My last afternoon in Madrid, I checked out the Royal Palace and a few other sights in the area. I tried to get my train ticket situation straightened out to no avail. It will have to wait until I’m stateside. So far that's been the only thing that didn't go according to plan and ironically it's the one thing I actually tried to plan in advance. See how that works?
The Royal Palace and the adjacent Almudena Cathedral are definitely worth checking out. I'm a bit cathedral-ed out at this point, but you know. The palace is maybe the length of two football fields and as regal as one would expect a palace to be. It's actually quite an elegant structure. Perhaps one of the nicest I've seen in Spain. I would take a tour sometime, but I'm a bit pressed for time as it stands. Gives me something to look forward to next time. Adios, Espana!
Other observations about Europe:
Spain is in a deep recession with unemployment in the high double digits, but it’s hard to gather from the places I visited. The people didn’t seem subdued and businesses seemed to be thriving with activity. Obviously my observations were limited from both a time and scope perspective. I’d be interested to know more about why the Spanish economy in particular is faltering so. Did they have a similar issue with real estate? A housing bubble? I'm sure it's also related to the interconnectivity of the EU's economy as a whole.
I saw this one kid on the train who I figure had to be from New York. His steez was just too NYC. He had the baggy jeans sagging so that the backside looked like he was wearing denim parachute pants and he had on a baseball cap with the brim flexed so straight that you could balance a tea cup on it. Do they do that anywhere outside of NYC? Did he just pick that up from watching music videos? I can only speculate. Still made me think how important a development it was to be able to transmit video and audio signals almost anywhere in the world. Physical boundaries really don't mean much, do they?
It's been Real, Spain.
3 comments:
You are correct about the Spanish economy. Some ridiculous amount of its GDP, like north of 25%, was derived from Construction. Brits have been building summer homes on the coast for a generation, but this is only one reason. That whole sector has collapsed.
I was speaking to a guy on the plane who told me they have a pretty large olive oil export business and of course tourism is a major driver.
I read one article that talked about how the labor rules were just too difficult for employers to negotiate any sort of growth in a downturn. In Spain, employers are required by law to pay employees 45 days salary for every year of employment or something like that. Sounds like what the Japanese went through in the early nineties w/r/t labor rigidity.
It's really difficult to fire workers in Spain due to some intensely pro-labor laws. I'm pro-labor in general, but a consequence is firms tend to be very cautious when hiring people, or generally don't unless they really have to. Labor needs to be protected in many regards, but not at the expense of productive workers.
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