Due to the volcano activity in iceland, there are no rental cars currently available at Madrid Barajas airport UNLESS you have a reservation. People are taking every car they can find and driving north to France and beyond because the airports are closed.

We picked up our car today and then drove south by east to Alarcon. Lovely drive with just a few showers and then sunshine.

Saludos.
44

What is the situation? Is Barajas closed or just extra busy?

its chaotic many airports in Europe are close ,the UE is meeting tomorrow to look into what to do. Even France and UK were thinking of using air force and military airports to ease the situation. bad ash volcano is stopping maybe my friends from visiting me next friday yikes...

Barajas was open and operating fine as of yesterday. We landed with no delays or incidents on Friday morning. Of course, departures to the North are canceled.

Also, double check with your airline and rental car companies using the call centers because the on-airport desks are absolutely swamped with people.

Saludos.
44

That´s good news admiral44 .. except that for me to get to England on Thursday means I have to travel North !! But I read ( and need to check this ) that a cloud of this ash is moving towards the East coast of the USA and Canada ! I know when I´ve flown to Vancouver that we pass by Iceland and Greenland ( truly beautiful to see ) .. but has the wind direction changed ? I´ll check on that ! Actually the European Union transport ministers are holding a video conference today . There are rumours that European nations will deploy naval warships to get people back to the UK ( since we are an island ) . That would be cool . I´ve been on warships ( visiting ) in the UK and Russia and my dad was in the Royal Navy in the 60s so it would be a great adventure if they offered that alternative . I guess they would head out from Barcelona or Bilbao . But maybe the longer rout from Gibraltar .