Cars, Busses, Trains and Planes: the Journey

After an intense year of planning, packing and paperwork (more on these later), the adventure has begun.  

We departed from Hartford, Ct on June 28th, where we returned our rental car that had ferried us from Louisville to see our friends and family in New England. The ladies at the Aer Lingas counter helped us redistribute the overages in our suitcases...Do not recommend repacking suitcase at the check in counter but it probably saved us $200.00 in over charges....Thank you check in counter!

Once were at the gate we ate our sandwiches from the Tailgate café in South Hadley. This would be the last food for Carlos until Madrid. We had not ordered him a special meal for the plane and everything contained dairy 😢. As our boarding time neared it became obvious that the arriving plane was late. They also announced that the plane was oversold by six seats and began overing cash and a hotel stay volunteers to be bumped to the next day. $650.00 per person was tempting but we decided to fly on; we were ready to start the adventure. 

Aer Lingus continued to be an excellent choice for air carrier. The inflight entertainment was fantastic; lots of games, movies and music. Our flight arrived late to both Hartford and even though we made up time in the air we were still late landing in Dublin. The Dublin airport was small (thankfully) and we were able to follow the signs for connections and take the shuttle bus for our connecting flight. We got to walk on the tarmac to a staircase up to the plane, very old school. I am pretty sure none of us remember much of that flight...We were sleepy!

The Madrid airport was busy but not chaotic. We wandered a bit looking for customs and after a bumpy start, found our selves in line. Three passports stamped and off to collect the bags. I am happy to report that all 4 made it to Spain! Then we just walked out into the terminal. We plodded through the exhaustion and followed the signs to trains. We had planned on taking a taxi but went with our instincts in the moment. This was good choice. The folks at the airport were very helpful at pointing us where we needed to go and helping us buy tickets (super cheap!) AND best of all the train was NOT crowded.

Madrid's Altocha Train Station was gorgeous, but we were so tired that I only took one photo of the roof. We grabbed a quick lunch and waited for our high speed trin to Zaragoza. The guys read while I people watched. Some of the other diners included a dog and a nun. The others appeared to be travelers like ourselves.

The train station was packed in the platform loading areas because it is peak tourist season. Since we were taking a train between Madrid and Barcelona it was sold out. The attendants scanning tickets and getting people to the correct platforms were very efficient. We were on the train and on our way in no time. The train was was great! We were traveling at 297km/hr (184.5mph) and made what would be a 4 hour ride in 1 hr and 15 min.

Needless to say some sleep was had on the train but we arrived around 3:45 PM local time. We stayed at a hotel in the train station....makes it easy to find when you are tired 😆. And here is where we stayed for 7 days.

Stay tuned for more adventures.