A city, one slow walk at a time.
Madrid notes by Ines Toral. Small routes, good benches, and enough time to notice the doors.
- Atocha · begin
- Las Letras · wander
- El Retiro · sit
- Home · write
Leave a little room in the day
I live in a small flat in Madrid with a narrow balcony and a drawer full of paper maps. Most afternoons, after a morning repairing book bindings at my workbench, I go out without a very useful plan. I might want to see whether the orange shutters on a particular corner have been repainted. That is enough of a destination.
This journal is where I keep the things that would otherwise slip away: a row of blue tiles, the sound of chairs being carried inside, the exact shape of a tree shadow on a pale wall. I write with a blunt pencil because a pen makes me feel obliged to finish the sentence.
The three walks are short routes I return to when I need a change of pace. They have no rankings and make no promise of secret discoveries. They are simply places where I have found it easy to look carefully. If you prefer a little company before setting off, meet the person holding the map.