As was to be expected after Day 0, Day 1 of Eurotrip 2026 mostly continued the chaotic trend set by the previous day’s setup. Today’s overarching theme is called “foreshadowing,” so follow along and see if you can piece it together better than we could.
The flight to Dublin was entirely uneveventful, which is the best thing you can say about a flight with a 7 year old and a baby. Kieran got the bassinet seat we were hoping for and slept for the vast majority of the 7 hour flight. And when he was awake, he was his usual happy self making friends with everyone around. Jordan watched a movie (Super Mario Bros) and then slept for about 3 hours, though could have used longer for sure.
At any rate, we arrived to Dublin and got to all use the lightning fast EU line to get through customs. In keeping with the “Make them walk as far as is literally possible in the airport” example from Montreal, Dublin made sure to up the ante. We had to fully exit security in order to talk to the Iberia rep to get our boarding passes. Did I mention that Iberia is in a different terminal to where we landed? And the worst part is that I am pushing Kieran and the stuff piled on to the stroller, so I am not even getting credit for my steps from my watch!
The very Irish woman getting us our boarding pass made it clear what she thought of Iberia’s baggage handling expertise and told us in no uncertain terms that we had to triple confirm with the ground crew and flight attendants that we want the stroller delivered plane side instead of to the carousel (because maybe they’ll just be feeling too Spanish to walk it up the stairs to the bridge). With that dire warning received, we head through security and to our gate (the furthest one, of course). I did stop for the free Irish Whiskey sample, despite it being 8am.
Whej you are finding your gate at the airport, it is never a good thing if that gate is on a lower level than the rest of the gates. Seeing the shuttle bus in our future, I grabbed some muffins from the tiny Starbucks at our basement gate which took forever stuck behind a gaggle of student age kids on some trip.
We had to take a shuttle bus from that gate not to our plane, but to a little extra annex with gates A through F. No extra credit for guessing which of those gates were ours. And once we got checked in, there was an additional outdoors walk to do before getting to the actual plane, complete with a crossing guard looking out for the vehicle traffic. As the check in agent had guessed, the ground crew had to be cajoled into getting the special tag from the flight attendants to get us the stroller plane side in Madrid.
Entering the plane itself was an assault on the senses. Those same kids ahead of me in Starbucks were on this flight with about 100 of their closest friends. Did I mention that the air conditioning was not working at full power? It was equal parts hot and loud. Boarding on this flight was from both ends, which led to stalemates between people who boarded from the wrong side. Also of note is that I don’t think any of the teenagers had felt the touch of deodorant in their life. So add “extremely stinky” to the list of stuff happening on the flight.
And the chaos didn’t end with the hot and stinky soup of people flying to Madrid. The second the seatbelt sign disappeared, it was a full changeup as people moved around (with all of their stuff) to different seats. Plus, the classic teenager games of yelling stupid things and being generally disrespectful. I somehow managed to get some sleep, mostly at Emily’s expense (though she did get some as well). Jordan only fell asleep for the final 10 minutes of thee whole flight and despite Kieran having two naps, we finally found the reach if his patience. At least for 10 minutes or so, after which he was his usual chipper self.
Getting off the plane was an adventure all it’s own. Fortunately, the multiple reminders worked for getting the stroller delivered to me on the gangway. Then it was ramps and ramps and ramps which eventually opened out to a beautiful flowing wood ceiling. Then it was many twists, turns and a train to get to customs and then bagage claim. And we wait at baggage claim, and wait some more and then it is clear that our bags are not coming. So it is over to yet another line to file a missing bags claim. Fortunately, my credit card has coverage for this exact situation. But that was a problem for “several hours in the future” us after we got to the Airbnb.
One broken ticket machine and two trains later (which went a total of 5 stops), we emerged on Playa del Sol in downtown Madrid. From there, it was a short walk towards Plaza Mayor along pedestrian-only areas to our Airbnb. The place itself is quite nice, with balconies that Jordan is obsessed with. But we didn’t have long to spare, so after a quick shower each, we headed out to Emily’s favourite shop in the world. Primark. Though first, ice cream (three huge scoops for €5.50? Epic value!) to tide us over and give Jordan a sugar boost.
The Primark in Madrid downtown is insane. That’s the only word for it. 5 floors of shopping and it was packed from top to bottom. The elevators for getting Kieran from floor to floor took forever to manage (including elevators right next to each other that don’t share a request button, so have to be called individually). I will attach some pictures to try to give the scale, but this place was truly insane. They even had screens and speakers doing this crazy sparkle drop every few minutes.
We ended up getting a couple of outfits each and somehow spent over €100. This is a major achievement given that most of the items were under €5. By this point, Kieran had fallen asleep, Emily and Jordan were both done for (and Emily had something painful in her eye the whole time that she couldn’t figure out), so we headed back to the Airbnb to crash for the night. 7.:45pm is pretty close to a proper time to go to bed, so I will chalk this up as a win. We even picked up some great iberico han sandwiches which were quite tasty.
As for me, I am going to head out again to get some provisions from the store and take in some of our area which is lovely. Hopefully a good night’s sleep has everyone fuelled up for tomorrow’s adventures. Not sure what that will be, but it should be something cool!
P.S. from my trip to get supplies. There was a string duo (violin plus cello) playing pop songs in the Plaza del Sol and also an anti-Peruvisn government protest. Very fun! Also many (so very many) street vendors selling football jerseys.
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