The Journey Home and Final Thoughts

If you read our Egypt blog, you'll remember the clusterfuck with the luggage. Foreign country and all. Understandable. But here in the US!? Yup. More than the one in Egypt. Grab some coffee.

We fly from Barcelona to JFK. Bumpy ride and the hardest landing ever but we did walk away from it. So then we walk halfway across the airport to get to Passport Control and Customs, the people who protect us from all the dangers out there. Since we were late those who had a short amount of time to get to connections were given orange cards (OC)  to get them to the head of the Passport Control line. Sounded like a very thoughtful idea. All of us, orange or not, went to the same large room where there were queues set up. One lady sends the OC's to one line, which was full of non-OC people. We all wound around and then someone pulls out the OC's and send them to a different line which was actually moving slower than the non-OC's. After all of us went to automatic kiosks to get our picture taken and we answered the same questions we did on a form on the plane, we were all sent to different places to join others who were a mixture of OC's and non-OC's. Then someone else pulls out the OC's and puts them in another line that was being helped by one person while those of us non-OC's had three helpers! Those of us with the most time to make our connections were passing those who had the least amount of time. Then it got real interesting. Those four people who we stood in line to see took one look at the paper that was printed out at the kiosk and our passport and just sent us on. No questions, no acknowledgement. The queue was hundreds of people long for this.  They then herded us to pick up our checked bags to go through Customs, which we all did. We got in another line and this time the OC's bypassed all the rest of us and went straight through Customs. And at Customs we rolled our bags up to the counter and the guy asks "How long were you gone?" We say a month and then, without examining at our bags,he tells us to put the bags on the belt to get put back on the plane. And it wasn't just us. Before we went through I told Belinda to watch what happens. Not a bag was examined. Your government at work!  One lady in line next to us said she was going to write Senator Chuck Schumer.  He was a "local boy" who would fix this mess.  I assume he's Amy's father.  I think I'll write him too. (Done)

We fly into Seattle and have to wait about an hour and half for our 45 minute flight to Portland.  So good to be back in the Northwest.  But that doesn't mean those of you who are not in the NW can come here.  If you do, make sure you have a round trip ticket.  Another bumpy flight on a puddle jumper.  A small turbo prop actually. And finally we land in Portland. Our luggage made it as did we.  We walk out to wait for the HUT shuttle about 12:45 am.  The only good thing I can say about HUT is that it was there on time.  But it was also the worst of the transportation methods we took.  Noisy, smelly, uncomfortable.  If it hadn't been a 28 hour day already I would have cared.  We just wanted to get home...but really, can't Oregon do better than HUT.  It's a truck with flat seats !  The driver was nice and called to have a taxi ready for us, which it was, Probably his shortest fare of the day.  But he got a nice tip. Next time I'm going to look into a limo.  HUT is that bad.

Ahhhh, our little home looked so good, even at 2 am.  And it was happy to see us.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

As usual, Belinda came up with a great trip.  And Alice really was a life, or marriage, saver.  There is no way on God's green Earth that I would have gone to all the stores they went to. And Alice is a breeze to travel with.

All of the transportation we used worked well, with few exceptions.  The worst was our local HUT shuttle.  A couple of trains got cancelled, which made it all the more interesting and we saw some things we might not have otherwise seen.  Everyone was willing to help us find the right train in the right direction.

Our accommodations were excellent, with the exception of the one AirBnB we used. It was not as advertised in the pictures nor in the description.  We would give it a 1/5 only because it wasn't a zero.  The interesting thing is that AirBnB will not let you post a review without first setting up an account and emailing them a copy of a government issued photo ID.  They seemed to take our credit card info and communicate with us by our email just fine, but I think it's a way to discourage reviews.  What they did was discourage our use of AirBnb.  Now I know some folks really like AirBnB, but this was our first, and last, use of them.  We stayed in 11 different places.  Nine were from Rick Steves' guidebooks, one was recommended by Alice's daughter Angel, and then we had AirBnB.  All but AirBnB were great.  In all our travels we have never had a problem using recommendations from reputable guidebooks like Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, and Moon. Twice we strayed and we were sorry for both of them.  Most guidebooks you can get at the library but even if you buy one or two it's a pretty small price to pay for the information.

We had no problems with using ATM's although we only used ones at banks. The one issue we did have was they offered to "convert" our withdrawal to US dollars during the transaction. Of course it's going to get converted when it hits our bank account, but in checking on the internet this was a method for the ATM bank to charge more so we always selected Euros.

Take a cell phone with data access.  We bought an $85 package through Verizon that gave us 250/250/250 minutes/texts/data MB.  We used most of the data and very little phone and some texts but when we needed a phone or GPS, we needed it.  It was worth the $85 for the month.  You can get a sim card when you get there but your number changes and updates from the airlines or notices from the bank for ATM or credit card usage won't get to you.

For those of you who take a tablet or phone with you, you probably won't need any converter as such. Most of those chargers are 110/240 volt and will work in Europe. All you need is a $3 adapter that changes the flat plug to a round one..

Also, if you don't like to wait in security lines at the airport, look into TSA Precheck. No taking off shoes, no opening bags or setting out laptops or phones, and the lines are very short. I think there is an $85 fee, but it's worth it.

I'd be glad to share any other info if you like. Just send me an email. Now I have to make sure all our receipts and withdrawals got processed correctly so I'll sign off.  Until the next blog, safe travels to you all.

Good night Alice.  Good night Scotty.  Good night Belinda.  Good night Scotty.  Good night Belinda.  Good night Alice.  Goodnight everyone.

Barcelona

Eating a great meal in first class at 190 mph on the train is the way to travel. USA trains are so 1800's. We think Hi-speed is 70 mph. I think almost every train in Europe does at least 120 mph-150 mph, even the "slow" inter city trains. They are so smooth and quiet..... AND no damn horns.

We are on our way to Barcelona, our last stop before heading home Saturday. I'm ready to leave. A little tired of having to go through one of the girls to order something, or to ask a question. But even they have a problem with the Spanish here in the Catalonia region.
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Thursday, October 1

Nice hotel again.

This time breakfast is included which is nice for a couple of reasons. First, I don't have to wait for the girls. I can get up, shower and head down for my coffee while they're planning what to wear. That also means we don't have to waste time looking for a place. Breakfast here isn't like in the US. A croissant and coffee isn't breakfast! So having yogurt, eggs, toast, cereal, etc. in the hotel really makes it so easy. I only had an hour until the girls came down to join me. By then I was heading back to the room.

Since I still have a bit of a cold I went back to take a nap while they went shopping. As I said earlier, I'm not inviting Alice again. After a couple of hours they came back to get me and we walked to the harbor. It was pretty and lots of interesting folk. Some in Predator costumes, Angel costumes. You know, the ones that look like statutes and don't move, then they do and you jump.

Then we all came back to rest for a couple of hours and the girls went back out shopping. See what I mean !  No more Alice! Then I get a text to meet them for dinner, which I do, and they promised to take me to a bakery. Well our dinner took a little longer than planned so the bakery is closed when we get there and it starts to rain. Alice starts screaming she's going to get a sore throat and melt and starts to run the 8 blocks back to the hotel. Damn it! They promised me a dessert and I'm going to get a dessert. Besides I had on my Berlin hat and wind breaker. I wasn't going to melt.

On the way to their bakery I saw a bakery of my own and I said I'm going in there. They reluctantly followed (I didn't invite them) and I had my coffee con lecce and a Carmel whipped cream rollup. Yummy. By then it was really raining and everyone was standing under canopies or using their umbrellas. And people selling t-shirts on the street corners were now selling umbrellas at twice the price as earlier. The girls had run ahead and apparently a young women found me irresistible and offered to come home with me. I think it was the hat. I thanked her and told her my wife and girl friend were just up ahead..... maybe later? I guess she had another appointment as she begged off. Just some poor little girl trying to stay dry.
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Friday, Oct. 2

We had a nice breakfast again and then we took the metro to the Gaudi, Sagrada Familia Cathedral, more like GAUDY. By the time we got there about noon tickets were gone (YAY) so we had a Starbucks across the street. This Gaudi thing, whatever it is, is not a Cathedral.

It is a successful attempt at extreme excessiveness! You can see by the pictures of pineapples and Star Wars Storm Troopers that this isn't a structure in the praise of God unless it's built by the Church of Scientology. Then we walked for an hour trying to find the Gaudi "houses". We found some houses with turrets that had colorful tiles. Maybe that was them. I was unimpressed..... And my feet hurt. We found the metro and got back to our hotel. Actually we got to the restaurant on the square next to our hotel.

Thirty years ago Belinda and I worked with an organization called Educational Foundation for Foreign Study (EFFS, now EF). This was an organization that sent high school students from around the world to live with host families in the States, some in Salem. One of those kids from Spain was having some problems and the Salem EFFS representative wouldn't do a thing so, speaking Spanish as she does, Belinda stepped in and, long story short, we became the EFFS reps for three years. We became friends with one of the Spanish students by the name of Elias and contacted him when we knew we were coming to Barcelona. He met us for drinks Friday night outside our hotel and it was wonderful catching up on work and family. It was especially nice hearing that he wants his daughter to spend a year away like he did because" it was the best thing " he ever did. Of course, it was. Belinda took care of all those kids. They were so lucky to have her. During our third year was when we met our Thomas from Berlin. And the rest is history. I guess this wasn't a long story short.

We walked around a bit after Elias left in a vain attempt to get rid of our Euros. Of course Alice was more successful than we were. We ended up giving most of our change to a nun at the church next to our hotel and went to bed early. We had a taxi picking us up at 7am.

At 3 am my cell rings and its a recorded message from American Airlines saying our 10 am departure has been delayed until 10:50 am. Really! I need to know that at 3 am!? What's the worse that could happen? We get there three hours early instead of two! Shit! I couldn't go back to sleep as about that time one hellish thunder and lightning storm hit. Now you how I love to fly in good weather. And in the back of my mind is the effing hurricane coming up the East coast. Double shit! Even Belinda thought it was the worst storm she'd seen. We had another windowless room but did have a skylight and the lightning really lit up the room and the thunder was deafening.

Well needless to say we got to the airport with time to spare and the storm had subsided so that was good. We split up with Alice as she was on United and we were on AA. So we check in our luggage after a lot of security questions about who's luggage, where have we been, yada yada, yada. We go through security and are sitting at McDonald's eating an egg mcmuffin when I get a text from Alice. Apparently security won't let her check in because she can't show receipts or tickets showing how she got to Barcelona. All that is in her luggage so she has to open her luggage and dig through until she finds a credit card receipt as they won't take a cash receipt as it has no name on it. She finally gets through and joins us for a last breakfast together. After eating we head our separate ways, she flying to Newark, us to JFK.

The Big City

(I posted some more pictures on the previous Alhambra post)

As much as I enjoy the smaller towns, I think I prefer the big cities. I like the hustle and bustle, the activity of crowds. For example, when we arrived at our hotel in Madrid in the square below our window was a big event, the Madrid Triathlon.

The night picture is of the crowd for the triathlon, the day shot is just regular traffic. This is the Puerta del Sol Square and is called the center of the city. It is just busy almost 24/7. The day after the race there was a demonstration for "One Espania." The Catalonia region had forced a vote on separating from Spain and it passed by about 85% but was a non-binding vote so now they expect some formal discussion about it.

Lots of noise and people and a slice of the culture here. In the little towns it's mostly tourists. Here it's a mix but we walked through the square a few blocks away and it was like we were in a small town again. Quiet and comfy cafeteria with reasonable prices. You can find quiet areas in even the largest city. Yet things work so much better. WiFi is faster, public transportation is better, shops stay open, and there are just more choices.

Yesterday, Monday, I finally caught the girls' cold. But mine is worse than theirs! We decided to go see the Palacio Real of Madrid (Spain's national palace home of King Felipe and Queen Letizia) and it was amazing.

We took advantage of our age and got in for half price but the gift shop had the last laugh. I've never seen anyone shop as much as Alice! And damn if it didn't rub off on Belinda! I don't think I'll invite Alice again. 

Heading to the Alhambra

Before we leave Ronda I'll tell you about one more experience from there. The hotel was so nice and the girls so tired and coughing so much they let us stay past the normal checkout since our train didn't leave until 5:17pm. We made arrangements, well the hotel made them, to have our taxi take us on a quick tour down the hill to take some pictures looking back up at the town and bridge, then drop us off at the station. We ended up having a couple of hours at the station before the train and as we pulled in to the parking lot we could see storm clouds heading our way. And then it rained in Spain while we were waiting for the train ! I mean it poured including hail!

But what did we care. That doesn't stop a train. Well our train took us about a third the way to Granada and then we boarded a bus because they're putting in a new high speed line and the regular line was being moved.

OK, just a bus ride. Well, we caught up with the storm and between the wind, thunder, lightning and subsequent flash flood which dumped mud and rocks onto the freeway, it was an interesting ride. AND we get to repeat that Sunday on our way to Madrid. Hopefully without the storm.

In Granada we took a taxi to our hotel as it was on the other side of town, across from the Alhambra. We got in about 9pm, dropped our stuff off and had dinner in their restaurant. Nice meal, at least it was handy. Our guided t tour of the Alhambra was scheduled for 8am the next day. This hotel is very pretty, our room was nice and big and the bathroom was very clean. AND it had an elevator.

I think we have added a few more "New Rules", as Bill Maher would say. At least two nights, elevator, in a hotel. And the train system here is not like it used to be. Very few spur of the moment train rides. Most trains need reservations, which means it's more like airlines than the hop on, hop off system it used to be. Trains are still the way to go, just requires more planning and less spontaneity.

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Sept. 26

It's 8am and we're in the lobby waiting for our tour guide to show up, which she does about 8:25. Great, just the three of us. We walk across the street to join the other 22 people in our group, which is OK because some of these groups are 40 or 50 strong. Our real guide is Juan who hands us a radio receiver and headphones. The setup works great and we spend the next two hours walking the Alhambra palace and gardens, the last of the Moorish castles. Originally a fortress built in 889 and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-11th century by the Moorish emir, the Emirate of Granada, who built its current palace and walls. It was converted into a royal palace in 1333.

Belinda calls it the gem of Spain. I won't boar you with details. You can read all you want on the internet. After our tour we headed downtown on what they call a bus, I call it a big, bouncy, uncomfortable van. Kind of like the HUT shuttle to the Portland airport. Really, can no one else come up with better transport from the capitol of Oregon? HUT really is a piece of shit. The worst transport during our entire trip! I digress. We walked around a couple of squares, watched a flamenco dance group in one of them (excellente)

and then had grilled calamari including the black ink that squirts out of them. Plus Seafood Paella, kind of a rice dish. Both were pretty good. Girls enjoyed their sangria. We then decided to head to the Arabic section, the Albicin and Sacramonte, on one of those comfy, better than the HUT though, vans. We looped around the city and got back to our hotel about 5pm and slept for two hours.

Now this hotel, while nice and clean, has it's downside. Last night we wanted to check email after we all got into our beds and it didn't work. I called the front desk and the lady said "Sometimes it doesn't work in de room but come down to de lobby and use it here". Sorry I can't capture the darling accent. Belinda says we should go down in our pj's. I said fuggetaboutit. The tv also had it's problems so we just went to sleep. The hotel also needs some sound proofing but we slept OK.

So tonight we are sitting in the hotel lobby using the internet, eating pizza Belinda bought next door.  Tomorrow off on a bus and train ride to Madrid, our next to the last city.

New Rules

No more one night stands ! I mean in hotels.......traveling. I'm so confused. AND be careful at out of country ATM's. Even at bank ATM's, which is the only kind I will use, they will offer to "convert" to USD. You do NOT want to do that. There are hidden fees and you never know what those are.... They're hidden! Check out "transferwise.com" or just search for "conversion at foreign ATM". We didn't get taken because the message came up about converting or not which confused me, duh. So I tried another and got a similar message, which made me question what that was because I hadn't seen it before. Thank goodness for mobile data. Did the search and bingo. Next ATM we knew what to say (no) and got out money at a decent exchange..... I think. We'll see when we get home.

We left Toledo yesterday about 8am, changed trains in Madrid and spent about 4 hours in Cordoba. Then on to Sevilla, or was it the other way around? No, we are at the Sevilla Santa Justa train station so we must be in Sevilla, my favorite city in Spain. We arrived about 5pm and made one of the best decisions we've made on the fly, we took a taxi. $14 later after a convoluted ride through the old city we got to the absolute bestest hotel ever, the Hotel Amadeus.

OMG, this was fabulous. Not just because of our AirBnB experience. Clean, comfortable, effing AWESOME! Using Immanuel Kant's definition, it was " sublime". (That was for you Misenga) Little alcove sitting areas here and there all with pitchers of tea, orange liqueur, ice and glasses. And musical instruments all over the wall. I can't begin to describe it but it made the girls very happy. Just ask them.

We all took showers and Alice and I washed some clothes. Separately. I would wash mine in the sink, them rinse them out as I took my shower. Seemed to work ok. We had a little outdoor patio so we could hang our clothes to dry, which most did, or close enough.

We went out for a little walk to find something to eat. The girls were still feeling bad. We walked through a nice little park and found a little corner cafe and had a Spanish tortilla and a tuna and tomatoe salad. We were lost but I finally figured out how to use the GPS on the phone for walking directions. You tap the walking guy. I'm sure that's a recent update.

By the time we got back it was bed time for Alice but I wanted to go get a coffee and pastry so Belinda and I headed back out with our new GPS knowledge. We got lost again, on purpose, got money out of the ATM mentioned earlier, and found our way back to the best room in the world about 11pm.
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Sept. 24
Thursday we had breakfast on the hotel rooftop patio. Deeelightful. Then we had to leave the best room in the world for a 1:08 pm train (you like the am/pm better?)  What a bumpy ride! I didn't think a train could bounce around like that and stay on the track. We headed towards Ronda at the suggestion of Alice's daughter Angel. I was apprehensive because I hadn't read anything about Ronda and didn't know what to expect. Plus the train seemed to be taking us out in the boonies. She also recommended the Hotel San Gabriel. After the best room in the world in Seville, I was more than apprehensive. But thank you Angel. Ronda was worth bouncing around for and, while not quite the best room in the world, the hotel room is a close second. We checked in and hung up our still damp clothes and then went to find some tapas.

Alice and I had scrambled eggs with ham and mushrooms and Belinda had chicken stuffed with spinach. We meandered back to our room and checked out the map of the local area and headed out again. We stopped at a few shops where I looked for a sticker of the area that I can affix to my carry on to impress airline baggage handlers. I didn't decide to do this until Beaune so I'm missing Amsterdam, Brugge, Berlin and Prague. I'm sure I can get those on Amazon. I just won't tell anyone.

We got to the "new" Bridge built in the 18th century. What a view. The train had come in from the lowlands and I did not realize we were up on a cliff. A scary cliff. The kind that give your feet a tingling feeling when you look over the edge. We walked a little more and the girls got some ice cream to help their throats feel better, I'm looking for coffee and a pastry. We all found what we were looking for and since it was getting dark we headed back. We were all tired and hit the sack early.

Very Quick Tour of Toledo

Thank goodness the girls are both sick. Mountain climbing is out for a while. Don't worry Fatima, I rubbed Vicks on Alice's chest. I hope she stays sick the rest of the trip 😁.

We pull in to Toledo and I call our hotel and ask for directions. Actually Belinda does. Then she looks at me like "you idiot". The hotel was right across the street. Like I can remember. I made the reservation in April ! We wouldn't need a taxi after all. 

The train station was awesome

We checked in, dropped off our luggage and walked back to the train station to take the CityTour bus. It was the last one so we couldn't "hop on, hop off" and just took about a one hour tour around and through the walled city. Another wow structure. But thankful we didn't walk there. Uphill coming and going!

We got back to the hotel about 8pm (I'm now using am and pm because I was confusing myself) and tried to find a place to eat. Wrong part of town apparently. The only place open was Restaurant Hong Kong right next to our hotel. Worked for us. We had noodles and hot and spicy soup. It was very good. We walked back to our windowless room and hit the sack. Short post.

The Trip to Toledo

This was an exciting day, if you consider dealing with a cancelled train and resulting missed connections "exciting". If you do, you're not very polite. Forgive me if this post is convoluted because I am. Right now, Wednesday, we are sitting on a train at the Toledo station heading back to Madrid, then on to Cordoba and Seville, I think. I only know by looking at our itinerary. I really have no effing idea where I am or what day it is. I'll assume what I printed off what seems like months ago is correct. If not, it doesn't really matter. I'm on a train going somewhere with good friends. This 7:55 train is obviously a commuter train. No one makes eye contact but they are all very polite should they do so accidentally.

So yesterday, I think, we left our Carcassonne room and headed to the train station for a 9:30 train to Narbonne, arriving at 10:02 to catch a Madrid train at 10:34 and  on to Toledo. The monitors that indicate train status showed our train on time so we headed out to Track 2 to catch it. About 9:20 the monitor changes and indicated a "Retard 5 min". A few minutes later that changed to 10, then 15, then 40. I went inside to ask what happens if we miss our connection in Madrid and the helpful French Information lady says "Oh no problem. If the Madrid train is late, you will not miss your train." All in a cute French accent, but dead serious.

The next train to Narbonne was scheduled at 10:17 so they cancelled our train and told us to get on that one which we did, hoping the Madrid train was delayed. It wasn't. We missed it by 10 minutes. Oui, no problem.... for her.

We get into Narbonne and have 45 minutes for the next train to Madrid. No problem, just exchange our 10:40 tickets for 11:40 tickets. Right! These were the tickets that were practically impossible to get in advance. You could not believe what I had to do to get them.

Let me pause here to tell you that train travel in Europe ain't what it used to be. While the actual train system and trains are excellent and heads above what we like to think we have, the ticketing process has become complex. Used to be you just ordered your Eurail pass, hop on board any train and enjoy the best rail system in the world. Nope, not any more. It's more like the fun of trying to make your own airline reservations with multiple connections every day. Buying the pass is still easy, but now you need seat reservations on almost every train. Or so they tell you. We bought, well I bought. Belinda and Alice left the damn trip arrangements up to me. "Here's where we want to go. Make it so, Scotty." That's was Alice. Belinda wasn't quite so polite. "You better get us there buster!" I use "buster" in case any children are reading this.

So we spend $1,780 on a Global pass, meaning we can travel any 10 days in a two month period. Hop on, hop off, Mr. Miagi. (Autocorrect tried to change that to Magoo.)  Used to be that way anyway. Now you have to reserve a specific train and seats and, of course, there's a fee. Allows for no flexibility. You miss a train and, yes madame, there is a problem.

In Narbonne we rushed to the ticket counter and stood in a line of about 10 people and two agents. We had 45 minutes.... No problem. Problem!  This is France, second only to Italy in laize fair? Come see, come saw? Misenga, you know what I mean. Your problem is not my problem and I'll get to it when I want. Nine people took 35 minutes. After explaining twice to the agent she hit a couple of buttons, said "merde" a couple of times and then told me she could only get us to Barcelona. We would have to work it out there. We now had 3 minutes. I had sent the girls with all the luggage down the stairs, under the tracks, to Track C where the monitor indicated we would catch the next train, but damn if it didn't come in on A. MERDE! Double MERDE ! As I raced out the door to catch them they came running back up the stairs. They now recognize the types of trains we use. Sharp as tacks and I certainly need the help! By the way, all stations have multiple tracks and you don't walk across them. Trains don't slow down for stations, or anything else for that matter. You get hit by a high speed train you just disintegrate! To catch a train not on the track next to the station you go down stairs, or escalators in the bigger stations, go under the tracks, and back up to the correct track. I'm proud of the girls for being able to track all this at their age.

We just made it on board but headed toward Barcelona, not Madrid as we would have been had we made our connection. No problem, we'll just catch the Madrid train out of Barcelona...... Ha ha ha. What was I thinking?! When we arrived in "Barthelona" our decision was to either just hop on the next Madrid bound train and bullshit our way through or find someone to change our ticket. We went with bullshit. Bad idea. They now have airport style security at some stations. Barthelona was one of them. No boarding pass, no entry. Our BS, not Belinda Scott, got us no where. Well, it sorta did. We just got in the security line like we knew what we were doing and when they looked at our reservation, the line stopped. Everyone behind us was so excited that those "mentados touristas" gave them a chance to stand still. So we were pulled out of line, striped search, and rejected.... Not really, but it took four persons to figure out what to do. Thank God for women! The woman in charge basically said, get us seats. The guys just bumped into each other. Five minutes before the train leaves we get our seat assignments and head down the ramp.

Now we are on the train to Madrid where we just know we'll have the same issue so again, BS or legit. Again, no choice. More security BUT not as helpful as Barthelona. (For those of you who think I'm misspelling Barcelona, I'm writing it the way it's pronounced. The "C" is said with a lisp. Grathias instead of gracias, Barthelona instead of Barcelona.  In Madrid we are sent to six different people, all men! (Bastardos)!

On the fifth stop, we find the one person in the whole effing station who knows what to do. Stamps our original ticket "Cancelled", and sends us to the ticket counter to buy new ones and tells us to file a claim for a refund. Twelve Euros later we walk calmly to our Toledo train and 30 minutes later arrive at our final destination. For all the hassle I guess it was "no problem." After all we arrived only one hour later than our original schedule. And we met some interesting people and are now certified as "Information Attendants" for the Madrid-Puerta de Atocha train station.