Postcard Exchange

Madrid

Postcard courtesy of Michelle Mock

Cibeles, the Roman goddess who represents Earth Mother, rides her chariot at the Plaza de Cibeles. It was there that I would go underground to catch my train that would take me home to El Escorial, about 45 kilometers outside of Madrid. I was working up the street at the Telefónica and as we left work around 3 p.m. on a bright and sunny spring afternoon, one of my co-workers started teasing me about carrying an umbrella. This particular woman was always nasty to me, so after a brief response that the weather at home that morning looked like possible rain, I quickly walked away from her.

We had not walked very far when a rather large cloud passed over head and suddenly started pelting us with large hail stones. These balls of ice were the largest I had ever seen! I quickly opened my umbrella to shield myself from the bouncing hailstones and ducked for cover in the nearest doorway. I couldn't help laughing a little to myself as my nasty co-worker tried to get out of Mother Nature's wrath.

The hail quickly started melting and before long, I was up to my knees in water. The water drained rapidly from the street and flooded into the subway and train stations below. Transit came to a standstill in that part of the city due to the flooding. When I got home about 6 hours later, no one believed my story. It hadn't even sprinkled that day in El Escorial!

Caption: Plaza de Cibeles