The Train In Spain ...

Adding, what we thought was, some caché to our Spanish adventure was our romantic notion of criss-crossing the country by train. The plan was to leave the car in Barcelona, while we traveled to Seville, Madrid, and then back to Barcelona. It sounded dreamy; the night train winding its way down the coast from Barcelona, past the Sierra Madres and into Seville. Dave and I would stay up late, recounting our adventures so far over a good bottle of Spanish Rioja. We’d painlessly cover 1000km, and the kids would be asleep. We hoped.

We bought our tickets that night in Barcelona, descended to the train platform below, and at 10:22pm, our 10:30 train pulled in, exhaled, and stopped. 8 minutes later we were off to Seville, entombed in our “couchette” with all three girls (more wide awake than humanly possible), leaping from bunk to bunk on 2 levels. It made our couchette feel like the gibbon cage at the zoo. After getting the girls into pyjamas, and allowing them to take stock of all the items provided for us on the “Trenhotel” (4 water bottles, 4 plastic cups, 4 disposable face clothes and 4 bars of soap) we actually got them to sleep.

Not surprisingly, the girls rated this overnight train trip as one of the best parts of Spain, (but for them not long enough during waking hours). We also enjoyed the trip (for us not long enough sleeping hours). In the morning, while everyone else was still sleeping, I watched the sun come up as we rocked our way through sea after sea of orange groves. Soon after, Dave herded three sleepy little girls to the restaurant car for a morning hit of chocolato and so fortified, we were ready to take on Seville.

Note: Bronwyn was our semi-willing “model” for the “posed” shot of her in bed in our couchette. We were cutting into her bunk-leaping time.