When in Madrid . . . PedroFono !

[mjbarnes]

We stopped in Madrid for a few days so I contacted Pedro Martinez Diaz to ask if he lived near where we were staying. No, but then he graciously invited us to meet him at the National Library where he would give us a personal tour of a current phonograph exhibition. Pedro restored many of the machines in the exhibit: the library even set up a workshop for him for the process.

Entering less than half an hour before closing, we got a grilling from the guards that my Spanish could not have coped with. Pedro got us entry smoothly. Then his wonderful tour followed.

The library is the holder of 26 million objects, including 650,000 relating to sound and music. Security is "airport level" -- you cannot browse.

Many thanks, Pedro, for your kind tour!