Saturday lunchtime, and the Gran Via and Plaza Mayor are teeming with Christmas shoppers in Madrid.
Cyclists, too, are out in force, gathering for a peaceful protest ride to make the case for leaving the car at home.
This is day one of a UN climate change convention being hosted by Spain s capital, and it is hard not to be conflicted by the collision of consumerism and conservationism.
We are living through times where we want to give, give, give to afford loved ones brief relief from cataclysmic reality, but at the same time we are warned the shop-around-the-clock culture is killing the planet.
At the nearby Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Real Madrid are wearing their mint-green third kit for a home league fixture against Espanyol.
HALA MADRID
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden)
The gesture is one of solidarity with the environmental campaigners eco warriors, one and all, particularly when a global audience can snag a rare glimpse of a shirt that retails around the £90 mark.
At the same time, Real Madrid are wondering what their hipster manager, Zinedine Zidane, might deserve in his stocking this year.
Has he been a good boy? Does he deserve Paul Pogba? Kylian Mbappe? Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang?
Another pair of his beloved skinny jeans simply will not cut it this year.
Zidane, in middle age, still has the chutzpah and the physique to pull off a fashion statement, even if his band of footballers rarely catch the eye in such a manner.
A year ago he was enjoying a break from football, having grown tired of Real Madrid life. He and wife Veronique paid a trip to the Great Wall of China, and days later Zidane enjoyed dinner out with his fellow France 98 World Cup winners.
Retirement for that is how it seemed looked to be suiting the artisan footballer of his generation. A commercial deal here or there kept the money rolling in, and yet nine months after waving goodbye to the Bernabeu, Zidane was drawn back.
