Sunday, September 11, 2005
Four years on...
Four years ago, I was on a short break in Spain with my girlfriend. We were staying in Madrid, as we had done several times before, and as usual, we took day trips out of the city every other day. On this particular day, we decided to go (back) to Toledo, a couple of hours train journey out of Madrid. Toledo is a lovely old fortified city, built high on cliffs and surrounded on three sides by a river. It would have been a formidable city to invade and conquer in years gone by.
We had been to Toledo before, travelling down from Madrid by train (from Atocha...),and had a wonderful day out, but on this occasion the hot weather and general tiredness prevented us enjoying things too much. We walked around, had lunch, took in some sights, and eventually made a decision to catch the early (4pm) train back to Madrid.
There was time, however, for a last beer or two in a bar near the town centre. We got our drinks and stood by the bar watching the TV. It was showing the Tour of Spain cycle race, second only to the Tour De France in prestige amongst European cycling events I believe. The staff and clientele were quite interested in the event, as Spain has some good cyclists, and one was high up amongst the leaders of the race.
At 3pm, the race cut away to the national news (presumably shown on each hour), and we started to see live pictures of New York. I recognised the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, and could see the smoke pouring out of the top floors of one of the towers. I mentioned to my girlfriend that it was on fire; she continued to read her book and sip her beer. We watched some more but could not understand the fast-talking Spanish commentary even though my girlfriend speaks reasonably good Spanish. It was obvious that something big was happening, but we just couldn't understand what in detail... We asked a barmen what was being reported, and one word he said that even I could make out was "kamikazi". A plane had, presumably, crashed into one of the towers.
I told my girlfriend about a plane that was (I think) deliberately flown into the Empire State Building in New York way back in the thirties; I remembered seeing photos of it's tail sticking out of the building.
We continued to watch, drinking our beers, and my girlfriend went to the upstairs toilet. While she was there, I watched the TV in amazement as a plane crashed into a tower. I thought it fascinating that they had film of the event, then realised to my horror that the second tower was now on fire, and that it was another, different, plane that had crashed. She came downstairs and I told her what I'd witnessed. We continued to watch, trying to make out what the commentary was saying. We got some more beers, as we decided not to catch the train back to Madrid just yet.
I guess you all know the sequence of events that happened next in reality, but this was incredibly surreal for us; in a foreign (albeit European) land, not fully understanding what we were seeing or hearing. Eventually, the towers collapsed, one before the other. I saw the first come down on my way down the stairs from the loo. Sadly, we guessed how many people may have died - I gave a best guesstimate at 1,500, a worst at 10,000. I said that this day would go down as one of the most infamous in history, imprinting 11th September onto my brain.
We then saw captions about the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania flights which also crashed, plus film of smoke rising from the Pentagon. Some Americans (and Canadians I seem to remember) also came into the bar, and watched the TV for a while until it became too hard for them to take.
Finally, in a sense of bewilderment, we left and walked back to the station. On the train there were some other Americans trying to phone home to get news. We got back to our Madrid hotel and watched the TV news, showing more and more pictures of the planes hitting the towers from different angles in graphic detail. Neither of us had much appetite that night.
Four years later and Madrid's Atocha station, the train station we used on 9/11, and Tavistock Square in London (where my girlfriend works and I used to) have both been scenes of subsequent al-Queda linked terrorist attrocities, bomb attacks on innocent local people.
We will never forget what happened in the US on 11th September 2001, and the recent bombs in Madrid and London are stark reminders of how close we actually all are to the murderers at any one moment. Dates like 9/11, 9/3, and 7/7 will get into the history books, but the perpetrators will never be famous. And that's because they will never win.
We had been to Toledo before, travelling down from Madrid by train (from Atocha...),and had a wonderful day out, but on this occasion the hot weather and general tiredness prevented us enjoying things too much. We walked around, had lunch, took in some sights, and eventually made a decision to catch the early (4pm) train back to Madrid.
There was time, however, for a last beer or two in a bar near the town centre. We got our drinks and stood by the bar watching the TV. It was showing the Tour of Spain cycle race, second only to the Tour De France in prestige amongst European cycling events I believe. The staff and clientele were quite interested in the event, as Spain has some good cyclists, and one was high up amongst the leaders of the race.
At 3pm, the race cut away to the national news (presumably shown on each hour), and we started to see live pictures of New York. I recognised the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, and could see the smoke pouring out of the top floors of one of the towers. I mentioned to my girlfriend that it was on fire; she continued to read her book and sip her beer. We watched some more but could not understand the fast-talking Spanish commentary even though my girlfriend speaks reasonably good Spanish. It was obvious that something big was happening, but we just couldn't understand what in detail... We asked a barmen what was being reported, and one word he said that even I could make out was "kamikazi". A plane had, presumably, crashed into one of the towers.
I told my girlfriend about a plane that was (I think) deliberately flown into the Empire State Building in New York way back in the thirties; I remembered seeing photos of it's tail sticking out of the building.
We continued to watch, drinking our beers, and my girlfriend went to the upstairs toilet. While she was there, I watched the TV in amazement as a plane crashed into a tower. I thought it fascinating that they had film of the event, then realised to my horror that the second tower was now on fire, and that it was another, different, plane that had crashed. She came downstairs and I told her what I'd witnessed. We continued to watch, trying to make out what the commentary was saying. We got some more beers, as we decided not to catch the train back to Madrid just yet.
I guess you all know the sequence of events that happened next in reality, but this was incredibly surreal for us; in a foreign (albeit European) land, not fully understanding what we were seeing or hearing. Eventually, the towers collapsed, one before the other. I saw the first come down on my way down the stairs from the loo. Sadly, we guessed how many people may have died - I gave a best guesstimate at 1,500, a worst at 10,000. I said that this day would go down as one of the most infamous in history, imprinting 11th September onto my brain.
We then saw captions about the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania flights which also crashed, plus film of smoke rising from the Pentagon. Some Americans (and Canadians I seem to remember) also came into the bar, and watched the TV for a while until it became too hard for them to take.
Finally, in a sense of bewilderment, we left and walked back to the station. On the train there were some other Americans trying to phone home to get news. We got back to our Madrid hotel and watched the TV news, showing more and more pictures of the planes hitting the towers from different angles in graphic detail. Neither of us had much appetite that night.
Four years later and Madrid's Atocha station, the train station we used on 9/11, and Tavistock Square in London (where my girlfriend works and I used to) have both been scenes of subsequent al-Queda linked terrorist attrocities, bomb attacks on innocent local people.
We will never forget what happened in the US on 11th September 2001, and the recent bombs in Madrid and London are stark reminders of how close we actually all are to the murderers at any one moment. Dates like 9/11, 9/3, and 7/7 will get into the history books, but the perpetrators will never be famous. And that's because they will never win.
