David was very responsive from the beginning. When we had questions, he answered them quickly. Before we left our home, we gave David our airlines number and time of arrival per his request. We arrived at Madrid on Monday, September 23rd and arrived at our Airbnb around 9:30-10:00 am. When we arrived, the guests that were staying there prior to us, where still at the Airbnb. We immediately called David to let him know. He was very responsive and mentioned he would be there shortly, which he was. We met David and he went up to find out what was going on. In the meantime, my spouse and I stood outside the building with our luggage. We did feel uncomfortable standing outside with our luggage, specially this being our first time in Madrid. His apartment is located between Plaza Lavapies and Plaza Nelson Mandela. We went to Plaza Lavapies to get out of the street and waited. The police presence made us feel better. In Plaza Nelson Mandela there was a lot of commotion but as we found out later, there was filming taking place there. After a while, David came to us to mention the prior guests were out and we could go up. We were aware, prior to arrival, our flat was on the fourth floor, and David was very kind to help us with our luggage. Once in the apartment he gave us maps and recommendations of places to go and visit. We left our luggage there while he cleaned the flat.
We had friends that had traveled to Madrid at the same time with us. They were staying not far from us at Conde de Romanones but we felt a world apart. The difference in neighborhoods were considerable. It is common in Spain for people to be out and socializing but it appeared people in our area were continually congregating and they were not families. We looked at the positives of the constant police presence cruising up and down the street, but we did not believe that was a guaranteed. My spouse and I made it a point not to be out too late, not past 2100 and not go out before the sun was out in the mornings, around 0800.
After being there a week and having coffee at the same place every morning, we started to see familiar faces. We would strike conversations with a few locals. One local told us that the neighborhood has deteriorated tremendously in the last couple of years. We could see that, and it was a shame as this location is a very good spot to several of the city’s charms. On Sunday morning, 0550, a ruckus and disturbance woke us up. The front door to the building was being slammed several times and lots of screaming. This went on for what seemed eternity and the screams and cries were getting closer to our floor. In desperation, I grabbed a ladder that was in the apartment and wedged it up against the door. In the meantime my spouse was trying to call the police, but we never took time to make note of the phone number to the police. Then, as we were about to call David, we heard one of the neighbors calling the police. The police arrived quickly and took care of the situation. It was a scary position we were in. We debated to move to a hotel after this case but we chose to stay; when we went out, not to return after nightfall. Madrid is a very lively city. It is not uncommon to return home at midnight or so, but we never felt save to return home passed 2100 before this incident; after the incident we went home no later than 2000, while there was daylight still.
We left Tuesday to come home and we told David the situation. We also asked him to find out and let us know what had happened. We never asked around, we did not want to draw attention that we were not residents of building. As it turns out, it was a fight against one of the residents and he was fleeing home.