From Córdoba to València

This was a travel day—a reasonably easy one for us, but a much more painful one for Julie and Alana.

We had a pretty leisurely morning, as we finished off our remaining groceries for breakfast, did a light cleaning of the apartment, and then headed to the train station. We had a 2-hour train ride from Córdoba to Madrid, and then a slightly shorter train from Madrid to València. Aside from some platform confusion in Madrid that resulted in some unplanned sprinting, that trip went off as planned.

Once we got situated in our AirBnB in Madrid, we took a 1.5 mile walk to a grocery store to stock the kitchen (this was not entirely necessary—there were countless closer groceries, but it was an excuse to get out and stretch our legs).

Unfortunately, Julie and Alana’s travel from London Heathrow was a bit of a snafu luggage-wise, which meant that, despite landing at 7:20 PM, they did not make it to the AirBnB until after 9:30! And that was without Julie’s checked bag, which may or may not show up at some point.

The four of us headed to dinner nearby and then called it a nigh, although not before learning that Lucy’s travel has been similarly mucked with, and she will not arrive until Monday rather than Sunday afternoon.

An interesting/memorable experience of the day:

  • Benton: the mad dashes in Madrid to find platform 12 before the train left (we made it to our seats with a solid 3 minutes to spare)

  • Tim: the City of Arts and Sciences and all of its buildings/structures—wild architecture and structural engineering


A bit of hard data from the day:
  • According to Benton's Apple Watch, he took 17,868 steps over the course of the day, covering 8.6 miles and burning 943 active calories.
  • According to Tim's Fitbit, he started the day having slept for 3.6 hours, and he walked 17,539 steps over the course of the day.

Click to show location on map: (Click images for large versions. Titles link to foursquare pages)
  1. Córdoba Railway Station (Estación Córdoba Central)
  2. Madrid-Puerta de Atocha Railway Station (Estación de Madrid-Puerta de Atocha)
  3. Carrefour
  4. Cerveceria Chaplin
  5. La Taberna