Hi Folks,
My wife and I are using a Rail pass to travel from September 12 to October 20. I've been using Rick's books to make reservations, and the Rail Europe site to make the important, long-haul train reservations. However, I haven't, for the life of me, been able to make reservations for Spain or Portugal.
I can see the trains on the Die Bahn site, but the only trains that show up on Rail Europe are the Hotel trains and the high-speed Barcelona train from Madrid. (As a side note, it looks like no first-class tickets on that route are allotted to Rail-pass holders. You can get a 2nd class fare, but as soon as the fairs come on line, all of the 1st class fare-holder seats are sold out. You can purchase first-class tickets, though.)
In any event, I'm trying to figure out a way to reserve seats along the northern rim (Irun-Santiago del Compestella) and none of those routes show up in the Rail Europe reservation system. I have been able to find some of the trains on the Seat 21 reservation system, but when I go to order, I get an error message that it can't communicate with the reservation system.
Right now, I've kind of decided to wait until I get to Europe and see if it's easier to make the reservations from the train station when we first arrive. I'd sure feel better if I could get it nailed down before we leave, though.
What have you all done? Is there an alternative reservation system for Spain? (I tried the Renfe site, but could figure out how to just make a reservation.)
I'm grateful for any advice you have.
--Steve