Memories of RBB

Today will be a chill out day after our stressful and strenuous time on La Pedriza circuit.

We are only 45 kilometres from Madrid, our next destination. There we will meet Enrique, a colleague and a friend from my ex-company RBB Economics (www.rbbecon.com). At this time last year, RBB opened a new office in Madrid and employed Enrique to run it. As we are country fellows, Enrique and I developed a good professional relationship. He helped me enormously sorting out the insurances, bank accounts, and dealing with Spanish clients and I was his point of contact on anything to do with the day to day financial matters of the company.

We will spend a couple of days in Madrid as Enrique will not be able to meet us tomorrow. That would give us an extra day to do a bit of sightseeing and, of course, to see a few buildings, one by Normal Foster. Gary has already done his research.

We are driving to Alcorcon, a suburb south of Madrid. We are hoping to find a free car park to leave Dora so that we can use public transport to move around the city without having to worry about her.

In Spain, people are more relaxed about motorhomes than in the UK. You can park and sleep over almost anywhere. However, aires to fill Dora with water and empty grey and black waters can be difficult to find. Spanish petrol stations often have water for free, so we have been using them when an aire is not available.

I am not sure the owners have anticipated them being used for motorhomes, and it can take a long time to fill Dora as the water pressure is so low! GDR

Dora’s water tank is currently empty, we are hoping to find a petrol station before we reach Alcorcon. Otherwise, no showers. Not ideal when we are meant to socialise.

Arriving in Alcorcon has been easier than we had expected. Besides, we have quickly found a free public car park with a petrol station just across the road, and only five minutes from the train station, which will take us to the centre of Madrid. What else can we ask?

It is 17.00. Let’s go for a gentle and short stroll around Alcorcon before dinner. We still feel quite achy and tired from yesterday.

The town looks buzzy and lively. Schools are out, parents have taken their children to the playground, they are chatting whilst their children play happily and energetically with their friends. Cafes and bars are packed with people, and it is only Wednesday. Spain may be in crisis, but right now it doesn’t look like it. You can sense that people in Spain have a better quality of life than that back home, going out and socialising much more.

In the UK, many working parents have no time to pick up their children from school. They are likely to send the nanny or a relative instead. Colleagues from work used to struggle to get to the parent’s evening on time. No doubt this would have an impact on the quality of the relationship you build up with your kids.

“There has to be a balance” Gary and I discuss. In the UK, there seems to be a general culture of working late, who can leave the office last. This is nothing to do with your efficiency and your ability to finish your task on time. It is a dangerous culture, it extents the office day, you don’t get more done and it makes you tired. We wonder whether this culture exists in Spain.

There are more jobs and salaries are higher in the UK, but there is less time to spend the money you earn. The Spanish seem to enjoy a better quality of life, but we have the feeling that people take things for granted, they believe they have lots of rights but very little obligations. Of course, this is not the case for everybody, but maybe there is a tendency to think like this. Perhaps in the UK, people are more ambitious and they feel this is a way to get ahead. In Spain, it seems that the ideal job remains in the public sector, a job for life. This is also completely incomprehensible to us, this complete lack of determination.

The next day, we take the train to Atocha, one of the stations in the centre of Madrid. I take Gary to Puerta del Sol, the main square.

First thing we see when we come out from the Metro, a demonstration. We get closer. A group of people seem to be claiming against being evicted from them homes.

The fall of the property bubble has left lots of people unable to pay their mortgages and the banks having no choice but to confiscate their assets. I have heard this in the news before. It is actually quite scary if this is becoming the norm as the public may get insensitive to these images, and therefore, dismiss the misery and desperation of these people.

We move on, Christmas is coming slowly to Madrid. The tree in Plaza del Sol is there but not yet lit.

From there we visit the Plaza Mayor, one of my favourite places in Madrid, famous for its huge amount of cafes and bars and also, for its christmas market. I am hoping it will be up and running by now.

We have jut got here and the christmas market is not yet open. Shame!

Not really, I can never really get these markets selling cheap tat severely overpriced! The consumerism of Xmas prising peoples hard earned cash from their wallets, Jesus would love it. GDR

The cafes and bars in Plaza Mayor have the reputation of selling a variety of sophisticated and quirky tapas but, of course, at eye-watering prices. “We are not having lunch here” I warn Gary. “I just simply wanted to show you this place”.

Great, I am now salivating at super-sized croquetas, mussels, pulpo and scallops and not allowed to try any. Typical. Cruel. GDR

What caught our attention, Gary can’t remember what they are called in English, in Spanish they are Erizo de mar at €6.00 each.

It 12.00, there is no time to go to museums if we want to have lunch in about an hour. Lets go to the Four Towers, a series of contemporary office buildings that Gary would like to see. One of them has been designed by Normal Foster, one of Gary’s favourite architects and who he work for ten years ago. Perhaps, we will find a cheaper place for lunch around there.

This is a bizarre place, four massive skyscrapers, each about 40 storeys, but no infrastructure. It is a ten minutes walk from the metro! We cross a derelict plot of land where people are camped out, maybe some of those we saw protesting earlier! Then cross a massive dual carriageway. Two ramps go beneath the buildings, obviously everyone drives to and from work, and maybe home to lunch, is this really sustainable? The plaza where the buildings sit are vast, windswept and barren, maybe it is just the miserable weather though. There to be a complete lack of planning here. The buildings look great ascending into the clouds.

I won’t bore you with an expanded critique of the modern office tower, suffice it to say that the Foster’s building is the one on the far left. This is not particularly original, with a similar looking building in Singapore. Of the four it is the most rational, with good quality working space. The others a lot more whimsical, chamfered edges, weird angles, for no apparent reason. GDR

The PWC building looks interesting, clean and simple with a nice attitude to the sun, the windows are faced away, well I think they do!. Criticism though,it contains both office and hotel. You would not know from the outside, it all looks the same. Should a hotel look the same as an office? Does it matter? GDR

I know this is old, but it is an architecture that really angers me. Bankia and Realia just want to be different! Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The is an engineering feat, to lean the buildings to the extent that they do. So why is it such a bas idea. Firstly, it massively adds to the cost. That extra structure needed to create that lean is very expensive. Secondly, it makes the useable floor space really inefficient. An office building should always be about the quality of the floor space. That is its primary function. Not here, the primary function is the architects, or the clients ego. And is is beautiful? I think not. This is one really crude building. Demolish it now!

Anyway I think Susu is now really bored of looking at office building, and wants to get some lunch. GDR

After our ‘boring’ architectural tour we sit in a local bar and share a couple of ‘bocadillos’ (sandwiches) of Spanish omelette (my favourite Spanish dish) and fried calamares. A group of people are having a lively discussion. They are playing together ‘la quiniela’ (Spanish football bet). The waiter has also joined them. Gary raises his eyebrows. He is not very fond of betting. Neither am I but, I smile because I used to do ‘la quiniela’ too when I lived in Spain. I still remember the weekly famous ‘porras’ (the equivalent of a lottery syndicate) among of all the friends.

A mugs game, you might have more fun by flushing your money down the toilet, or do something useful with it and give it to charity, or pay off the national debt! GDR

It is raining heavily outside and also very cold. We are becoming lazy to move. Two hours later and we are still here. Come on, lets go to see a bit more of Madrid. We leave the group of people there, still putting together ‘la quiniela’. They don’t seem to be able to agree on the results. It will be a long afternoon, it is fine, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere.

We head off to the Reina Sofia museum, one of the most important art museum in Spain which displays art from the XVIII century onwards (18th C. for the uneducated amongst you. GDR). Although they collect work from all over the world, the museum focuses mainly on narrating the Spanish contemporary history and, especially, its role during the WWII. We spend four hours here, our heads are overload with culture, they feel two kilos heavier. It has been worth it though, only to contemplate the Guernica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)), a painting by Pablo Picasso, created in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil war.

So we look forward to returning to Dora, warming her up, cuddled up together on the sofa and falling sleep watching a DVD. That’s what we think. Dora has other ideas. The lack of sun has given her solar panel little chance to generate electricity. Half way through the film we are cut off and forced to have an early night. Thanks Dora!

Today is the day to see Enrique, I am really looking forward to it. We are meeting him for lunch at 14.00 in his office. I would never had thought, at this time last year when we were busy at work setting up this office that the next time I’d see it would be wandering around Europe in a motorhome. Life is full of surprises.

This morning we are visiting Caixa Forum, another contemporary building.

This is by Herzog de Muron, Those that brought you the Tate modern in London. Now I am assuming it is renovation, and all that brickwork is original. And what they have done is another engineering marvel. The whole building is lifted off of the ground, with no visible means of support. Actually the building is cantilevered from the central cores and then the floors are hung from this structure, amazing. Unlike the Bankia office building, this makes some sense, although it is still a very expensive solution. In this case, the public realm is opened up so that pedestrians can flow beneath the building, new routes are created through the city. This is also a art gallery which will really benefit from column free exhibition spaces. Interesting use of material, and  an aggressive approach to renovation and historic buildings which I applaud.  GDR

It is a shame the green wall is not being looked after though. It looks half dead. GDR

We visited only the free exhibition about the work of the Jesuitas (What cheapskates. GDR). A catholic priest order which went to South America to imposed the catholic religion to natives (we knew better!). Interestingly, this order ended up helping the local communities providing with education and teaching them means to earn their living by introducing farming and agricultural practices.

They considered natives equal to the wealthy and worked hard to give them the same privileges and rights. This philosophy didn’t amuse the Spanish kingdom and eventually, the Jesuitas were expelled from the catholic church. Another example of the hypocrisy of the catholic church when it comes to define themselves which side they prefer to be on.

Although I am tempted to weigh in, today I will leave it at that….For another day. GDR

It has stopped raining. Let’s take a walk along the Parque del Retiro, one of the most famous parks in Madrid. Gary seems to be impressed by the Crystal palace, which is curiously, part of the Reina Sofia museum.

Unfortunately it is closed. The roof leaks. Maybe it is by Calatrava! GDR

Then we continue through the ‘Puerta de Alcala’ (Alcala’s gate). Inevitably, the famous song by Ana Belen and Victor Manuel comes back to my mind. Ana Belen and Victor Manuel are Spanish singers who wrote a song about this building and it became one of the most sung songs about thirty years ago (www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8lWaJWCfhM)

Then we reach the ‘Cibeles’ the fountain where the Real Madrid followers (football Spanish team) come for a swim when the team wins.

Idiots. GDR

It is now time to meet Enrique. He welcomes us warmly. In the same office there is Anton, another ex-colleague who used to work in the same office as me in London and moved to Spain a month before I left. The three of us are happy to see each other again.

They look well and busy. I always loved working for RBB and I am pleased that the company is continuing to do well and to be very successful. I am glad to hear that.

After half an hour catching up, Enrique suggests we go to a place nearby for lunch. It is called ‘Jose Luis’ and it is quite posh. “You are only here once” he says. “We have to celebrate it”.

We are having a really nice time catching up with life and work. “I miss you a lot” he says. “When you used to work here, I created the habit of calling you for anything to do with admin. It was so easy. Now, I need to think who deals with what” he says.

Our main primary discussions has been around the Spanish economy. Although I live in the UK, I follow my country’s economic situation very closely and whenever I have an opportunity to discuss it with Spanish people, I bring it up. On this occasion, I am particularly interested about Enrique’s insights and thoughts as he is an economist.

He has bought us lunch and we have invited him over to the UK. “I don’t particularly like London” he says. This is not an excuse. We live in the countryside. He has promised to come and see us next year, when we finish our travels. I will be banging on his email box next year to remind him of his promise.

Enrique, thank you very much for spending time with us. It has been a pleasure seeing you again. Good luck at RBB and see you next year.

I would also like to to thank you for your hospitality and for lunch. It was a fascinating discussion and I look forward to when you can bring the family over to the UK. GDR

SM & GDR