(2/13/10) Saturday morning in the am we flew into Madrid. We had a nine hour layover so after maneuvering through the airport, getting cash, changing clothes and checking our bags in a locker—-we headed by train into the city. It was a beautiful day! Sunny and perfectly cold. 

We had an awesome time with Tim and Kim, who live here and met us for lunch in Sol! It was so amazing being in Spain on a crisp winter morning and taking in all the architecture and sites! I was loving being in the European Union! We had chocolate churros, visited an spectacular cathedral and walked around the city.

We gave ourselves plenty of time to navigate the metro back to the airport and get our luggage out of the lockers so we could check in. In high spirits, we went to the assigned ‘check in’ counter for Iberia air but no one was there. We kept checking back until it was about 65 minutes before boarding. At that point we figured we needed to find out what was up with the gate at the information desk. They told us there was a mistake on the airport monitor and that the check in gates were actually a few corridors down. 

We walked over thinking we had plenty of time, since we were still an hour out. We approached a Iberian Air gate agent and she sternly told us we could not check in, that they closed check in time five minutes earlier and there was no way for us to get through. Shannon went into negotiation mode, urgently explaining the mistake of information on the monitors, requesting for her to call the gate, call a supervisor, call somebody! Nope…this is not america kids…this is iberia air where they send you out onto the madrid airport marble floor with no blanket, no answer and no plane ticket! 

When it was all said and done, they told us we would have to buy three new plane tickets and the airport MIGHT reimburse us in five weeks IF they decided it was their fault. This DID not sound good! All the possibilities of no one wanting to take responsibility for the faulty information and me being in the US in five weeks trying to sort it out. 

While walking to our 5th or 6th counter to see about new tickets, we prayed. It was emotional and stressful. Shannon and I were talking about how God is not surprised by things and ultimately, he supplies what we need in all kinds of ways. Fifteen seconds later an old Spanish man (antonio) walked up to us. He asked shannon if we spoke spanish and I said “a little”, I asked him if he spoke English and he smiled and said, “a little”. He looked at shannon and said in Spanish, “speak spanish?” and Shannon said, “Hola!” (I smiled) “Come estas?”.  He answered her, laughed, and asked how I was doing, my response was “asi, asi” (meaning ok, not well).  He asked why, and as best I could communicated our situation…PTL he understood and we had new tickets in our hands for free. yessss. God is so good! Such an answer to prayer… thank you jesus.

After the whole ordeal, we were ALL delirious and sleeping on a marble floor in the Madrid airport.

also a fun note…
We made some friends and received a gift of Italian chocolates and a calendar from benito for helping him figure out how to use the internet….