A Strange Hotel

According to the guy at the airport, Chamartin station was the place to go to get a hotel and onward travel.

I had three options.

1. I could travel on to Barcelona, as I knew it was only three hours away by high speed train.
2. I could stay in a hotel and go round the Prado, before getting a flight home on the 13th.
3. I could stay in a hotel and get trains home the next day, via Barcelona and Paris.

I queued up for information and as ever in Spanish rail information offices, you got no help whatsover.  The ticket machines didn’t help either, so that eliminated option one.

So I had to find a hotel. There was actually a four star hotel by the station.

It was the strangest hotel, where I’ve stayed in recent years.

I walked straight in past a security guard and approached the desk and asked if they had a room.  They did and said it was sixty euros.

I asked about wi-fi, so I could plan my escape to London, but the receptionist said it wasn’t working.

The bed was comfortable, but as to the soap, shampoo and other things you expect in a four star hotel, there was none.

I did get a snack in the bar of Iberian ham, but I was still very hungry as I not eaten since a runny omelette in the morning, except for a couple of EatNakd bars.

Some of the reviews in Trip Advisor are not very complimentary. Under a heading of Never Again, there is this one.

 I booked a surprise weekend away for me and my girlfriend and I came across the so called 4 star Husa Charmartin Hotel and I was very astonished, not just by the poor service and the presentation of the hotel but also at the lack of good facilities. There were no tea or coffee making facility, no extra pillows and NO DUVET (yes Duvet). The Bathroom had mould and cracks.

But at least my room was clean, had a duvet and it didn’t have little furry friends running about!

If you read the Wikipedia entry for the station, you’ll see that it was built for the 1982 World Cup and it is now suffering from a rebuilt Atocha station. This probably explains why the hotel was at it was. It’s a bit like having a four-star hotel at Willesden Junction. Would anybody stay there?