The First Class or Clase Preferente Train Madrid to Sevilla

First Class- most expensive accommodations on a ship or train or plane & something OSB is not accustomed to & quite possibly has never before experienced. In this case it was well worth the almost double $$ cost!! It is nice to treat yourself now & then who deserves it more than Me & You??

Madrid and Seville are 536 km or 340 miles apart, a distance that translates into at least six hours of driving time if you don’t get lost. What are the chances of that?? Flying takes only an hour, but transportation to, check-in, and security lines can easily triple that time plus you are in an Airport & how much fun it that? You only need to be at the train station ½ hour before departure instead of 2 hours.
The trains of Spain are known as Renfe which stands for The Red Nacional de los Ferrocarilles Españoles. Train travel Madrid to Seville in just 2.5 hours with a guarantee that if your train is more than 5 minutes late you're entitled to a full refund. How about that for service? Amtrak the passenger train system in the United States also has a guarantee with no refund that says you will get there when the rest of the train does almost every time.

Clase Preferente aka Business or First Class which includes a meal of real food served with real silverware on real plates at your Great Big Extra Comfortable Leather High Backed Reclining Seat with 3 times the legroom of a plane. A table for your laptop with your own electric outlet & with plenty of room to eat your meal as opposed to an elbow to elbow tray banging on the plane. The Renfe employs Give you food & drink instead of trying to sell it to you. They even give you your very own set of Renfe ear buds which I still have. Drinks are free & I know wine is good for you when you are in Spain. Newspapers, audio/video in multi formats, I picked English, parking discounts which I did not need, access to AVE lounges which are as least as nice as any airline VIP lounge with comfortable seating, free drinks; I like free drinks, complimentary newspapers, and other perks for 1st Class travelers like OSB on this very rare occasion & access to the conference room on the train if you need to conference which I did not, but I could if I wanted to which I didn’t because I was on vacation.

Don’t forget the Great Scenery to be seen at ground level & to keep the little purple salt & pepper shakers & tiny clothes pin that holds the cloth napkin together that I still have.