Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Today is Spain’s Day of Independence so most everything is closed and everyone has the day off. I woke up “early” this morning at 10 and showered so I could go out and catch the parade on Paseo de Recoletos and Paseo del Prado. These people are pretty serious about their nationalism; running down main street Madrid are a variety of armored personnel carriers, tanks and amphibious vehicles. Flying overhead is a smorgasbord of aircraft ranging from large cargo planes to helicopters to something that looks like a MIG jet. The parade, or desfile, starts with a tight formation of jets flying overhead spraying out yellow and red smoke to symbolize the flag of Spain. …

As it turns out, haciendo puentes is a big deal in Spain. Such a big deal that not only were there no seats left on the train last night from Madrid to Sevilla, there were also no seats available on trains going to Bilbao, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga… outside of a few first-class seats that cost around 160€ each direction, they were booked solid until 7 tonight. Gabriela and I came back to my apartment, defeated. Then we started looking at plane tickets, because it might be cheaper/easier to fly to Sevilla. We found some fares for 116€ each direction which is a good deal since the train (at its normal price) was going to be 105€. …