The AVE is a show of brutal force and extreme elegance at the same time. Stick your head close to the window and you get an immediate feel for the speed and the power of this machine. Lean back and have a quiet conversation, watch the James Bond movie on the screens or walk down to the canteen car for a Bocadillo (a Spanish sandwich) or cup of coffee. I know Kornelius, the BMW engineer in our class, would have loved this ride. Technology at its edge!
The train does the 621km in 2 hours and 43 minutes. We fly by the major cities of Zaragoza and Tarragona – no time to stop, we have a schedule to meet. And it will be met. If we are as much as a second delayed we will get 30% of our ticket refunded, if we are more than 5 minutes late we will get all of it back. How is that for reliability? Not even the Swiss can beat that!
It brings thoughts of the Danish rail system to my mind. Many of the tracks are more than 50 years old and as soon as the temperature creeps above 25C they have to reduce the speed to 40km/h in some places because the tracks expand too much in the heat. In comparison, the AVE still runs at 300+ when the temperature is 45C. Obama came for a ride not long ago and concluded that the US needed something similar. May I should ask Danish Prime Minister – Mister Rasmussen – to do the same. We could definitely learn a thing or two.
It will be the last night in Spain. Tomorrow morning we are off to Denmark to visit my friends and family. We will also be meeting up with my Indian classmate Ajay Lakhwani and his wife Kanika, who are touring Scandinavia these days. They have just arrived in Copenhagen after taking the beautiful overnight ferry trip from Oslo.
It is 21.30 and we are rolling into Barcelona. It does not look like we will get any money back this time either.
Hasta luego!
The AVE upon arrival i Madrid. A mean machine!
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