Spain 2024-Day 1-We're On A Train!

We're headed to Bilbao in northern Spain, arriving around noon. It's 7:22 a.m. here and the glow you may sense around us right now is that we made the train!

In order for us to be sitting on this train, the following needed to happen: our plane needed to land close to on time (We departed Boston 40 minutes late and landed 20 minutes late.), we needed to get through passport control quickly (The line was long, but moved fast and we happened to choose the line that moved quickest.), the last Metro train from the airport to get us to the train station on time left at 6:47 (We found the Metro, but couldn't figure out how to use our ticket to get through the gate. A Metro Angel appeared and took us through a special gate, using his key card, yelling after us, "Go three stops!), we boarded the Metro at 6:45.

The ride to the train station took 20 minutes.

We had 7 minutes to go through security at the train station and find our train.

We found our train, we thought, but it turns out it was a train that splits and we were in the wrong section. We had to get off the train and race down the platform to the correct part of the train. We prayed they wouldn't leave since they could see us running toward them.

We got on and the train pulled out one minute later. 🤯🤯🎉🎉

Not only are we grateful we made the train, which is always exhilarating, but if we hadn't caught this train, the options were a bus, or a train that only would get us 2/3 of the way to Bilbao, then take a bus the rest of the way.

Phew. This was definitely a relief.

It's a gray, rainy day here, sunshiny inside my heart.

Small side note, I had to smile as we waited for our plane in Boston. It's almost 35 years to the month that I took my first flight to Europe. It was on Iberia Airlines, just like today.