Our expectation of passing through immigration comes from movies and horror stories of other travelers. We expected long lines with plenty of time to sort put our stuff and what we would do in out first day in Madrid.
When we would finally arrive at the counter, we thought we would be grilled about why we were coming to Spain, where would stay and how long we would be there. We wondered how much they would sift through all of our belongings and if they might take our Lara bars and the one apple we had left.
We had what seemed like a 5 mile walk through Madrid Airport (one has to love a place whose abbreviation is MAD). Arriving at immigration ther were multiple spots and NO line. The officer took our passports, stamped them and sent us our way.
Now we were a good 2 hours ahead of schedule! When we went to the visitors information center to pick up a tourist pass for the Metro, it had not opened yet. Fortunately the train station was a short walk and escalator ride away. 27 EU each later, we had our travel cards.