Travel Mistakes

With any trip, long or short, it is inevitable something will not go as planned. I am always amazed with air travel when we arrive on time and so do our bags. With this trip having four flights, about eight different trains, buses, trams, subway, cabs and a rental car, it is not a question of whether something will go wrong, but a question of when it will happen and how many times.
Our first mistake was on our second day in Barcelona when Casey joined us. We had already purchased three day transit passes, but Casey didn't. When we entered the subway I started babbling about her options for a pass versus single-use tickets. Before I could object, she and her father passed through the gate on one ticket. Now I admit that I all my trips to Italy and Paris I can't recall anyone checking tickets on the metro. However, due to the minimal cost of a ticket it seemed liked an unnecessary risk to jump the turnstiles like a homeless person.
Of course, that was the day, the subway line, and the exact car where the transit authorities were checking for tickets. After some arguing by my husband and total embarrassment on my part, we walked away having paid a fifty euro, $65.00, fine. Needless to say, I didn't have the heart to say "I told you so" and I think that will be the end of turnstile jumping for my family. "Hear that Lincoln?"
We had another close call with train travel. We purchased our tickets a day in advance at one train station in Barcelona. Our plan was to return the next day on the subway, but with the cost for three of us (our passes expired and no more turnstile jumping) we figured the cab fare wasn't too much more expensive and would be easier with luggage on a brutally hot day. The doorman at the hotel looked confused when we told him which train station we wanted. Upon examining our tickets he showed us that we did not embark from the station where we purchased the tickets, but from another train station in the city. We should have known better and reviewed the tickets more carefully. That is what we would call a rookie mistake, not knowing that a city had two train stations… kind of like flying into Chicago on Southwest Airways and not realizing you were landing at Midway instead of O'Hare. In any event, we made it to the train station with time to spare.

 
My prior travels to Italy taught me that you MUST stamp your train ticket prior to boarding. Usually each platform has a pole with a bright yellow box where you insert the ticket and the machine time-stamps the ticket with the name of the train station. Spain is different. We were directed to an area with a few gates grouped together. You show your ticket to enter the gate area and put your bags through x-ray. (No body scans like the airport.) They then board the train and the gate agent scans your ticket. Makes you a little more confident that you have boarded the correct train.
We were then on our way from Barcelona to Toledo and looking forward to the ride. We know that we will make more travel mistakes, but so far, we are having fun and looking forward to the next stop.

Toledo train station