All done. It took a while, but I’m tickled with the way things lined up.
We fly into Madrid and head to Toledo for one night. (Boring choice of hotels, I know, but it’s the #1 rated hotel from Trip Advisor and it’s free! Yea points.)
Then it’s three nights in Granada. We’ll tour Alhambra. The last night we’ll do a quick load of laundry. (Oooooh. Washing machine.)
Next is two nights in Sevilla. We’ll turn in the car when we get there and later take the high-speed train to Madrid.
Three nights in Madrid. Then a train to Barcelona.
Three nights in Barcelona. Two here (I think), and one close to the airport for an early morning flight. (Points again!)
Airfare is courtesy Midwest Miles via KLM. It will be the spouse’s job to select a car for the first part of the trip.
I want to thank you all again for the advice you’ve e-mailed. I’ve a much more clear understanding of where to go and what to do thanks to your help.
Sounds like a great trip! While you’re in Spain, would you mind taking notes about that high-speed train? Pay particular attention to how it will translate to Brookfield and beyond. Can you visualize it racing out of Brookfield on its way to the Madison airport? with a stop in Oconomowoc?
And Brookfield and Watertown!
I still don’t think that train is a good idea for us. Europe has a great train infrastructure, but they haven’t stuck a bazillion dollars into highways. We have. It’s incredibly expensive to be talking about doing both.
What gets me is there’s already a decent bus system that’s only busy when the college kids ride. Business folks are not going to drop the convenience of a car to ride to Madison on a train.
Yes, Cindy, I agree. This high speed train is Doyle’s attempt at a legacy, at tax payers’ expense. My comment was meant to be facetious. Doyle just bought more trains from Spain, to be constructed in Milwaukee by Spaniards. There’s an editorial in today’s JS about the current bus system offering a better commuter system at a fraction of the price. This bus system carries about 120,000 riders while Doyle’s people claim the train will carry three times as many riders. Both Republican gubernatorial candidates say they will stop the train plans when they are elected. Better late than forever!
True to better late than forever.
I am torn because I love trains when I travel. I do feel strongly that we’ve gone too far down the highway road to try it now.
And isn’t it odd that Doyle would ignore the need to grown industry at home? I just don’t get politicians.
So you have a “stay the course” attitude about highways despite your instinct that trains are good. The reason we had to go to a Spanish company is because no American companies make these trains. Why? Because we’ve never valued rail before.
Bringing the production to Milwaukee will give experience to workers in the area, with a potential to start their own companies in the future. You’ve gotta start somewhere.
No, there’s no reason to throw money at it. If it were really that good an idea, it would happen without public funds.
Lorax, Super Steel Corp. in Milwaukee, has made 300 passenger cars for Chicago Metra in addition to 61 cars for the Washington D.C. metro area. They can either make the entire product here or just assemble a number of parts. Super Steel could have at least assembled the parts from Spain. Doyle didn’t care enough to check Wisconsin industry before getting in bed with Spain. Makes you wonder what he is getting out of the deal. Unlike Europeans, Americans have cars. Europe doesn’t have the excellent network of Interstate highways. You would have to construct overpasses or underpasses throughtout the system to attain the speeds European trains reach.