The Spanish Bird

The display above the door says ‘Velocidad 301 km/h, Temperatura 28C’. We are onboard the AVE – Alta Velocidad Espanola – the Spanish high speed train. AVE is also the Spanish for ‘bird’. We are on our way back to Barcelona from Madrid, where we have paid a quick visit to Susana’s family and friends.

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!

Siestas, not power naps

To be honest I have not done much over the past couple of days. I have just been enjoying the warm humid Mediterranean air that encourages you to just hang around in shorts and flip-flops and keep yourself in a vertical position to the extent possible. I have swapped power naps with siestas. Same concept, but very different execution! I am trying to fall into the rhythm of my little pueblo here. As they say in Spain, there are more people on the streets at 3 in the morning than at 3 in the afternoon. All the shops close during the middle of the day, so why not siesta your way through those hours. Great concept.

I went for a run today at 8pm when the temperature had dropped sufficiently for a Scandinavian to venture out. I went down to the river bed that runs at the outskirts of the town. It is completely dried out at this time of the year, so it is a great place to run. It took me out under the highway and into mountains on the other side. 'Mountains' may be a relative word here. The locals would probably just call them 'hills', but being from Denmark I insist that they indeed are mountains. I found a dirt trail that took me up-hill (because you cannot say 'up-mountain') and after about 20 minutes I found myself standing on a ridge looking into the next valley. Here was another little pueblo with white houses and what from the distance appeared to be a church. The sun was setting and it looked so quiet and peaceful. I had not met anyone on my way and there was not a single person to be seen anywhere. It became one of those few quiet moments, where you remind yourself that life is more than the fast lane on the information-superhighway. Next time I will make sure I bring a camera.