It's a long holiday weekend in much of Europe but many of those trying to get away were going nowhere.

It's day four of disruption on the railways in Spain.

A series of stoppages have been taking place all week against a government plan to restructure two state-owned companies.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COMMUTER, GABRIELA, SAYING:

"It's terrible, we are trying to get to work and there's no train. I now have to go and try to find a bus."

Not getting to work is a big issue in Spain.

With unemployment at 26% jobs are hard to come by.

Spain officially emerged from recession this week but many workers say you wouldn't know it.

In neighbouring Portugal it's a similar story.

Striking workers there brought the Lisbon metro to a standstill.

Again the problem is privatisation.

Portugal's public transport sector is 18 billion euros in debt.

And the government needs to sell concessions in order to meet the terms of its bailout.