Two nights ago, around 9:30 PM, after 13 hours of traveling, I ended up at a train station that is about a half an hour drive away from my twin sister and her family's quinta.
The trip from The Netherlands to Portugal went okay, aside from a 2.5 hour delay on the airport of Eindhoven ( apparently the weather in Porto made it difficult to fly and or land ). Then after arriving in Porto, I had to rush to get from the airport to the train station and catch the train that I booked a ticket for ( I barely made it in time, 15 minutes before departure ). If I wouldn't have made that train,it would mean waiting three more hours for the next train and arriving after midnight.
Anyhow, I arrived at this tiny train station in the middle of nowhere ( Santa Comba-Dao ), where my Portuguese brother in law would pick me up. My twin sister informed me that he would be slightly later. I was the only traveler left outside the train station, it was 9:30 pm. I had left Gouda, that morning around 9:15 am. Let's say that I was tired, but happy to be back in the country where my house and twin sister and her family resides.
When my brother in law arrived, I was glad to see him and vice versa. We talked for a minute or two and where about to drive off, when my twin sister suddenly popped up between our seats, like a jack-in-a-box. I learnt that my heart is stronger than I thought.
Apparently, she had been ( hidden ) on the back seat, in the dark, all the time and my three and five year old niece and nephew where sleeping next to her, in their kids seats. Hahaha! I hadn't seen this coming ( as she had sent me a picture, an hour earlier, of the kids being asleep in bed ). Although, in that particular picture, my nephew had a smile on his face, I didn't know that the story behind that smile was them making me believe that they were staying at home.
Anyhow, when we were just on our way to their place, we started hearing a strange sound outside the car. My sister and I told my brother in law that it was probably nothing, as we didn't feel like being stranded at the side of the road, but he didn't trust what he heard and felt. Then, all of a sudden, the ride started becoming extremely bumpy. We appeared to have a flat right rear tire. With my nephew and niece still sleeping in the back of the car, my bro in law started replacing the tire ( luckily there was a spare one and all the tools needed, in the back of their old car ), while my twinsis and I helped him out and lighted the scene with our phone's flashlights.
About an hour and a half later, 14 hours after I left my parent's house that morning, we finally ended up at their place, where it was pitch dark ( 11:15 PM ) with a starry sky and extremely quiet, especially with stuffed post traveling ears. I fell asleep pretty soon to be woken up around 7:45 the next morning by my nephew.
Let's conclude by saying that traveling is never boring and every day here is a new adventure.