Online forums buzzed with chatter about cloud forecasts and prime viewing spots in the hours before wide stretches of Spain prepared to witness the country’s first total solar eclipse in more than a hundred years.
“It’s going to be spectacular,” said César González, an astronomer and science communicator at the Madrid Planetarium. “A total solar eclipse is one of the best spectacles in nature.” González planned to wake early Wednesday and drive north toward Burgos, ready to settle into the first open field he found with a clear horizon and sky. “I’ll spend the whole day there waiting,” he said, adding that no description could capture the experience for anyone who hadn’t witnessed one firsthand.
Officials estimated that as many as six million people could converge on the eclipse’s path Wednesday, a corridor stretching roughly 200 kilometers from A Coruña in northwestern Spain to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
A small strip of Portugal, along with parts of Greenland and Iceland, was also set to experience the total eclipse, while tens of millions more across western Europe watched a partial eclipse that would significantly dim the sun in countries including the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland and northern Italy.
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González said Spain was positioned to offer some of the best viewing conditions anywhere in mainland Europe, since the narrow band of land experiencing totality would also pass through Greenland and Iceland, where weather typically makes visibility far worse. As a result, he said, Spain stood as the only country in the world where the total eclipse could reliably be viewed under favorable conditions.
An estimated 460,000 visitors traveled to Spain specifically for the event, with hotels reporting reservations made months in advance by travelers coming from as far as Japan and the United States. More than 300,000 of them were expected to head into rural towns and villages across the country in search of the ideal spot to witness the roughly two minutes during which the moon’s shadow would sweep across the Earth.
Among them was Angela Jones Rieksts, who traveled from Halifax, Canada, with her 21-year-old daughter, making her way toward Burgos. She recalled her first total eclipse experience roughly two years earlier in the Canadian city of Miramichi as utterly awe-inspiring, describing a sensation almost like being looked at by God from the heavens.
The moment moved her to tears and turned her into a self-described eclipse chaser. “When it was over, I said to myself, ‘I have to see this again,'” she said.
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That kind of enthusiasm was widespread across Spain. Most opticians and pharmacies reported selling out of eclipse glasses, while Spanish airline Iberia announced plans to broadcast live footage from a chartered flight positioned to view the eclipse from an altitude of 10,000 meters. Even Madrid’s Prado Museum joined in, releasing an AI-generated video imagining how the eclipse’s changing light would transform its famous paintings.
Spanish authorities spent months preparing for the influx, bracing for as many as 1.5 million additional car trips. With forecasts warning of temperatures reaching 40°C and heightened wildfire risk, more than 24,000 police officers were deployed nationwide.
For Stéphanie Racco, who traveled from France, the trip had been months in the planning. She first read about the eclipse back in December and immediately decided she had to go, recalling how the last total eclipse she witnessed, in 1999 north of Paris, had been fantastic and something she wanted to share with her own children. Last Thursday, she and her eight-year-old twins left the Côte d’Azur, taking their time as they made their way to Salou, a resort town south of Barcelona.
She was surprised to discover her family stood out among the many other tourists there. “I think I’m the only one in this hotel who has come just for the eclipse,” she said with a laugh, noting that while others flocked to nearby beaches and water parks, she remained focused on researching exactly where to be positioned come Wednesday.
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With cloud cover uncertain around Salou, she said she was prepared to drive several hours into the countryside if necessary, embracing a somewhat improvised approach to the day. Should the trip not pan out as planned, she already had a backup in mind: a total eclipse crossing Egypt next year, offering another chance if this one didn’t come together.
