´I'm on the nightrain
Bottoms up
I'm on the nightrain
Fill my cup
I'm on the nightrain
Ready to crash and burn
I never learn
I'm on the nightrain
I love that stuff
I'm on the nightrain
I can never get enough
I'm on the nightrain
Never to return - no´

As Axl Rose once said... and never a truer word was spoken!

Heading down the platform to find our carriage we passed the sleeper carriages, with 4 beds in each cabin, then 2 and finally 1 bed per cabin (greedy buggers!) with big comfortable looking pillows and blankets. Next came the first class dining carriage, where all the first class passengers were just deciding which wine they would have with dinner.... Then finally we got to the semi-recling seats carriage... and passed that too. Then just the reclining seats. And on to our non-reclining cattle class seat where we were to spend the next 9 1/2 hours.

I thought it was bad in South America taking 5 hours to travel 300kms, but I guess the Spanish taught them everything they know as they were truely the kings, stretching the 400km journey from Barcelona to Madrid to 9 hours, no gravel, no other cars, no perilous mountain roads to navigate, just nice straight train tracks. Uncomfortable as the seats were, we did manage to get a little sleep. But though we were prepared for the slow journey, we weren´t prepared for all the stopping or for just quite how slow the train was going. However the reason for this was finally revealed when we woke up at dawn to a winter wonderland.

Snow. Lots and lots of snow. As far as the eye could see. So much for finding some sun.

We finally made it in to central Madrid and found a place (with heating) to stay and wandered out into the snow, which persisted all day. Giving Kato all the more ammunition to drag Nato and I into yet another art Museam..... (or nerd hole as Nato likes to call them). This one only took three hours. And then we found a museam that Nato liked - the Museam of Ham.

Not so much a museam as a restraunt of the No Names ilk (for those Sydney-based among you), the rather bafflingly named Museu De Jamon had a plate of ham for 18 euro, but also a few more reasonably priced items, including an excellent menu del dia. A good old South American style menu with sopa, pollo y papas fritas, postre y pan, only this one included a copa de vino as well.

Perhaps it was the wine, but we decided to give Madrid one more day, despite the snow (and another nerd hole for Kato). This turned out to be an excellent idea as the next day the sun was out, the snow was metling and the temperatue was back into the double digits (weird European weather...).

We started the day as any good Madrid tourist would, with a trip the the Santiago Bernebau aka home of Real Madrid. We looked for David to see if he would sign a ball for Nato (if you know what I mean - Tiger, I´m looking at you!) but alas all we found were over-priced shirt and assorted knick knackery. Our favourites were the Real Madrid bike, chair and perfume. And the signed picture of Jonathon Woodgate - of course Real fans need a picture to know what he looks like, being yet to play a game for them.

We headed back to town and took in another nerd hole for Kato (down to 2 1/2 hours!) before we stumbled on the hidded gem of Madrid. As if the Superchocolate of Barcelona wasn´t enough to keep these hobbits fat quota up, the Chocolotaria San Gines would certainly do the trick. 3.60 will buy you two cups of chocolate and churros. Don´t be mistaken, we´re not talking about hot chocolate, this is a cup of melted chocolate, thick goey fondue style chocolate. And fried churros with sugar. People would be loosening their belts as they walked in.It was heaven in a cup. And reason not to move to Madrid for fear of an early chocolate related death.....

Having had our chocolate fill, we went back to the museam of ham to see if the 40c tip we left the night before would pay off in service. It didn´t.

The pounds were piling back on - it was time to get out of Madrid.