Hello,
Anyone out there have a recommendation for a good but relatively inexpensive place to pick up a pair of eyeglasses? Any chance I can have prescription glasses sent here from the US without incurring the wrath of la aduana and such?

Gracias!

I don't think you will have custom problems for receving glasses. Nevertheless, in Madrid, I can reccomend Visionlab.

They have several stores in which they'll take a look to your eyes (european optic prescriptions are different than american) you can choose glass frame and they'll craft the lenses. The whole procees can take around 2 hours.

I 'second' Nativo concerning European eyeglass prescriptions. So you'll probably be better off if you go someplace where there is at least an Optometrist.

I don't think Visionlab existed when I was living in Madrid - I always used Cottet. They have several opticos in Madrid - the one I went to was on c/Serrano, about 100m north of Goya.

I was thinking of maybe picking up some frames while in Madrid so my question is - do shops sell frames without lenses or would they think that's a really strange request? And, what are the odds of an employee of one of these stores speaking english well enough for me to communicate my intentions?
=)