Seville > Barcelona
This was a bit of a circus! We biked into Seville on Sep 29th and our flight home from Barcelona is on Oct 6th. There’s a fast train from Seville>Madrid>Barcelona. But, the fast train in Spain isn’t always tolerant of bikes. We scoured the internet and a local bike store for advice, and also went to the post office to inquire about shipping them via post to Barcelona. We narrowed it down to these options:
Option 1) buy bike boxes from the post office and carry our packed up bikes onto the train with us – but, it’s not 100% clear the fast train will allow us to bring full bike boxes
Option 2) buy bike bags (most compact than boxes) from a sport store and carry the bikes on the train with us, but we’ll still have to get bike boxes for our flight home – we did look into this option but didn’t find any stores nearby that we could buy the bags from
Option 3) buy bike boxes and ship our bikes via post to a post office in Barcelona, then pick them up by Friday (post offices are closed on weekends), get them from the post to our hotel then again to the airport on Sunday for our flight (which will require many taxis or shuttles back and forth)
We went with Option 1! Ryley 2ent to the post office and purchased and carried 3 empty bike boxes back to our apartment in Seville and we packed up our bikes Monday night. We ordered a taxi at 11am for our 1:30pm train to Barcelona. 1 group cab didn’t fit all three bike boxes and the taxi driver was VERY annoyed with us, but she did take 2 boxes plus Axel and I to the train station. Ryley tried just hailing a cab for the 3rd box but no one would pick him up, so he had to order another group cab for himself and the 3rd box (Axel’s trailer).
At the train station, I went to pick up Axel’s (free) train ticket and ask about how/where we load bikes on the train. The info agent said bikes?! And I said “in boxes” so she said oh ok no problem. They go in the luggage area, you’ll see. Ryley was still worried they didn’t quite know what we meant so he flagged down another info agent and showed him our bike boxes. He took one look and said “no WAY”.
Ok – option 2! It’s now 12:20pm, our train leaves at 1:37pm. Ryley runs all 3 boxes back out to the taxi area and tries unsuccessfully to fit them into 1 taxi. A second (and third, even!) taxi jump in offering to help, so a second taxi brings the 3rd box to the post office. Ryley stood in a 15 person-deep line up waiting for his turn while the clock is ticking. The plan is if he doesn’t make it back in time, he’ll catch a later train and meet us in Barcelona. Luckily, most people waiting were there for pick up and not shipping. He got the bikes shipped while his taxi driver (insisted) on waiting outside for him (we thought that might be expensive but not as expensive as a whole new train ticket to Barcelona!). Boxes successfully shipped and Ryley made it back to the train station at 1:15pm. Phewph! That was ~: €50 in cab rides, €45 to buy the boxes, €100 shipping and a few wrinkles in stress. This saga to continue as we’re now in Barcelona and haven’t retrieved our bikes yet or know how good of shape the boxes will be in to take them as luggage on our flight…
Axel was actually great in the morning during these logistics. He LOVED the taxi ride through the city to the train station sitting on my lap. He was originally very excited about the trains but the novelty wore off and he actually wasn’t that into it once we were on the train for a bit.
He didn’t nap on our train to Madrid, became a bit of a bear from Madrid to Barcelona, and fell asleep in Ryley’s arms at 7:17pm (our train arrived at 7:37pm). We’ll take a 20 min nap, I guess!
We unloaded a sleepy kid off the train but he perked up through the station and into our taxi, and then was VERY into the ~30min taxi ride to our hotel, sitting on Ryley’s lap. (Although, after we loaded our bags and ourselves into the taxi Axel declared he had to pee, so Ryley jumped out with him and the taxi driver tried to drive away without them, with the door open – oops).
We arrived at our hotel, complete with a 10th floor view of the Mediterranean, a view of the city including many taxis, city buses and emergency vehicles (Axel loves it), and a rooftop infinity pool (to check out tomorrow!).
We have a tracking number for our bikes so we’re hoping we see them soon!
Oct 3 (Thurs)
We received a notification that our parcels had arrived, but when we went to the post office at 12:30 only two of three at the boxes had actually made it. We were able to pick up both Ryley’s and my bikes but the bike trailer was still MIA. It was only 450 meters from the correos to our hotel, so we hauled our bikes back to our hotel and up onto the porch of our room. Hopefully our last box arrives tomorrow (Friday, before the postboffice closes for the weekend) so that we can get everything to the airport and back home with us in one go!
Axel had a solid 2h nap where Ryley and I unboxed and rebuilt our bikes (with plans to go to the beach, plus some cheap but decent grocery store wine) but when Axel woke up we were just as happy to take the convenient choice of going up to the pool and that’s what we did. We had tapas, live music on the rooftop, and a beautiful view of the sunset over the city as we wound down another day.
We got a notification that Axel’s trailer arrived so we’ll be able to pick it up tomorrow morning (Woo!).
We will use them in Barcelona then re-box them for our trip home. We’re going to pay for a private shuttle from the hotel to the airport to be sure we get everything there in one go and in time for our flight.
The traveling bike saga obviously started before we even left and won’t wrap until all bikes (and humans) are back in Pemberton! The logistics on the leaving end were to ask cousin Shelley to load us up in her truck and drive us from Pemby to a whistler to catch the airport shuttle from Whistler to YVR. Luggage wasn’t included in our Porter airline flights so the bikes cost about $300 to fly. On the way home we fly WestJet with 3 included bags, but tbd what the oversize baggage costs will be. Gran-Jan has graciously agreed to drive down from 100 Mile to pick us up in Pop-Pop’s truck (with Claire’s car seat for Axel) from the airport to transport all humans and bikes back to Pemberton Sunday night (our flight lands too late for the last shuttle to Whistler).
Worth it? Well, we think so…
Woohoo, what logistics struggle with bikes. Good for you! Makes for a great nailbiter of a story if nothing else. I wonder what other hurdles you will overcome.