Madrid...and the Tarjeta de Residencia

IF you are ever in Spain make sure you visit these people...

We had been putting off getting our residency cards because our 6th sense knew that it was going to be a nightmare...and, of course, it was. We were saved only by our friends Jennifer and Agustin who so kindly helped us and had us to stay. Five children under 7 and 4 adults was certainly very brave! - we thank them all...including Heath, Brigit and Ibon who provided much entertainment for Angus and Archie.

Anyway the story goes like this...

Day One. Arrive in taxi at 8am, see a queue, a very long queue. Taxi stops and driver says this is the place. Line up for 4.5 hours and freeze (luckily there was a playground next to the queue)

..."sorry wrong office...this is only for Bulgarians and Romanians today" (after having looked at our documents 4.5 hours before and saying we were in the right place!).

Get told to go to office on the other side of town (thanks for updating the internet you b*st*rds).

Get out of taxi and see a line longer than the first one. Amber talks us into the shorter queue.

Get told to go as office is shutting down for lunch (2 hours) but we stay and resist. By now it was blazing hot and there was one heavily fought for umbrella. Finally get in 2 hours later and find we are at the wrong office again and we need to go somewhere else (all in very rapid spanish). Amber cries (on cue) and the lady looks at two very tired boys, feels sorry for us and arranges an appointment...in 5 DAYS time...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Thankfully this was the worst day and Jen and Agustin had us for dinner and filled us with food and wine - and things didnt seem as bad.

In the meantime I went for a great walk in the mountains near Madrid with Agustin and his friends. The next day my legs protested strongly about assuming the vertical position...ouch. We also had a great day at a medieval festival in a nearby pueblo. Mabye a sword will help get the residency card...I wonder.....

Then a nice couple of days in Segovia (apart from our car being towed out of town!)

I looked after the boys while Amber faced the police! Paper, scissors, rock and I won!

Then to the stunning medieval walled city of Ainsa and back to Madrid for the next round.

5 Days later... Up early, couldn't find my wallet. Raining, late for taxi. Got into town and guess what...taxi driver drops us off at the end of another queue. Anyway Amber took the boys over the road to a cafe and I waited in the rain for the office to open. One and a half hours later we had our documentation approved and were told that would have to come back to Madrid in 3 months to get the residency cards and under no circumstances were to leave the country. So Portugal -nnnngg Morocco -nnnngg England - nnnngg - (nnnngg is the sound of the buzzer when someone gets a question wrong on Sale of the Century) - but we were here for the duration which was good! ...very good.

So we thought we should get on the road and set about finding our new home! Vamos!