Hola Atocha!

I first thought about this post many weeks ago when I first read Loree's blog about railway stations with interesting plantings. But when I looked at our photo archives I was disappointed at the photos we took of the interior of the Atocha Railway Station in Madrid. The tropical planting inside the station is grand and stunning, looking more like the inside of the Palm House at Kew rather than a railway station. I've never seen anything like that anywhere else, railway station wise, and for an exotic plant lover it's almost a reason good enough to visit Madrid for a weekend break (or longer if you travel from a different continent).

But why oh why did we end up taking so few photos, and of low quality too?? It's a question I initially couldn't comprehend or even know the exact answer but after some thoughts I came up with a couple of clues. I think we still used our old camera then and it wasn't brilliant at taking digital photos (digital camera technology moves so quick nowadays). And another thing, I remember there was a used book fair ongoing whilst we were there and the area seemed 'solemn' with people reading books and it would have felt rude to break the solitude with flashes from our camera.

There you go, I think I just answered my own question by concluding that it's actually a combination of both reasons. Never mind! I did borrow a photo from Wikipedia to show what the planting in the station looks like from a distance, to give a better idea of what it really is like. It is superb, and looks better in my memory, certainly much better than the photos I took!

Madrid Atocha Railway Station (photo from Wikipedia)

And since I'm featuring a few retro photos from our trip to Madrid, the capital of Spain a few years ago, way back 2007, I might as well feature a few other plant-y photos we took during our stay there. This is proper retro stuff, relatively speaking...

Solanum betaceum

Solanum betaceum

A fernery section of The Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid)...

Which is nowhere near as big as some of the major botanical gardens in Europe. It's good enough to visit though if you're in the city. During that time they were replanting this area. I wonder what this area looks like now??

Xanthorrhoea glauca

Phoenix dactylifera

Cordyline kaspar

Oddly enough this was labelled only as 'Fairy Bamboo'...hmmmm...

More of that 'Fairy Bamboo'

Small as this botanical garden may be, they did have a few nice succulents growing outside, relishing the warm climate of the Spanish capital..

Agave victoria-reginae

Agave americana 'Striata'

Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba' and 'Variegata'

Agave weberi

A selection of Opuntias

One of the Agave beds (with me for scale)

But like all other botanical gardens they have some glasshouses as well...

Back out into the city, as expected there were various palms planted all over...

Chamaerops humilis

A very nice 'clump' of Chamaerops humilis

Washingtonia robusta

We managed to time it right that there was also an ongoing Andy Goldsworthy installation whilst we were there, inside the Palacio de Cristal which is within Madrid's Buen Retiro Park. Beings admirers of his work, we just had to check it out and his installation did not disappoint. 

Palacio de Cristal (which was funny enough inspired by the works of Joseph Paxton who was responsible for the Palm House at Kew)

Andy Goldsworthy's installation was colossal. It occupied most of the floor space of the Crystal Palace and we were free to walk within his work

Another view of the Crystal Palace where you can see Andy Goldsworthy's installation inside

So there you go, just a few snippets of the city of Madrid. I suspect it will be awhile before we go back to this city again, and it will take some time before I get to say Hola to Atocha once again. But if we do, I'm going to make sure we have a good camera on hand and will take lots and lots of pictures of it!
Mark :-)