Madrid Transformed into a City of Lights

My friend who visited Madrid for the holidays a year ago told me that they had amazing and tasteful holiday decorations, so I was eagerly anticipating the spectacle as the holidays approached. The first sneak peek I got was when these weird amoeba-like strands appeared on Gran Via one day.



It was several weeks before they'd actually be lit, but every day new strange holiday things started to appear in different parts of the city. Finally, one day in early December, They lit up the Gran Via series of lights... WOW!



The next day, I showed up to Plaza de Castilla, where I spend several hours a week waiting for buses to the outskirts to teach my students. When I emerged from the subway, I looked up and saw the most beautiful star of lights hanging between the Puerta de Europa skyscrapers. The buildings were built at an angle, so it looks like the star is drawing them together :)



There are literally thousands of people passing through this area every hour, and everyone seemed to just stop under the star and gaze upward in amazement. Here's a closer picture I captured with the zoom on my camera.



And then on the other side of the plaza, they have this huge and amazing Christmas tree of lights.




During the next several weeks, the mystery of Christmas in Madrid unfolded for me, along with dazzling lights, festivals of fire, Nativity scenes and depictions of the Three Magic Kings.

Three Kings Light Show at El Corte Ingles
Three Kings Light Show - Detail

The Spanish tradition is for the three magic kings (known as the three wise men in the U.S.) to bring gifts to Spanish children on January 6th as they ride through on their camels. This site gives a good expanded overview of Spanish Christmas traditions. Father Noel (known as Santa Claus in the U.S.) is becoming increasingly popular in Spain, as he brings the gifts a few days earlier, giving the kids more play time before they have to return to school in early January.

The other popular tradition for Spaniards is a depiction of the nativity scene, known as a Belen (literally, Bethlehem). There was a competition between churches and public buildings this year in Madrid for the best Belen, but unfortunately I was only able to see a few of the entrants. Here's a scene from the Belen at Barajas airport that was really nice. There are coins in the sand to give you an idea of scale.



A couple of weeks before Christmas, there was a festival to kickoff the Christmas festivities in the Plaza de Oriente near the Opera and the Royal Palace. There were beautiful displays of fire throughout the plaza.





There were also live musicians and performers in different nooks and crannies of the park. I caught this DJ near the Royal Palace who was remixing traditional classical Christmas music into a strange sort of holiday dance mix.



In the background was the Christmas tree for the Royal Palace. Kind of psychedelic, don't you think?




Even the fountain at Plaza de Cibeles got a little extra flair for the holidays...



Plaza del Sol was also aglow with lights. Here's the series going down Calle Mayor away from the plaza...



But, I think my favorites were the spirals leading up to the Puerta de Alcala and the Nativity scene in monument passageways.





After a month of looking at all of this beauty and spectacle, I still couldn't get enough. The city spends 3.5 million Euros (approximately $4.5 million) on their Christmas extravaganza each year. I think it's worth every centimo.

A True Nightmare Before Christmas

The discount Spanish airline Air Madrid shut down operations on Friday and left tens of thousands of passengers without a flight for the holidays. The company has been under investigation by the Spanish government for security and safety violations. Friday, upon the government's notice of the airline's imminent suspension, the company decided to suspend operations immediately.

It's estimated that more than 130,000 passengers who have already flown one way are now left without a return ticket. In addition to this, more than 300,000 tickets for the coming months are now void. The government has said that it will require the company to reimburse travelers for their losses up to 600 Euros. They have also secured a small fleet of planes (really small, like 4 or 5) to attempt to transport as many of the affected passengers as possible, using a priority system to determine who flies first.

I got a bolt of panic when I first saw this on the news, as I'm flying from Madrid in exactly eight days. Fortunately, I'm on EasyJet, another discount airline. Hmmm, maybe it's better to pay a little extra for a brand name that you can trust. On second thought, does that exist?

UPDATE 12/20/2006: The government agency that was to reimburse the passengers for their tickets is now saying that they are legally unable to return the money without the consent of the airline. There's a lot of finger pointing and many, many unhappy people. Merry Christmas, eh?

UPDATE 12/21/2006: Today, the government suspended the "emergency" flights for the people affected by the Air Madrid shutdown, saying that "the government is not going to pay for the vacations of anyone." There have been protests and clashes with security officials in the airport in response to this announcement... UNDERSTANDABLY, no? The government forces and airline to stop business just before the holiday and then decides to wash it's hands of the problem. Not a good sequence of events.

Chocolate Covered Sin

What if your chocolate covered pastries could talk? What if you could have sex with them?? That appears to be the desire these ubiquitous ads in the metro are trying to provoke.



But then, I think that's the feeling you're supposed to get when you're eating them. In the metro, it just comes off as a little bit freaky, if you ask me. Lips that sexy should only be attached to humans :)