I always imagined Spain as a warm, sunny place. Well, at least warmer and sunnier than Slovenia, where winters (and other seasons too) used to be pretty tough. That should make me a person, prepared to combat the ice and cold.
Then, after I visited Spain in the middle of winter for a couple of times my definition of cold began to disintegrate.

So this time I was kind of excited about the thought of seeing Spain in springtime, when nature blossoms and days become longer -and warmer-. Also when I asked Juanpi's mother about the weather around there, she dissuaded me from taking any jacket, saying the days were really nice there. So I happily packed our luggages with summer T-shirts and similarly light clothes.

This thoughts had really cheered me up after the transport trouble we stumbled upon: namely, the train that would take us to Venice, was canceled indefinitely just a day after we had purchased the plane tickets. No other nice options were present, at least not w/o being stranded 20 hours in some village in the middle of Oblivion, so we were almost about to call off the whole trip. It seems to be impossible to get something done in this country without some absurd obstacles coming across your way.

But then we managed to find another way to Venice – via Austria. Going north and then south. It sounds strange but in the end was the best we could do, so we did it. I guess we may never do it again, though. It was just… too much.

The train from Ljubljana took us north across the border to Villach, Austria. There we boarded the train for Venice. 2 hours to Villach, then 3 hours more to Venice, 1 of waiting in between. Nice Austrian toilets, btw. Once in Mestre, the railway station close to Venice, we had to take the bus to the airport, an half an hour drive or so. At the airport we had plenty of time to wait for the plane to Madrid. I bought some cooking magazines for my collection and the most of time we spent sitting or wandering aimlessly.

An interesting detail from the restaurant at the Marco Polo airport

Iberia plane

When we finally arrived to the Madrid airport, it was close to 11pm already. After collecting our luggage, we had to spend another half an hour looking for the car of Juanpi's parents -Barajas is HUGE, and so is its parking- we headed for Burgos.

But -oh surprise-… the first thing I noticed on our arrival, was the rainy weather, which was nothing alike what we were promised a few days before. I was hoping it was just a light springtime rain, but time proved me wrong.
As soon as we finally arrived at our destination at 2am, I fell asleep almost instantly. Having in mind our trip took not less than 19 hours, that was the best I could do. Damn it, I could almost reach Australia within the same time!

The next day we woke up into a grey, rainy and chilly day. Not a sign of sun. So after my limbs started adquiring a nice purple tone, I borrowed some warm sweater and a jacket and we headed for our first part of the trip – a region famous for its wine, and many other products… La Rioja.

…continues.