The Christmas lights of Madrid
As the year is ending, with it the Christmas lights will gradually switch off and be removed from the streets, leaving only the cold as the main clue of winter in a city where it doesn't snow. We have been taking some pictures the whole month, and as the last day is imminent, it is time for their showcase.
Elena posing for our traditional picture with Christmas-tree lights in background (here the one of Callao).
Callao having, by the way, its own set of "eternal lights", to combine with those of Christmas.
The Casa de Correos is too beautiful and too luminous to be adorned by lights.
The famous Puerta de Alcala, trapping the Biblical Magi in its arcs.
The even more famous Cibeles, looking at the tree of the Puerta del Sol through a tiny portion of the longest street in Madrid.
The Palacio de Cibeles, an eerie castle of rather unchristmasy lights.
The main Christmas tree of Madrid, in the Puerta del Sol, has been since a couple of years a tribute of the Lotería de Navidad.
Most trees are metallic (or worst). The one in the Paseo del Prado is found in the purple declination
as is much of Atocha, in front, that seems to prefer the colors of the sky for its decoration.
The decoration of the streets is the most showy, here again toward the Puerta del Sol.
A parallel street with the same destination, same people, but different colors.
This one is for the cars. There's a google map detailing the illuminated streets and other spots of interest.
When it comes to streets, the Gran Via is the Madrid Broadway.
See how the Star of Bethlehem was cleverly depicted as growing in size.
This is Calle de Alcala again. Being so long, it gets decorated in a variety of ways.
The Plaza Mayor deserves a gallery of its own:
The theme for this year in the Plaza Mayor is cubes of lights. You find some already when getting close.
Floating over the little people as if part of some hallucination.
Encapsulating the magic of Christmas.
A cube in isolation, radiating too much light. May be this one is an hallucination!
Though the Plaza Mayor also suffices to itself in terms of molding light to its advantage.
The Santa Cruz, which for us is synonymous to the Plaza, only allowed itself a little blue star as a Christmas whim.
