Our trip to Madrid, Cordoba, Sevilla, etc was cut short after my son's back pack was stolen in the Atoche train station Madrid. The typical ruse of one guy distracting and the other guy lifting. All camera equipment and laptop and cell phones, . . . you get the picture.
There was no police presence in the station. Actually, we never saw a policeman. The Police Station was locked up tight.
Although this experince certainly colored my views on travel in Spain. In general, we found the Madridlenos to be a unsmiling rather grim group. Give me the surly French any day.

Wow. What an account of your visit to Spain, bigfran. Sorry to hear about the "lifting". That's terrible. I haven't heard these kinds of stories for awhile either. It's true that one must always be vigilant - especially at bus and train stations. So you didn't make file a police report?

Spaniards are UNsmiling. Totally true. But try not to associate the lack of a smile for unfriendliness. It's just not in their culture much to smile - I have to say from experience. They're typically not reared to smile for cameras or be urged to "put on a happy face" as the English and Americans are. I think Spaniards are pretty happy people, in general.

Saludos, MadridMan

You do tend to get a criminal element at transport stations in the cities of Spain (Madrid and Barcelona are perhaps the worst for this). The more we publicise this the better. It's always been this way unfortunately, the difference being the underclass who indulge in this now tend to be migrants (Roumanians or Latin Americans). In the past it was Spanish gypsies or drug addicts. I think there should be big posters at places like Atocha (I remember now my partner had her money lifted there) warning vistors. Shame really - once you get yourself secure in your hostal or hotel generally there's no further problem (so long as you exercise the caution needed for a big city)

open society free society you get all kinds, but in general, Spanish people are very friendly and helpful. I am one but been off from Spain for long periods of time,and visited 50 countries, became citizen of a total of 4, so yes i can tell the difference.
one lifting cannot ruined country or a city, it definitively can ruined your vacation time. I never had a lifting in my life, and been to some pretty tough places. I like the statement "give me the surly French any day" he heh heh no comments...

In my visits to Madrid (and elsewhere) I have found the Spanish to be pleasant, helpful, and caring. Recent visits to London, specifically, do not produce the same result. This only points out that at any time in any place the good may come with the bad. With regards to this sort of advanced pick-pocketing, I see innumerable people in major cities (New York more times than I can count) who simply refuse (either consciously or not) to be alert. Your personal space is something you must always be aware of, and a strange location requires all the more vigilance. So please, pay attention and take responsibility! And be honest with yourself, a single visit to a city is hardly enough to pass judgement on anything, including the crime, the citizenry, and the culture.

Thank you, all, for your comments.
I plan to lick my wounds and go to bed.
By the way, I found all my arrangements through Viator to be very professionally handled.
The private tranfers from and to BCN were disappointing. The drivers did not speak English as promised. The trips back and forth just turned out to be very expensive taxi rides.
Best to all in the new year.

Thanks for sharing your experiences on the board, bigfran, and I'm sorry that you had to cut your trip short. Even if you're not physically threatened, it's frightening to have your valuable possessions taken right from under your nose. A very similar thing happened to my relatives in the Milan (Italy) train station.

As for the Madrid police, I'm sure it was very frustrating not to be able to find anyone to help you. When I was a student there, my friend visiting from another study abroad program had her wallet (with passport, credit cards, etc.) stolen out of her jacket while we were riding on the Metro without her even realizing it. We told some policemen we saw in the train station, and their answer to us was "What do you want us to do? This is Spain." Needless to say that was a frustrating answer! We did file a police report after figuring out where to go and waiting for quite some time. As filbert said, it's good to publicize these events as a reminder to fellow travelers to stay alert.

And, I hope you will consider visiting Spain again in the future despite your initial first impressions. As you can read from the posts on this board, many of us love Madrid and the rest of the country despite any bad experiences we may have had there. It might take some patience to be open to cultural differences (I know it took a long time for me while I lived there!), but once you appreciate the differences as cultural and not as mean-spirited or unfriendly then you can enjoy yourself much more.

Thanks for updating your posts on the other threads, too. It's nice to read your comments after your trip and it helps future travelers to Madrid and the rest of Spain. I hope that despite the theft there were some highlights to your visit.

bigfran,

I can commiserate with you because on my last trip to Spain, I too was confronted with it's criminal element. And even though my life, or my wife's, was not threatened, and what they took was certainly replaceable, it does shade an otherwise unblemished experience I've always had with Spain.

Since 1994, I was always so excited about returning to Spain and did so about every four years, but since my last trip, it just hasn't been a priority in my life. I suppose one of these days I'll lick my wounds, get over it and return, but it seems like it's something I keep putting off.

I did take the time and file a police report like a good citizen of the world hoping that perhaps enough complaints will change things.

bigfan

What happen to you can happen anywhere in the world and not only in train stations. Learn from it and just remember it "can" happen anywhere so always take precautions when you travel.

But I am surprised "Madridlenos to be a unsmiling" statement and MadridMan in agreement. Because I found the opposite when I visited Madrid twice. Maybe they only smile to strangers like me in bars, cafes, restaurants and on the street asking for directions?

I only once had a problem with a Madrilenos yelling at me because I was taking a photo of the ducks he was feeding.

Bill

I have been living in Spain my whole life, nearly 38 years, and I was never assaulted or atacked or robbed.

I only had to bad experiencies with my car.
The first one was three years ago. I parked my car at the car park of a big mall in Valencia city close the "City of Arts and Sciences". There were some suitcases from my friends in the trunk, we opened the trunk door, we took some things from it and left. I am sure that someone was watching us at the car park. A few hours later we came back yet out of the mall we realized that the cases had been stolen.

The second incident was last year in Pozuelo de Alarcón near Madrid. I went to a restaurant to have dinner with friends. When I came back to my car I saw that someone had broken the windows and had taken all the car documents from inside, oh, they stole some cd's too. The problem were the documents, I had to get new ones with lots of burocracy.

In any case, you are right. Crime in Spain has increased the last few years, coincidentally as inmigration did (these two things are not necessarily linked).
There are some gangs of Colombians and Eastern European citizens operating in several Spanish cities, assaulting houses with violence, dealing drugs and stoling cars.

You must allways be carefully about your things when travelling abroad.

I friend of mine visited Prague for holidays four years ago. He was assaulted by two men who threatened him with a knife and took all his money , his camera and his credit cards. But he returned to Prague last year and I am planning Prague as my next holiday destination.