Madrid, The Reward For 4 Days Of Stress: But, only for a day, onward to Oviedo

It was about 96 hours ago I made the decision to pivot on the direction of our European travels. Between train challenges and the ominous heat predictions for almost all of Europe previous plans went out the window. Prague, Warsaw and Krakow say goodbye. Say hello to the northern most area of Spain, Asturias for about 9 days. Then on to Porto Portugal.

In Asturias 80 degrees is really hot, 85 is sweltering. From there we plan on exploring Porto, also known for never getting very hot. A lot of hours went into research that convinced us to make this change. That was just the beginning a a lot more hours that went into the travel and lodging planning. I will not torture you with the details, but a combination of banking quirks, train scheduling oddities, train breakdowns, T-Mobile incompetence and more kept me tied to the computer more than a human ever should have to endure for too many days. The hours are one thing, the stressful uncertainty is another. We came close to having these things cost us 800+euros.

Thankfully, we arrived in Marseille last night in sweltering humidity, checking into our hotel at 11pm so that we could have a chance at catching our 8am train to Madrid Spain. We got on the train, but only after receiving a stern scolding from the Renfe conductor who, thank God, pulled from strings to manipulate us onto the train to Madrid. We had to play musical chairs throughout the trip with our seats, as we were unable to be booked together, but mostly managed to stay together. By the first third of the trip the conductor had seemingly become my buddy, or I was his pet? as we exchanged conspiratorial nods each time he passed by my seat.

Then the clouds broke, the sun came out, and we were in Madrid in a beautiful hotel for the night for less than 100 euros, tickets in hand for a 9:15 train trip to Oviedo in the Asturias region of Spain; a day late which cost us 75 euros, but, Madrid looked beautiful, even in the 99 degree heat. We checked in and got directions to a tapas bar, Bareto, (right around the corner). When we exited the hotel about 6pm the wind was kicking up a dust storm and the temperature was down to 70 degrees, which felt great. The bar was great and energetic, the food was great and the bottle of Verdejo we purchased was good and refreshing. When we left about 90 minutes later it was beautiful walking through a striking city.

For the first time in close to 96 hours it felt like vacation again. I feel light again. I believe that is a sign of things to come. Oh, and the bill for a bottle of wine and more food than is shown in the pictures was 50 euros 80 cents. Excited to get to Oviedo and now worries about travel planning for a while.