Landing

After a rather harrowing start, driving to JFK Airport with white knuckles through apocalyptic rain torrents, then the usual hurry up and wait three hours on the runway, we arrived in Spain only minutes shy of our train connection to Barcelona. Missed that train and after a couple more hours waiting in several queues, we are finally and most gratefully sitting aboard a Barcelona-bound train. Gwen is in good spirits and makes sure I stay on task, giggling at my denseness. We soon meet Marcelo, our first Airbnb host in a strange land.

The land is rugged and sliding by in shades of maize yellow and scrubby green. Gwen's vino tinto immediately throws me back to trudging through the Rioja region on the Camino; I can taste the sun-drenched grape nursed the red Rioja soil. Spain is beautiful even when you're jet groggy.