Spain Travel Option 5

I flipped our route, into Barcelona, out of Madrid. Couldn't find a direct flight from Lisbon to Philly.

Barcelona

Leave Chicago Monday Oct. 14 at 1:45 PM. Get into Philly at 4:48 PM. This flight costs 12,500 miles instead of 10k. None of the 10k flights get us to Philly on time. Might be able to do this for 10k miles if we moved to Tuesday, like Options 3 and 4. Nevertheless.

Leave for Barcelona at 6:25 PM. Arrive Barcelona at 8:25 AM on Oct. 15.

Take the train to Valencia on Friday Oct. 18.

Train to Seville on Sunday Oct. 20. Rail Europe said it couldn't currently price this route for me. Not sure if it was a system glitch or what. I assumed it was the same cost as Seville to Valencia. I assume the route exists, since we can do it in the other direction.

Fly to Lisbon on Tues. Oct. 22. I only assumed an hour for this travel time, although with airports, you're probably looking at 4-5 hours to get there, security, etc.

Overnight train Lisbon to Madrid on Thurs.  Oct. 24. Arrive Friday Oct. 25.

Leave Madrid Monday Oct. 28 at 12:25 PM. Arrive Philly at 4:05 PM. 7:58 PM flight to Chicago. Home at 9:15 PM.

$1,653 total cost, 43 hours of travel (one overnight train).

I don't think this gained us much of anything over Option 4.