My first thoughts on emerging into the daylight at Puerta del Sol: yes, this is above all a European city, a harmonious whole far greater than the sum of its parts.

The promise of another crisp winter’s day in a truly cosmopolitan city quickens the senses, a feeling in the air reminiscent of London or New York. The Paseo del Prado bustles with commuters, a carefully-dressed woman walking her dog, the early-bird tourists poring over street maps.

Even the derelicts have style… classical music emanates from one recumbent bundle of garments on a park bench in the Buen Retiro. They’re a seriously intellectual lot: a sem-permanent pavement book fair stretches down the pavement of the Paseo de Recoletos, near the florid bulk of the Palace of Communications, Madrid’s general post office.

Men in their sixties stroll by with one arm around a woman’s shoulder. Women here are by no means shrouded in black, far too stylish to so limit themselves.

Digital images were taken with Nikon D200 (10 mpx) using RAW format, others are scanned from 35mm Fujichrome transparencies. All are available for licensing.