After a year of planning, paperwork, discussions, selling most of our belongings and our house, visa rejections, living with 10 different gracious friends and family, getting rid of more, packing and more planning, we have arrived. We are in Spain! How did we get there? Good question…
Sunday evening, December 8th, we kissed Paul’s parents goodbye and drove a rental car down to an Airbnb close to Chicago. Just like our whole experience this year, we had a plan in place, but not everything went as planned. The plan was to be able to return our rental car within the time limit, then spend a good chunk at the Chicago airport, seeing the different attractions, watching planes, leisurely eating at a restaurant, and enjoying the kids’ first experience of flying. So, we arrived at 11am the next morning ready to drop off the car and were told that we couldn’t check our bags until four hours before the flight (2pm). Maybe this is common knowledge, but neither of us had realized it. So, we drove to grab a quick bite at a restaurant, dropped of the car at the minute it was due, and lugged our incredibly heavy luggage to the check-in to wait. Not exactly the glorious adventure at the airport that I had promised. The kids were good sports, though, and when we finally did get through to our Terminal, they enjoyed watching the planes take off, played card games, and even found dogs to pet.
Passport, tickets, plane… check! 
Playing “Go Fish” at the Airport.
We were pleasantly surprised when we did board our plane, as it was brand new and very nice. Noah and Paul sat in the seats behind Natalie and Abigail so that each child could have a window seat. We waited an hour on the runway and felt a little like Brian Regan, but Noah and Natalie were still just as excited at take-off. Each seat had little screens with movie and game selections, as well as a map that showed the progress of the plane. Noah and Paul enjoyed playing battleship, while Natalie and I looked at the map. Since we were flying a Portuguese airline, we enjoyed our dinner of Portuguese food- little containers of lettuce with small packets of oil and vinegar, a warm dish of rice and delicious chicken in red sauce, and a small sponge cake with a layer of fruity jam. Natalie ended up sleeping a wonderful six hours, but Noah only had one, and Paul and I had less than that. We kept up with our no-jet-lag pills, which proved to work really well for the ladies over the next couple of days.
Boarding! 
Going through the “tunnel”. 
Starting at the beginning! 
Yummy Portuguese food!
Our first view of Portugal, where we had a short layover before our final destination of Barcelona, was stunning. The sun came over the horizon to display a brilliant sunrise over the coast. After landing, we spent a few hours at the Lisbon airport, ate some apples and dates to lighten our load, and got a phone card for Abigail’s phone. We ported our numbers to a holding company while we are gone, and we enjoy paying $10-20/month for calling and data, comparatively to our large verizon bill!
Our second plane ride was so short that we barely remember it, but the sun was shining and our spirits were glad. When we picked up our luggage in Barcelona, we became even more grateful that we had the past six months to keep getting rid of more! We pack-muled it all to the Barcelona train station and used the commuter trains to take us down to Calafell, our new home town. As we rode, our first glimpse of the Mediterranean was stunning- sparkling blue water with Spanish brick-topped houses set on sandy beaches. We soaked in the beauty of God’s brilliant creation.
All of our luggage! 
Tired faces. 
On the train to Calafell. 
On the train, men had musical instruments and were playing while others were dancing.
So fun!
Beautiful sandy beaches, but too cold to swim!
After two days of traveling, we prepared ourselves for the final leg- finding the local bus, getting tickets, hauling our luggage and figuring out how to get off. It seemed daunting. However, as I texted our host that we would arrive shortly, I received a quick reply that he would pick us up at the train station! We were so grateful and relieved. Luis, in his little black car, greeted us with smiles and enthusiasm as he shoved our possessions in (marveling at how much we needed for “one month”, as he didn’t know our later plans) and gave us a zippy ride around the town to his apartment. He put his son, Pau, on the phone to translate, as Luis did not know much English. We started to realize that because we are in Northern Spain, Catalonia, people do not speak “Spanish”, they speak Catalan, an entirely different Romance language similar to spanish, french and italian, and a language we were not at all familiar with! Luis gave us a quick tour of the spacious apartment and outside area, then left us to fall into our beds.
Exhaustion and Awe and Uncertainty and Relief mixed in our hearts as we looked at each other and exclaimed more than once- “We are here, we’re in Spain!” After a year of planning, paperwork, discussions, selling most of our belongings and our house, visa rejections, living with 10 different gracious friends and family, getting rid of more, packing and more planning, we have arrived. We are in Spain!
