How to Honeymoon, Part III

Friday, July 30, 2010

Photo spotted on Classic Bride.


Chapter 3: ¿Dónde está la estación de autobús?

After receiving the crushing news that our luggage was "temporarily misplaced", we hustled through customs, anxious to get to Granda that evening. To get to Granada from Madrid, you can take a 120€ train for 6 hours, or a 15€ bus that arrives in 5 and a half; the choice seems obvious. But unlike most major European cities, buses that head all over the country don't depart from the airport-they leave from a bus station in downtown Madrid.

To get to the bus station, you take two Metro trains from the airport-the 8 line to Nuevos Ministerios, then the 6 Circular to Méndez Álvaro. Normally, the trip takes about 45 minutes from airport. Unless transit workers are on strike, which they were the day Mr Wonderful and I arrived in Madrid and lost our luggage. We loaded onto a packed train, getting familiar with some unsavory scented locals, though I'm sure we weren't any more appetizing.

We arrived at the bus with plenty of time for its 3:30 pm departure, and found ourselves seated next to three Dallas-Fort Worth teachers, all of whom lived within a thirty mile radius of John's parents home! It was wonderful to chat with fellow Americans, and during the bus trip I realized what a blessing our lost luggage actually was. Trying to drag 75 lbs of shoes and sundresses onto that cramped Metro would have been near impossible, and we would have been much less liked by the locals.

We arrived at the lovely Hotel Saray in the evening, enchanted by the fountains and Persian-inspired architecture. For the next two days, we waited anxiously for our bags to arrive and explored our corner of the amazing city we found ourselves in. Saturday came and went without any sign of our Samsonites, and my heart sank when I realized we wouldn't see our bags until Monday when we got back from our big first day.

So you can imagine our delight when the gentle knock at the door on Sunday afternoon revealed an excited staff member with our luggage! It was the most wonderful gift, and we went out for Andalusian specialities that evening to celebrate. All of us had finally arrived.

2 comments:

  1. I've been enjoying these lovely Honeymoon stories so so much. Thanks for sharing so that I can live vicariously through you.
    Happy weekend!
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. lovely story. and so glad the samsonites arrived!

    ReplyDelete

 

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