. After waiting for almost two hours for our number to be called for the ticket window, we discovered that the trains were sold out for the next 48 hours.
It was actually nice to stay in Madrid and have time to properly see all the museums... but now I *really* want to go to Las Fallas.