Discover Madrid's top 10 highlights in this extract from Lonely Planet's Madrid Encounter pocket city guide.
KEY POINTS:
Madrid is an ex-convent schoolgirl, a rebellious teenager who pushed the boundaries of hedonism, then grew up and got sophisticated without ever forgetting how to have fun.
1. Watch the passing parade in Plaza Mayor
Pull up a chair at the outdoor tables around the perimeter or laze upon the rough-hewn cobblestones. All around you, the theatre that is Spanish street-life coursing through the plaza provides a crash course in why people fall in love with Madrid.
2. Hunt for treasure at the Sunday El Rastro market
To call El Rastro the largest flea market in Europe is to tell only half its story. This is one of Madrid's most enduring traditions, a place where Madrileos from all walks of life come together to edge their way through the crowds, bargain for cheap clothes or household kitsch and pick their way through the junk for a real treasure. Every now and then an original Picasso or Goya turns up here.
3. Be overwhelmed by Goya and Velazquez at the Museo del Prado
You could come to Madrid just to see the Museo del Prado and not leave disappointed, for few galleries in the world can boast such a rich collection of masterpieces. Adorning the walls in the neoclassical, 18th-century Palacio de Villanueva are more than 3000 paintings (less than half of the entire 7000-painting collection) by the great Spanish and wider European masters.
4. Rub shoulders with royalty in the Plaza de Oriente
Imagine: a royal palace that once had aspirations to be the Spanish Versailles. Sophisticated cafes watched over by apartments that cost the equivalent of a royal salary. The Teatro Real - Madrid's opera house and one of Spain's temples to high culture. Some of the finest sunset views in Madrid. Welcome to Plaza de Oriente, a living, breathing monument to imperial Madrid.
5. Be uplifted by Picasso's Guernica at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Salvador Dali, Joan Miro;, Wassily Kandinsky, Federico Garcia Lorca, Francis Bacon, Henry Moore and Eduardo Chillida should be sufficient reason to visit the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. But as important as these eminent masters are, it is Pablo Picasso who casts a shadow over them all. Above all else, it is Picasso's Guernica that the crowds go along to see.
6. Stroll among the Sunday crowds in the Parque del Buen Retiro
If it's Sunday and the weather's fine, all of Madrid comes out to play at the Parque del Buen Retiro. It's not that El Retiro can't be enjoyed on other days. It's just that on Sundays it overflows with street performers, impromptu drumming-and-dance parties, picnicking families and lovers taking a boat out on to the lake, but still has enough space for you to find a shady patch of lawn all to yourself.
7. Eat and party to your heart's content in the gay barrio of Chueca
Not that long ago, Chueca was a neglected inner-city barrio of tumbledown buildings, rampant crime and ghettoised poverty. Seeing Chueca's potential, scores of young gay professionals moved into the area and dragged the barrio up by its bootstraps. Chueca is now one of the most upwardly mobile barrios in Madrid, a leading contender for the title of nightlife capital and as optimistic a place as you'll find in this city.
8. Shop for the latest Spanish designs on Calle de Serrano
Often distinguished with comparisons to the Champs Elysees in Paris, Madrid's Calle de Serrano may just be the most exclusive, most glamorous street in Spain. Running like a river through the heart of Salamanca, stately Calle de Serrano has drawn the pick of Spain's innovative designers to its banks.
9. Cheer the galacticos of Real Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeau
Real Madrid is as much about glamour as it is football success, and cheering on the latest crop of galácticos (big-name player imports) surrounded by 80,000 Madridistas (Real Madrid supporters) is a spine-tingling experience and one of the most memorable moments you'll have in sport.
10. Return to the hedonism of 1980s Madrid in Malasaa
If the spirit of those endless Madrid nights of hedonism during la movida madrilea (socio-cultural movement in the years after the death of Francisco Franco) in the 1980s lives on, it does so in Malasaa. In this tangle of narrow streets, a retro crowd spills from bars and from the Plaza de Dos de Mayo while DJs and bands pay homage to the 1980s and to the spirit of if you're not hurting anyone, do whatever you like.
* Extract from Madrid Encounter, by Anthony Ham (Lonely Planet). $24.99. www.lonelyplanet.com/encounter
We have five copies of Lonely Planet's Madrid Encounter to give away. Email your details with "Madrid" in the subject line to detours@heraldonsunday.co.nz to reach us by 5pm, Wednesday, February 20.
