to spain by bus

i'm in spain. got here on sat night having left london at lunchtime on friday. for years i haven't taken domestic flights but still fly to spain once or twice a year. i feel increasingly unhappy doing this but every year i look at seat61 web page and try to work out train prices etc to come overland. the train sounds good but is just too expensive. so this time i thought i'd try the coach - at least one way. it was alright and i'll definitely do it again. i left london at 15.30 on fri on the coach for lyon, france. the coach was pretty comfortable - lots of leg room and it looked like it wouldn't be too busy so i could have two seats all to myself, meaning i could stretch out a bit. unfortunately just as we were about to leave victoria over twenty young people (sorry that's the best i can do as a description) got on. they were students from lyon who had come to london to look at the bank of england and the stock exchange. honest, i kid you not!!!! anyway, so much for a restful journey. they were alright though, i had a good chat with a couple of them about capitalism and about global warming among other topics. worse thing was that my carefully chosen (and not cheap) vegan, sugar free food parcel got knicked somewhere between calais and lyon. i was left with only the fruit salad. it was a nice fruit salad and did me for breakfast but sad about the sandwiches from friends organic. not easy to be vegan on the road, especially in france!

so we crossed on the ferry dover to calais - full of kids going to disneyland for some special offer weekend. kinda sweet i suppose. then overnight to lyon. i even managed to sleep a bit - well doze. thank the great apple in the sky for iPods. that helped. an hour in lyon which was good cos i could freshen up a bit then down from lyon to barcelona. that was great. the bus was really comfy and there was loads of space. i had a couple of interesting conversations - one with a finnish woman who lives on the isle of wight and speaks 8 languages. and one with a really nice woman from margate who has had panic attacks since her husband died some years ago. she is going to go to her gp and see if he or she can recommend meditation classes. and the scenery rocks even though it was raining. i spent a fair bit of time just looking out of the window which was restful and quite a good way to arrive into spain.

the worst bit of the journey was from barcelona to valencia. partly cos i was tired and also the bus was really uncomfortable. and full of people on their way to granada for semana santa (easter). anyway, i'm glad to have done my small bit for the planet. i am flying back as there are only two buses a week at this time of the year and the timetables don't work for me.

btw, if you are interested in overland travel clink on the header of this entry (i.e. to spain by bus) and it will take you to the web site for seat61. it's great