Madrid

Paseo de La Castellana, Four Towers (3 evident here)..

Madrid street art. I tried to update this 8 years later but it was impossible. Why? Because the trees had grown so qiuickly that they totally obscured the artwork!

OK, it's another station shot, but I like the lines.

By the Río Manzanares, Madrid

Príncipe Pío transport hub. Metro train below, mainline train above.

Nuevos Ministerios, Madrid with a bit of blossom too.

Spring - not yet - but soon ...

The original 1919 metro trains (called 'clasicos') restored and on display at Chamartín station on an unused section of track, but they don't seem to be available to view close up. The fences have always been in place and guards patrol whenever I pass by, which is often (and slightly worrying; do they see me coming and think; "Here comes that hooligan Englishman again with his dastardly camera!")? BTW when I first visited Madrid in 1981 to see my sister who had moved here that year, these 'clasicos' were still in circulation and I used them a lot. They were horribly hot and rickety by then. I think they were finally de-commisioned the following year.

This station is huge. If you want to change metro lines here, in some instances you have a 12 minute walk. This mainline section of the station effectively cuts the metro element in two, hence the long walks to get under or over this between lines!

Plaza de Castilla, Madrid. Normally filled solid with traffic. I caught a serendipitous phase in the traffic light signalling! Taken whilst waiting for a bus to take me to my next class. The bus stop is round the corner (It is one of 100s of bus stops here, mostly on three levels underground; this is the major transport hub for northern Madrid, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from this position!).

Parque de El Capricho, Madrid. This is a particularly attractive park.

Atocha Station, Madrid. I had just alighted form this train and had been travelling on the upper deck.

Before they all come down tomorrow night (or in theory they should on 12th Night, Reyes - Kings, in Spain). Today the streets were heaving; the busiest shopping day of Christmas because tomorrow evening is the feast of Kings, when the kiddies get their prezzies. Monday is a holiday and then the sales start on Tuesday.

Christmas lights, Plaza de Chueca, Madrid

Azca at 7:56 this morning, about to go into the building on the left to give my 8 to 10 Friday morning class to a senior partner at a major firm.

Atocha Station, Madrid

This building appealed to me. It is also a place I taught at for a year some time ago but never viewed it from the back so wasn't ever aware of these interesting curves.

Chueca, Madrid.