Miracle #1
We arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris an hour before our departure to find that none of the ticket machines take American credit cards and that the will-call ticket line was about two hours long. We bought tickets online but had no way to conjure them physically. This resulted in much panic, running around and the brief cussing out of an old woman. She interrupted me while I was trying to talk to the information person- it was somewhat deserved. Five minutes before the train took off, we discovered the "just get on the train and figure it out later" method. This is the method we will use from now on. The super friendly train guys voided our e-tickets and sold us new ones, at a lower rate. They even found us seats, saving us from five hours perched on benches in the train bar.
Miracle #2
Due to another dumping of snow on northern France, our train had to go slower than usual, putting us behind schedule. We were going to arrive about forty-five minutes late to meet our connecting train in Figueras. Resigned to spending a night in what I'm sure is a quite lovely town, we arrived to find our connecting train waiting in the station. I guess it makes sense, but it was stressful at the time. Also, even though we had not bought a ticket for this leg of the trip, the ticket guy seemed to think we had, even when looking at the ticket that said we had not. It was confusing, but we did not correct him.
Miracle #3
About 11:45 we rolled into Barcelona, bought subway tickets and got on our train. In desperate need of food and drink, we wondered what, if anything might still be open in the rather quiet neighborhood where our hotel is located. After check-in and a brief look around the room, we went searching. Luckily, it didn't take long. Directly across the street, the only light for kilometers, stood a purveyor of the classic late night trash food: Doner Kebab. Gyros, basically. In some sort of combination of English, Spanish and French, I ordered our dinner and a bottle of Rioja to go. It was kind of like the loaves and fishes thing, if I am remembering the Bible correctly.
Barcelona is lovely, sunny and warm- about 60°F today. It's a welcome, relaxing change from the cold, gray rain and snow of Paris. Today we walked down to the beach and had a huge lunch from which we are now recovering. Our hotel is amazing- the best I've ever stayed in. Check it out here: Eric Vökel Barcelona Suites. It's going to be tough to leave, but the plan is to head to San Sebastian on Christmas day.
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