Seedy Sol no more

Let's face it. The dead-centre of Spain (actually I don't think it's the dead centre, but rather the kilometro zero from which all distances in the country are measured) is a bit of a mess - they've been digging it up for what feels like about 5 years and even before that it was seedy and grubby, with loads of 'undesirables' hanging about waiting to pick your pockets and not much going for it apart from the pigeon-pooped 'bear and strawberry' statue (Madrid's emblem). Well, yesterday I got the metro to Sol as it was too hot to walk, and on getting off the train and going up to the vestubule I thought I'd got off at the wrong stop. What was once a dingy dark dungeon was now bright, spacious and clean. I got the new escalator up to street level and more surprises awaited, I found myself in a new and shiny glass and chrome style metro exit in the middle of the plaza. I think they're still working on the rest of it, but I think the idea is to make some sort of underground transport hub where you can get metro and overground trains to a variety of locations around the city - including, I believe Terminal 4 of the airport - which will be an absolute godsend for us centre-dwellers. (Excuse my crappy blackberry-photos)