Hi Ellen Margrethe! Hi Nike2! Welcome to the fórum!
we are going by aeroplane to Madrid in July. Then we have to find out how to get to Sarria where we begin our walking to Santiago de Compostela
You have two main options:
- Take a Cercanías (commuter) train from the Terminal 4 of the airport to Chamartín train station and a train from Madrid Chamartín train station to Sarria. Take a look at www.renfe.com for info about train schedules, fares... (be aware the commuter trains have a specific area within the RENFE web and aren't showed on the general Schedule or on the booking area)
- Bus from Madrid airport (T4) to Lugo (with www.alsa.es/en) plus bus from Lugo to Sarria (with www.monbus.es).
Option 1 is quicker and would be my preferred one. BTW, if your train ticket from Madrid to Sarria includes a
combinado cercanías code (usually it's located on the upper left corner), your Cercanías ticket will be free as long as you don't get it more than 4 hours before the departure time of your train from Madrid to Sarria.
We wish to catch the direct train from Madrid to Sarria on 20 June and would like to know what the train journey is like
Is the train high speed? Many stops?
Train to Sarria approx 1pm daily arrives approx 7pm in Sarria.
There are two direct trains to Sarria. One of them is a daily daytime train and the other one a six times per week overnight train. As you quoted on your second post the daytime one, I asume that's the one you want to take.
The daytime time one goes on high speed tracks till Zamora where, currently, the high speed tracks end. From Zamora onwards it follows non-high speed tracks (going as quick as it can go on those tracks). The train pass through a width exchanger to change from the high speed tracks (that use international gauge) to the non-high speed tracks (that use Iberian gauge). It doesn't make many stops (you can consult the list of stops in the schedules area of the web of RENFE by clicking on the train number).
Can we buy the tickets online now?
It'll depend on your specific departure date in July. You could give it a try and if you don't get results on the web of RENFE, try it at a later date (i.e.: closer to your departure time). I would suggest to take a look at
www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm to know how to use the RENFE web and how to (try to) to avoid some common problems with it as well as to know about possible alternatives to book a ticket in advance if you fail to make it on the web of RENFE by whatever reason.