Madrid walk idle, muted.
Madrid runs late and the streets show it. The centre is dense, walkable and almost never empty: the same stretch between Sol and the older quarters carries office traffic at nine, a different crowd entirely at six, and a third one after eleven. The buildings are tall enough to keep the streets in shade for most of the day, which matters in a city this hot. These walks stay on the pavement, in the crowd, at the pace the crowd sets.