European Times: MADRID
CHAMARTIN STATION is Madrid’s Gare du Nord, its King’s Cross, hectic and seedy. Passengers here are not bound for glamorous southern beaches but the greyer north, a remote home village on that cruel plain, or further afield beyond the Pyrenees.
Last Sunday, amid crisscrossing travellers scanning the noticeboards, some enthusiasts were dancing the Argentine tango. They had rigged up a sound system and, punctuated with crackly announcements of trains departing for Zaragoza or Santander, the sleazy, soupy wail of the accordion-like bandoneon floated down the concourse.
The surprising thing was not so much the unlikely venue. Read the rest of this entry »
