Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, has put forward a proposal for a London-style timetable change for dinners and lunches. Very soon, hospitality businesses will be able to “cater to the international customs of tourists”. This would mean having lunch between 12:00 and 13:00 and dinner between 19:00 and 20:00. The idea has been commented on by Chris Haslam, British journalist for The Times.
“By pandering to those who are unable to integrate, a segregated society is being created (they already call it the guiri or foreigner program),” explains Haslam in his article on the change in restaurant hours. In addition, the journalist believes that Ayuso is ignoring with this measure one of the oldest rules of tourism: Quando Romae sum, ieiuno sabbato. A popular saying that the English use (When in Rome, do as the Romans do) to say that it is the foreigner who must adapt to the natives, and never the other way around.
A custom with a logical explanation
Late lunch and dinner is almost a tradition in Madrid. The city, like the rest of Spain, has the latest meal times in Europe, something that is a legacy of the Spanish time zone and its sunlight time.
Since 1940, Spain has followed Central European Time, that of Poland and Germany, instead of Western Time (that of Portugal and the United Kingdom). This time zone was never adapted to the sunlight time – superiorto that of the rest of Europe – for which the Peninsula is famous. While in Berlin the sun sets around 17:00 in the afternoon, in Spain sunset does not arrive until 19:00 h (in summer the night does not arrive until 22:00 h).
In addition, the number of hours of sunlight and the good weather that Spaniards usually enjoy has promoted the culture of leisure day and night, life in the street. Madrid, directly, is a city without timetables.