Madrid Airport

If you're going to be traveling through the Madrid Airport anytime be sure to plan A LOT of time to get through security. I recently traveled through Madrid as a connecting terminal to the US. Being that it was a completely different country I had expected to run into some kind of security, but what I went through was outrageous!

Upon arriving as a connecting passenger, I had to go through the whole security check of removing jackets, bags, etc. They check my passport thoroughly and I proceeded toward the gate. Right before the last set of gates there's another security check! Much much worse than the first one. Scan everything and check passports again with the random pat down. There were only 4 xray machines and they went through each passenger one at a time until they cleared the xray which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for people who had so many liquids in their bags! They don't pull you off to the side to keep the lines moving. Oh no, they check you until you've finally cleared security and make everyone else wait. There's 4 xray machines but 8 ppl ready to do a pat you down? How does that work? Needless to say, many flights were delayed and many passengers upset!

If you ever have to pass through Madrid to get to the US, I hope you don't get stuck behind someone with outrageous amounts of liquids. I mean really, are you ever going to use all of those lotions, creams, etc. on the plane? I can't even begin to wonder what it's like to enter the airport as your first departure.