October 4, 2002

It was a long travel day as we left Cochem, Germany, for Sevilla (Seville), Spain—13 hours to be exact. There was no direct line from there to here. We knew going in that in order to move half way across Europe from some inconvenient places, we would have a long travel day and we would just have to bite the bullet. We ordered a taxi from our hotel in Cochem at 7:15 AM to take us to the train station where we would board a train to Frankfurt for our flight to Madrid from where we caught a train to Seville. (I left out the busses we took on occasion.) We left 50F weather for 90F weather. We left the verdant greens behind for semiarid landscapes—and the cypress forests turned into mile after mile of olive trees. Every geography has its beauty! 

Our trains have been wonderful. The seats plush, the bathrooms spacious and clean, the food cars available (even some waiters to come by your seat to take orders) and basically on time. Thankfully, almost all stations have elevators or escalators and they have food vendors. The larger stations have stores and shops, a mall-like atmosphere. We love train travel in Europe. 

We will arrive at our VRBO in Sevilla around 8:30 PM, and the owners will be there to meet us. We look forward to our Spain adventure.