Urban shots

My nearest Madrid park, named after the ubiquitous Spanish bank of course but one I don't know all that well. The reason? There are 5 gates to the park but ALL are situated on the west and the south sides and I live 5 minutes walk away from the northeast corner, so it takes me 20 minutes just to get to an entrance. This seems crazy to me!

Parroquia Santísimo Cristo de La Victoria, Chamberí, Madrid and too many pigeons for my liking!

The yellow fronted building has an old METRO logo above the door. This looks like an old workshop and although it is only about 200 metres from where I know Line 2 runs, there is no obvious sidings area nor obvious route for trains to take (and line 2 was constructed not all that far underground). The streets were all solidly built up long before the metro came through (or rather below) here! Perhaps some sidings were intended but not built, leaving the workshop high and dry. It is also quite possible that it might be some kind of electricity substation. I don't know and can't seem to find out. I have books on the Madrid Metro (how sad is that!). Having said that, I do like the building and the street. 24 HOURS LATER AND I HAVE THE ANSWER. IT IS AN ELECTRICITY SUBSTATION, one of two that served line 2 in the early days!

Now government offices. Chamberí, Madrid.

Cuatro Caminos, Madrid. This is in the north of the city centre. Those to the south really copped it! There was plenty of thunder and lightning but I have never managed to capture lightning with a camera. There must be a knack to it! I have just seen one half of an idiot on a motorised scooter on the roundabout (a dangerous one at that) in these conditions. I know they've been banned in London but they are everywhere here and a menace to pedestrians and to other road users alike. It is astonishing to me just how many are left after use in the middle of a pavement for a blind person or a pensioner to fall over. I have been known to place such offending scooters in the nearest skip!

A typical Madrid street scene if one only looked up occasionally!

In the next street to my flat. A large complex of buildings, originally an isolation hospital built by the Jornaleros religious organisation. Now government offices. Architects Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi. Inaugurated in 1916. To me the architecture is of an older order than that, but architecture was probably largely suspended in most of Europe due to WWI and when it resurfaced it was heavily influenced by Bauhaus. Spain was neutral in the war and blithely carried on with Victorian architectural styles. A view from another angle: www.ipernity.com/doc/2247598/45883442

Abandoned due to a 1950s reservoir drowning its farmland. Now a (minor) tourist destination and a few people work here in the summer catering for the few tourists and keeping the place tidy. But there are no restaurants or shops (not such a bad thing!) and although the fields and orchards found between the walls are still tended, no one lives here any more.

Plaza Mayor, Guadarrama.

When I took this, there was no-one around. When I downloaded it later I saw the mural of the girl jogger (there are many such murals on hoardings in Madrid). But now on uploading to ip, I'm not so sure. It still looks like a mural, the clothes don't seem to be typical Madrid jogging attire ... and yet ... and yet ... her feet seem to be just far enough away from the hoardings to make me think she might be real after all!! However, she must be far too close to the fence, is heading straight for the small tree and her 'shadow' bears no relation to the (poor) source of light which looks painted on to me ... I'm tending towards 'mural' but the jury's still out! What do you think? OK!!! ... ... ... ANSWER! I SPENT ONE NIGHT BACK HOME AND SO HAD TO CHECK IT OUT! THERE IS A LOAD OF GRAFITTI HERE - FAR MORE THAN A WEEK AGO WHEN I TOOK THE SHOT ... BUT THERE IS NO MURAL OF THE GIRL. SHE WAS REAL!!! How I didn't see her when I took the shot, I'll never know!!!!! :o)))))))))))))))))

This brings back happy childhood memories of majestic elms in England. Sadly this is the only surviving mature elm in the whole of Madrid province and it is expected to succumb to Dutch Elm Disease soon. But at the moment it lives and provides much joy.

My two very nice students this week, Arancha and Carolina.

Chamartín Station and The Four Towers, Madrid.

Lots of lines here. I know!

Mogarraz, Salamanca Province.

On a wall near my girlfriend's piece of land. See next or previous shot, or a couple of shots away.

Salamanca Province, Sierra de Francia

Rosa will remember this from Pano!