Buse Avci stood in line at a paella counter in Valencia on Wednesday on a visit to the coastal Spanish city from her home in Budapest.
She had always wanted to see Spain's Barcelona or Granada. But instead she let the path of the moon determine her destination.
"Because of the eclipse, I came to Valencia," Avci, a native of Turkey who is in her 20s, said as she deliberated whether the beach or a rooftop would offer the clearest view of the sky.
Millions of people are estimated to have flocked to northern Spain this week to see the total solar eclipse -- the first visible in mainland Iberian skies since 1912 -- after it swept down from the Arctic and over the Atlantic Ocean before sunset.
As the moon started to span across the sun, the temperature dropped, the wind rushed in and the light dimmed, draining the sky of color. Spectators on one Spanish peak shrieked when the sun vanished altogether.
In Aras de Los Olmos, a part of the Valencia region with the lowest light pollution, the Moon was surrounded by a fiery solar corona and bright stars appeared in the sky. Amid the olive groves and almond trees, some even started to cry.
Laura Brand, 48, from South Carolina and her friend had traveled to Spain for the occasion -- Brand's third total solar eclipse. "It was amazing," she said afterward.
The influx of astro-tourists is delivering an unexpected economic windfall to the region, but it is also stretching its infrastructure, power grids and an economy unaccustomed to mass tourism, at a time it is also grappling with the threat of wildfires.
According to estimates from Spain's Ministry of Economy, the eclipse viewers will boost spending by almost $400 million. Much of that spending is concentrated in España vaciada -- empty Spain -- a term Spaniards use to describe the vast, sparsely populated interior regions where tourists rarely venture.
"In the totality zone, which covers 13 regions, 16 million people live there year-round. We estimate that there will be between one million and six million more" during the eclipse, said Juan Cruz Cigudosa García, Spain's secretary of state for science, innovation and universities, on a local TV channel this week.
The sudden population surge has created some logistical headaches. Authorities in Valencia have been shutting down main viewing zones to traffic, citing severe risks of overcrowding and forest fires. At La Albufera National Park, a protected coastal wetland covering 21,000 hectares south of Valencia, officials have spent the past week turning away or ejecting unauthorized onlookers attempting to enter restricted areas.
For many, day briefly turning to night represents a mountaintop experience. In Spain's Basque Country, several hundred people and at least a dozen dogs made the pilgrimage to the top of Picón Blanco, a near-5,000 feet peak from where to view the celestial phenomenon. Most had driven. A brave few had cycled. A van served ice creams and a pop-up-shop in an oversize metal crate was selling beers.
With two hours to go, the eclipse-hunters congregated on the westward-facing slope of Picón, clutching the glasses that would make it safe to look at the sun's corona.
Bosco Ortega, 12, wants to be an astronaut when he grows up but has until now lived in Cairo, where the light pollution means few stars can be seen. A few weeks ago, his father, Rufino, said he had a surprise: They were going to the eclipse.
The pair flew from Cadiz, where they were on vacation, to Santander, near the path of the eclipse, before driving up Picón Blanco to get above cloud level. "It's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Bosco -- though he is already planning for a repeat eclipse that will traverse Spain again next year. By then, he said, he will have a telescope. "If you're a good boy," Rufino added.
The Spanish government has implemented a "special security plan" ahead of the three major eclipses observable from its territory between now and January 2028 to manage the impact of crowds on public safety and services.
Bosco planned for Wednesday's eclipse using a NASA app. Adding to his wonder: shooting stars are due to follow hot on its heels, and six planets are supposed to align.
Carmen Berni, an 86-year-old retired English teacher from Zaragoza,was driven to the top of the mountain by her niece. The family were on vacation in the coastal village of Laredo and identified this spot on ChatGPT. Berni thinks she has seen another eclipse in her lifetime, a few decades ago. "I am here because I am interested in everything," she says. "This is quite special, especially so because it only happens every 100 years or so."
The appearance of the total solar eclipse relies on a fluke of cosmic geometry. Although the Sun has a diameter roughly 400 times that of the Moon, it is also about 400 times farther from Earth, making both bodies appear identical sizes in the sky. So, when the Moon's path passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, the Moon blocks out the sunlight.
Since the Moon is receding from Earth at roughly 3.8 centimeters a year, millions of years from now it will appear too small to produce the phenomenon.
Trudy Crielaard, a chemistry teacher who lives near Utrecht in the Netherlands, recalled trying to watch the eclipse in 1999 when clouds obscured the sun's corona. She and her family built their holiday this year around Wednesday's eclipse in northern Spain, hoping that the view wouldn't be, well, eclipsed. "It's special," she said.
On Wednesday, most of Europe saw a partial eclipse, but totality was reserved for parts of the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland and the North Atlantic, as well as a small portion of Portugal and northern Spain, before it disappeared in the Mediterranean.
In the U.K., where there hasn't been a total solar eclipse since 1999 and another isn't due until 2090, excitement had been building about Wednesday's event, even though it was partial.
A thriving secondary market for eclipse glasses sprouted up, with vendors on X listing pairs for anywhere between $540 and almost $8,400, and lines snaked around the block at 2 a.m. at one London convenience store rumored to have pairs, local media reported.
This created an ideal environment for touts -- one of whom bragged online about making a "good few quid" selling dodgy glasses, unconcerned about repercussions because buyers would "never see me again."
In the days leading up to the eclipse, many lamented that online retailers like Amazon were no longer offering speedy delivery options. Some reported cancellations of orders made in advance.
The frantic rush left many disappointed, though some are seeing the funny side. One Reddit user in southwest England posted a plea for a pair, after realizing an Amazon order wouldn't arrive in time. A commenter joked that they would come in handy for the next U.K. solar eclipse, imagining a scenario in the late 2080s where relatives hunt through their late uncle's attic for "the bulk batch of eclipse glasses they bought in 2026 that didn't arrive until two days after the last eclipse."