Summer in Madrid

We spent a night in Madrid for the first time since 2005, which was before our house was finished. The people seem to speak more slowly now, which is nice.

We stayed in the same hotel as last time as it is near Atocha station and handy for the centre so we could revisit the two famous squares, Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, in the course of a couple of hours wandering on a hot sunny afternoon.

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor is just as grand as always but Puerta del Sol, the epicentre of Spain from which all internal distances are measured, still retains signs of the recent protest camp. It has now shrunk back to a couple of tents which maintain the presence and give out information. A Greek flag hangs in sympathy for the fellow sufferers across the Med but all was peaceful, except that Su was fired at by a protester from his tent with a water pistol. Not a major problem in the blazing heat of summer - we must have interrupted his siesta.

Solidarity with Greece at Puerta del Sol camp

Visiting the capital did make me think from a different perspective about the current economic woes about which many are understandably protesting. Having read two books recently about the poverty, violence and general misery that was Civil War Madrid we found a stark contrast. One of those books, Winter in Madrid paints a picture of those difficult times when 25% of the GDP of an already impoverished and mainly rural economy went up in flames. As the title implies the book is set in the cold of winter with snow everywhere. By contrast here we were in bright sunshine in a sophisticated capital city that stands comparison with any other in Europe including London. The GDP of this now much richer country has hardly fallen at all during the crisis and the price of beer does not suggest a place that is economically on its knees.

I don't wish to belittle the current position at all with all its difficulties and inequities, but what a long way this country has come in the thirty years since Franco, let alone from the Ashes of a Civil War. Perhaps things aren't so bad - it's figuratively speaking as well as literally, Summer in Madrid.