[snipped]
So, on the morning of the 11th, we woke up deliciously late, and got on the fast train to Atocha Station in Madrid. We settled in for the three hour train ride, and had been travelling for some time when the train began to make the beeping noises it did when it was about to pull up to a station, but it never did. It would slow down a smidge before gaining speed again. We noticed this, but thought nothing of it until later.

Shortly thereafter, a train official came through the car, speaking rapidly to the passengers. As he did, the passengers grew alarmed. Although we couldn t understand what people were saying, we noticed the panic in their eyes. Everyone was suddenly very upset. And then they were all on cell phones. From then on, the cell phones were ringing constantly. We, not able to understand the Castillean Spanish that was being used, were at a loss. When the train official came closer to us, we could make out three words: Madrid, Train Station, and Dead. We convinced ourselves that we had misunderstood the combination of words, and continued to watch the people on the train. I made the passing comment to Ashley that Spanish people were very friendly with each other, talking with complete strangers on the train.

A short while later, the train came to a complete stop at some small station outside of Madrid. Everyone got off the train, and we, still not knowing what was happening, got off the train, too. Everyone, passengers and train officials alike, were gathered in large groups on the train platform. We kept asking if anyone spoke English, and finally, we found one lady, a train official, who spoke some broken English. She informed us, in a mixture of Spanish and English, that there were Bombs at Atocha Station in Madrid. We asked if it was a bomb threat, and she said no, some had gone off. Not quite sure what to make of it, we wandered inside the station. There, we saw a large group of people huddled around a TV. We didn't need to understand the news anchor, the graphic images were more than enough to clue us in.
[snipped]

The day before, she and her friend had considered taking an overnight train from Seville to Madrid, in order to take an early morning train to Salamanca. They changed their plans, deciding to spend an extra night in Seville.

Who knows if they would have been at the Atocha station when the bombs went off between 7:39-7:42am. They were fortunate. The 192 dead and over 2,000 wounded were not.

Update 3/12/05: Welcome, Barcepundit readers. Muchas gracias for the link. -- jp