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Yes, that's right, Madrid has fired a warning shot across the bow of the design world in Spain. Their aim was pointed squarely in the direction of Barcelona, Spain's design center. It's just that this attempt comes somewhere around two decades two late.       This all boils down to the new Terminal 4 and I suppose the number one issue I have with the new terminal (which is the newest and most heavily designed of the four) is that is was just done so that Madrid could thumb their noses at the rest of Spain and dance around singing, "Neener, neener, neener. We're the capital. Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha." Definitely not the best approach for a country dealing with extremely strong and prevalent secessionist groups.       So, instead of spreading out the flow of air traffic for intercontinental flights like we do in the US, they decided to force everything to bounce through Madrid when the destination is outside Europe. This isn't to say that if you're flying on British Airways or Air France to or from the US, that you have to go through Madrid to get to Barcelona, but if you're flying on Iberia, you damned well better believe that you're going to touch down at Barajas before getting to continue on. So naturally, this construction is going to be self-fulfilling in that there will indeed be much more air traffic at Barajas than say, Sevilla, Granada, or Barcelona because of the mandate to force more traffic to go through there. Such is the thinking in Madrid. And such is the reason that an ETA terrorist blew up a massive chunk of this new terminal in December of 2006. These things don't make people happy.       Looking past the political ramifications of this terminal, there is the fact that it sucks. The design is not something I care for on an artistic level, but that's a completely subjective thing. The biggest problem is that it's pointless and doesn't work. For instance:       What the hell are those big exhaust pipe looking things on the floor? Will they reheat my tea that grew cold from the lengthy ride on the Metro to the airport?       Why are the trash cans only 30 cm deep (a foot for metric-so-scary-land)?       Why is it that when people walk through a door that is clearly marked for those arriving to pass through that an alarm goes off at irregular intervals?       Why can people not figure out how to open the bathroom door to leave?       Why is it that when there is the least bit unfriendly weather (heavy rain in this instance) that they have to only run one of their two runways? SFO runs every damned runway even when there's fog.       And most importantly, how is it in a building that isn't even two years old, the ceiling leaks like a sieve when is rains?       It's for these and a number of other reasons that I vote this 21st century construct a massive failure, despite the fact it won the Stirling Prize; a prize that obviously weights federal masturbation higher than passenger usability. If it doesn't I'm at a loss for why this catastrophe won an award other than the fact it built wavy ceilings to scale never before imagined possible. It's crazy that on so many level, it's actually less usable than LAX despite all the money that went in to this gigantic potato chip.

At this point, I am no expert on Madrid. I've spent nearly three days here and most of that was in the rain. But, it's been a good taste of the city and enough to have a few thoughts on it.       Overall, it's an interesting town. Obviously at 5.5 million people it is the biggest city in Spain and it definitely feels that way with it's massive sprawl, due it's cornfield-esque starting point in the absolute and very flat heart of Spain. So, it's only sensible that there would be a great many things to see in Madrid and a great many things to do. As I mentioned previously, a lot of the activities are based around being outside, but it's the case that there are many things to see indoors as well. The museums for instance, are excellent. The Prado tops the list with one of the most amazing collections of art that I've ever seen. Countless works that I've only seen in art textbooks are here, like the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch or Las Meninas by Velázquez among countless others.       Then there is the Reina Sofía Museum, which has a good number of known works, but at a cost of great controversy. For instance, it has Dalí's most famous works, which were basically stolen from Figueres to give this very new museum something to show. Then of course there is Guernica by Picasso which was only supposed to hang in The Prado once it was returned to Spain, but now hangs in the Reina Sofía. Beyond these famous works, the museum feels quite empty and haphazard as the collection was built artificially. But, if you're an art fan, you will absolutely have to go and see these paintings, which is what the federal government was scheming to bank upon.       Beyond cultural displays, Madrid is a great town to walk around. It is relatively flat and there are a lot of neighborhoods to see. The only thing that I couldn't get in to was how austere these neighborhoods were. Maybe it was just the rain, but you'd walk in to one neighborhood and it would be all bars on a street. Then, you walk in to another and it's all restaurants. Then another would be all pensions or just houses. There was no variety to what was in each neighborhood making them a bit off-putting and not terribly welcoming to hang out in. By contrast, I could probably spend the rest of my life in just Eixample or the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. Lavapies (feet washer in English) by contrast is best for cheap going out and is pretty dead during most of the day.       Towering above all of this though is the fact that Madrid is a capital and capitals have big freakin' buildings. Whether it's the Royal Palace or even just the post office, everything is on a huge, monumental scale that was indeed intended to dwarf the common citizen and make them awestruck at the capital of their country. These buildings are grand and impressive, but not approachable. I think this is where my main problem with Madrid lies in the fact that I have a lot of trouble really digging in to it.       Don't get me wrong in this, Madrid is definitely worth visiting, but if you haven't seen other Spanish cities like Barcelona or Sevilla, make it a city of less priority on your Spain checklist of sites. Any trip of 3-4 days there is bound to be a great time; especially if done when the weather and thusly the businesses are more welcoming. After all, a 1.50€ glass of good red wine in a bar and affordable jamón in the restaurants, is pretty hard to beat when it comes to startin' up the good times.

My first visit to Madrid has been unfortunately tarnished a tad by the fact that the weather is crap. It is the case that Madrid in general doesn't have the best weather in the world though (freezing cold winters and blistering hot summers.) Given that it's the middle of April one would have hoped for better than 10C for the high (about 50F for those in metric-so-scary-land), blustery wind, and constant, drizzling rain.       The reason that this is such is an issue, is that unlike London where the entire culture has adapted to crap weather, everything in Madrid is focused around being outside. The piles of chairs and tables sitting sadly by the doors of the cafes readily attest to this fact. It's also the case that everyone thusly runs indoors when the rain hits and if one is a tourist, then that means running in to museums, which get quite packed because of the rain.       Throughout all of this, I kept having the rhyme about the "rain in Spain" going through my head. I suppose that one outcome from this and the fact that I am most assuredly not a musical fan in any way shape or form is that I found out that this chunk of text is from the musical, My Fair Lady. It's scant solace for two days running around in weather that I wasn't prepared for, but I'll take it.