ok, so i have gone back to one of my scenarios- and monday january 6 puts us visiting st. sebastian-= a town near to bilbao on the bay of biscay with a really cool opera house (new) and beach sculpture. i have really never seen the atlantic from the european side- this would be an adventure. corelia says that train tickets from barcelona to bilbao and bilbao to madrid run $58 2nd class plus $11 per reserved seat- the train rides are long- neither segment gets us into town earlier than 9:45 pm- of course- in spain, the restaurants are still hopping........at that hour.