Platform 3 at Cordoba Railway StationHurrah! Hurrah! A day off….
We had been invited up to Cordoba for the Festival of Patios, which is very similar to our Village Open Garden events, by our dear friends Alan and Lorna.
As it is a direct line from Ronda to Cordoba, we decided to take the train, until we discovered the cost was 120 euros return. We had heard of a ‘Tarjeta Dorada’ that offers pensioners 40% discount on train fares, so the day before we are scheduled to go, we head off to the railway station to obtain one.
Unfortunately, the computer was down at the station, so we were unable to get them there and this is where the saga of the tickets begins.
Not to be defeated, Lin had read somewhere that these cards were available at the travel agents, so we charged down to the town centre, where we tried three travel agents. Unfortunately, we were declined at all three as it was too close to their lunchtime, but they would all be happy to help us after 5:30 when they re-open! So back we go at 6 o’clock and choose the agent we liked the most and obtained our tickets. Unbeknown to us we had to pay the agent a commission, so they cost us 15 euros instead of 10. She also offered to organise our rail tickets, which were also subject to commission and would cost us 114 euros as opposed to 95 euros if we purchased them at the station, so upon her suggestion we returned to the railway station to buy our tickets.
You’ve guessed it….the computer was still down, so we were told that we would have to purchase our tickets the next morning on the actual day of travel! Am I boring you yet?
Anticipating chaos, we decided to arrive at the station early and were thrilled to find no queue at the ticket office. However, when we attempted to purchase our tickets, we were told that the returning train was virtually full and that there were only first class tickets available!!
So, after chasing around for the best part of 2 days trying to obtain a cheaper price, we ended up paying over 145 euros, whereas had we just bought 2 regular tickets at the outset, it would have only cost 120 euros! It could only happen to us!
We had been invited up to Cordoba for the Festival of Patios, which is very similar to our Village Open Garden events, by our dear friends Alan and Lorna.
As it is a direct line from Ronda to Cordoba, we decided to take the train, until we discovered the cost was 120 euros return. We had heard of a ‘Tarjeta Dorada’ that offers pensioners 40% discount on train fares, so the day before we are scheduled to go, we head off to the railway station to obtain one.
Unfortunately, the computer was down at the station, so we were unable to get them there and this is where the saga of the tickets begins.
Not to be defeated, Lin had read somewhere that these cards were available at the travel agents, so we charged down to the town centre, where we tried three travel agents. Unfortunately, we were declined at all three as it was too close to their lunchtime, but they would all be happy to help us after 5:30 when they re-open! So back we go at 6 o’clock and choose the agent we liked the most and obtained our tickets. Unbeknown to us we had to pay the agent a commission, so they cost us 15 euros instead of 10. She also offered to organise our rail tickets, which were also subject to commission and would cost us 114 euros as opposed to 95 euros if we purchased them at the station, so upon her suggestion we returned to the railway station to buy our tickets.
You’ve guessed it….the computer was still down, so we were told that we would have to purchase our tickets the next morning on the actual day of travel! Am I boring you yet?
Anticipating chaos, we decided to arrive at the station early and were thrilled to find no queue at the ticket office. However, when we attempted to purchase our tickets, we were told that the returning train was virtually full and that there were only first class tickets available!!
So, after chasing around for the best part of 2 days trying to obtain a cheaper price, we ended up paying over 145 euros, whereas had we just bought 2 regular tickets at the outset, it would have only cost 120 euros! It could only happen to us!
Anyway, so not to detract from our trip to Cordoba, we will publish another post on our wonderful day there......
Renfe's AVE high-speed train..
No comments:
Post a Comment