Madrid travel info

At eleven at night, Cava Baja in La Latina is packed with people just starting dinner. Every bar counter is lined with plates of jamón and small glasses of beer, and the overflow stands talking in the street. Puerta del Sol is still crowded and the theatre signs on Gran Vía are still lit. Madrid eats late and goes to bed later.

Days are for paintings. The Prado's Velázquez and Goya rooms, Picasso's Guernica at the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen are all within ten minutes' walk of each other, with Retiro Park right next door for when your eyes give out: row a boat on the lake or lie under the trees. At sunset, the slope beside the Royal Palace looks west as the sky goes red.

The city sits on a plateau about 650 m up, so summer days are hot and bone-dry and winter mornings drop close to freezing. There's no sea, but Toledo is half an hour away by high-speed train and Segovia not much more. Watch your pockets on the metro and around Sol; the rest is eating, walking and looking at pictures.

Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD)