And when I say “everyone”, I mean “it sure felt like everyone on planet Earth was trying to get into Spain that day!”
After an uneventful journey from California, our family of four arrived in the airport in Madrid, Spain. Tired, hungry, we were, but also very much excited about continuing this very beginning of our two month adventure! Getting off the plane proved easy, even as I, the papa of the family and designated sherpa, pushed, pulled and carried far too many pieces of carry-on luggage. Soon after this, and proper handling of bathroom relief, we found ourselves at the tail end of a sea of other recently deplaned passengers, seemingly from all parts of this great planet of ours.
Had this been the US – it is OK still to make broad, blog-based condemnations of one’s own country? – we would have been facing many tens of minutes of waiting. Typically, in our experience, we find one or two immigration officers awaiting when we arrive back in the States. If there’s a large set of folks to process, one can be standing in line for far greater than an hour!
In Madrid, Spain?
The whole process, for us, took about 30 minutes; a steady stream of processing efficiency by the Spanish!
Bienvenidos a España!
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