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我在马德里的探索之旅最终确定由一位女仆来负责接待。她曾3次提着一篮的清洁剂和一把扫帚闯进我的房里，见我缩进被单里，她还用夸张的嗓门喊道：“喂！对不起了！”临走前把门甩上之际，她还刻意用手上的东西撞击大门，发出很大的声响。由于我不想第4次经历此种遭遇，便换上衣服，在旅馆餐室叫了热巧克力饮料和一碟奶酪条，然后前往旅行指南称为“旧马德里”的地方：
It was a maid who was ultimately responsible for my voyage of exploration around Madrid. Three times she burst into my room with a broom and basket of cleaning fluids and, at the sight of a huddled shape in the sheets, exclaimed with theatrical alarm, 'ìHolà! Perdone', before leaving again, taking care to let her utensils collide loudly with the door as she slammed it. Because I did not wish to encounter this apparition a fourth time, I dressed, ordered a hot chocolate and a plate of batter sticks in the hotel bar and made my way to a part of town identified by one of my guidebooks as 'Old Madrid':
我站在卡瑞塔斯街和“太阳门”的交叉处一角。这里隐约构成一个半月形区域，有座卡洛斯三世（Carlos Ⅲ, 1759—1788）骑马的塑像。这天阳光明媚，有许多旅客一面照相，一面听导游的讲解。我则越发焦急地想知道自己在这里应该做些什么、想些什么。
When Felipe II chose Madrid as his capital in 1561, it was a small Castilian town with a population of barely 20,000. In the following years, it was to grow into the nerve centre of a mighty empire. Narrow streets with houses and medieval churches began to grow up behind the old Moorish fortress, which was later replaced by a Gothic palace and eventually by the present-day Bourbon palace, the Palacio Real. The 16th century city is known as the 'Madrid de los Austrias' after the Habsburg dynasty. At this time, monasteries were endowed and churches and palaces were built. In the 17th century, the Plaza Mayor was added and the Puerta del Sol became the spiritual and geographical heart of Spain.
1561年，菲利普二世把马德里定为他的首都时，它只是卡斯提尔高原上的小镇，人口不过20000。马德里在接下来的几年里，发展成为一个强大帝国的枢纽。在摩尔式要塞的后方，出现了狭窄的街道，街道两旁建起了房子和中世纪风格的教堂。要塞后来被哥特式的宫殿取代，最后才成为今天我们见到的波旁王朝式宫殿——皇家宫殿（Palacio Real）。这座城市因16世纪哈普斯堡王朝的统治而被称为“奥地利人统治时期的马德里”。这段时间，修道院受到资助，教堂和宫殿也建了起来。到了17世纪，增添了“大广场”（Plaza Mayor），而“太阳门”（Puerta del Sol）也成为西班牙的宗教和地理中心。
I stood on the corner of the Calle de Carretas and the Puerta del Sol, an undistinguished half-moon-shaped junction, in the middle of which Carlos III (1759—88) sat astride a horse. It was a sunny day and crowds of tourists were stopping to take photographs and listen to guides. And I wondered, with mounting anxiety, what I was to do here, what I was to think.
