BEST LINKS TO EXPLORE THE CITY & ALL IT HAS TO OFFER:
GUIDE BOOKS:
TRANSPORTATION:
- http://madrid.lecool.com - "Qué hacer hoy" has a list of events happening each day of the week
- http://www.espaciomadrid.es
- http://www.nakedmadrid.com
- http://www.guiadelocio.com/madrid
- http://www.mataderomadrid.org/programme.html ~ event program at El Matadero, refurbished Slaughter House into an amazing cultural space
- http://disfrutamadridmas.es ~ most helpful if you have a DMM card/membership, but still posts up to date events & info
- http://www.ganasdemalasana.com ~ for exploring Malasaña, probably my favorite area
GUIDE BOOKS:
- Time Out Madrid. http://www.timeout.es/madrid/es
- Lonely Planet Madrid. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/madrid
TRANSPORTATION:
- Metro Map
- Tourism Metro Map
- Bus System
- Autobuses Nocturnos (Night bus system)
TOURISM in MADRID
- Museums - The Golden Triangle
- Museo Nacional Del Prado: one of the world's finest collection of European art, based on the former Spanish Royal Collection
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum: might be my favorite museum, originally a private collection of the late Baron Hans-Heinrich (read a brief history)
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía: Spain's national museum of 20th century art, much more modern art than the Prado
- Also see: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, National Museum of Romanticism, Temble of Debod, Museo de las Americas
- Madrid Zoo & Aquarium
- Spend a sunny afternoon in Buen Retiro Park
- Puerta del Sol and all the surrounding area, check out Plaza Mayor on one side, and walk down Calle Gran Vía on the other
- Great shopping on Gran Vía, Hotel de las Letras has a rooftop bar with amazing views
- Walk the Paseo de la Castellana
- Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace)
EXPLORE (wander) THE CITY BY AREA
information & suggestions from Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Madrid ~ http://vwmadrid.org (big thank you to Michael Armstrong)
“Madrid del Ensanche”: vast expansion of the city in the 19th century resulted in this area of aristocratic feel and bourgeois architecture, characterized by mansions, and wide, well-planned streets lined with trees, as well as varied and elegant shopping and dining (quite the contrast from the messy maze of the Medieval-area streets). Includes Arguelles, Chamberí, Salamanca, & Jerónimos
information & suggestions from Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Madrid ~ http://vwmadrid.org (big thank you to Michael Armstrong)
- Chueca and Malasaña (the barrios north of Gran Vía, personally my favorite area in Madrid): are also neighborhoods that made up Madrid de los Austrias (seventeenth century) when Madrid was already the 4th or 5th largest city in Europe. Calle Fuencarral divides Chueca from Malasaña
- Get off around the metro stop Tribunal and explore the surrounding area, starting at Calle Fuencarral. This entire area is great for just wandering and stopping in places, you can’t really go wrong. Especially good area for bar hopping (so many cool dive bars)
- Chueca suggestions:
- Stroll the streets of Pelayo, Augusto Figueroa, Libertad, and surrounding side streets (a gay atmosphere / area, but open to everyone)
- Go to the San Antón market which has amazing organic local food, and lots of little restaurants which make tapas and dishes directly from the food market ingredients. The top floor has a rooftop bar/terrace and although drinks are pricey, the view is spectacular
- Continue to the charming neighborhood of Salesas/Justicia, including the Supreme Court of Spain (el Tribunal Supremo) and the Palacio de Buena Vista (that belonged to the Duchess of Alba painted by Goya)
- Stop in some of the varied, quirky shops along the streets Almirante, Prim, Fernando VI, Argensola, Orellana, etc. until the Plaza de Santa Bárbara, with beautiful outdoor terraces. A personal favorite is Natura, it has clothing and books and tons of awesome home items... worth a stop in
- The best chocolate in Madrid is in Cacao Sampaka, on Calle Orellana!!
- Malasaña: Get lost in the maze of houses and streets with the widest variety of shops in Madrid…conventional stores, organic, design, small libraries, etc.. See the restaurant/café/bar suggestion page because many of my recommendations are in Malasaña
- Plaza San Ildefonso: youthful atmosphere, great restaurants with moderate prices in the square called Conache and Naif. Fantastic, cheap pizza slices at Il Siciliano and they're open well past the closing time of bars... Also visit the market of San Ildefonso, on the corner with Fuencarral
- Calle San Joaquín: go to the café “Tipos Infames: Libros y Vinos” (amazing coffee and wine, peruse books, owned by a few kids not much older than us)
- Calle Manuela Malasaña: one of the cornerstones of “la Movida Madrileña” – Almodóvar, etc. of the 80’s
- Calle Ruiz: Café de Ruiz is an excellent café and specialty cocktail bar
- Calle de la Palma: Toma Café has potentially the best coffee in Madrid
- Corredera Baja de San Pablo, Calle del Pez, Calle Valverde
- Calle del barco: highly recommended restaurant Nanai, with very reasonable prices and amazing food
- SIRIUS Tienda Creativa is an awesome little art and decor and clothing store, all the products are made in Spain and many of them hand-crafted. Great for unique jewelry or Malasaña products, also has photography and art exhibits inside.
- Among the shops and quant houses of Chueca, Malasaña, and Salesas are some of the most spectacular buildings, on the inside, of baroque and neoclassical Madrid
- Interior of the Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, de San Antonio de los Alemanes (Calle Puebla, 22)
- Iglesia del convento de las Comendadoras
- Plaza de Oriente (Palacio de Oriente, Teatro Real, the Cathedral, the old and new Senado of Plaza de España): Historical gem & founding place of the city
- You can visit the palace, cathedral, royal theatre, and senate.
- Stroll along the Calle Mayor (from Puerta del Sol to Calle Bailén), the main axis of Old Madrid ("Madrid de los Austrias," from the 17th century):
- Plaza Mayor
- Mercado de San Miguel (fantastic food market)
- Casa Sefarad-Israel (in a palace of the 17th century)
- Plaza de la Villa (the center of medieval Madrid, with the old town hall and noble houses of XV century)
- Instituto Italian di Cultura (in a palace of the seventeenth century)
- Get lost in the maze of alleys between Plaza de Oriente and La Latina (metro stop)
- See the antigua morería (Muslim town and later Moorish & Christian) with its calm silence in the center of bustling Madrid
- Enter the neighborhood from the Plaza de la Villa in the street, from the Iglesia del Sacramento on Calle Mayor, or from the viaduct of Calle Bailén with its stunning views of the towers and domes of Madrid Baroque
- Milestones of the oldest towers of the city:
- The mudéjares of San Nicolás de los Servitas y San Pedro, from the XII century
- The precious herb garden of the Palacio de Anglona (open to the public)
- Plaza de Paja (with a beautiful Renaissance chapel, terraces, fantastic vegetarian restaurant & Russian restaurant)
- The baroque basilica of San Miguel (very impressive interior)
- The bars of Cava Baja (great tapas area!!!)
- Iglesia de San Francisco (another impressive interior, especially with the the Greek cross and the imposing painted dome)
- The barrio of Las Letras (Plaza Santa Ana, calle Huertas, calle León, calle Cervantes, calle Lope de Vega, etc.): a charming neighborhood, lively day and night, that spawned one of the most influential dramatic repertoires of universal theatre
- Plaza Santa Ana: great tapas area, historically was the center of Spanish polar theater of the seventeenth century, now considered "classic"
- El Teatro Español: in the same plaza, occupies the site of the first permanent European commercial theater, with another in London rising in the 1570's, before European theaters were private or traveling.
- Cervantes, the famous Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright, is buried on the street Calle Lope de Vega
- Ironically, Lope de Vega, another famous Spanish playwright, poet and novelist, has his house on la Calle Cervantes
- Lope de Vega is "the Spanish Shakespeare," in his house you can now see how the great artist lived with commercial success in the seventeenth century
- The Real Academia de San Fernando on calle de Alcalá, where Goya taught, is located next to an opulent Casino, whose restaurant – La Terraza del Casino, on the roof) specializes in molecular gastronomy (great place to bring the parents with money to spend…)
- The barrio of Lavapiés: of of the medieval neighborhoods of Madrid: it's an old Jewish quarter, historically poor, and now is very international and alternative
- Explore the labyrinth of alleys between the metro stop Lavapiés and the calle de Embajadores on one side, and Calle Atocha on the other, from the plaza Tirso de Molina to la Ronda de Toledo
- Milestones:
- Mix of international restaurants, ecological & alternative stores (Tabakalera, Casa Encendida)
- Major cultural institutions: National Drama Theatre (Centro Dramático Nacional) en Plaza Lavapiés, the Reina Sofía Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music (Real Conservatorio de Música)
- Monuments such as the impressive baroque church of San Cayetano
“Madrid del Ensanche”: vast expansion of the city in the 19th century resulted in this area of aristocratic feel and bourgeois architecture, characterized by mansions, and wide, well-planned streets lined with trees, as well as varied and elegant shopping and dining (quite the contrast from the messy maze of the Medieval-area streets). Includes Arguelles, Chamberí, Salamanca, & Jerónimos
- Argüelles:
- Egyptian temple of Debod with spectacular views, especially great to go at sunset or after sunset and see the illumination of the building (until midnight)
- Parque del Oeste with a beautiful rose garden & the terraces of the Paseo Pintor Rosales, there’s also a cable car to the Casa de Campo
- Casa-Museo Cerralbo: offers the experience of visiting a noble palace
- Moncloa area – see the Complutense University, Museo de América (Pre-Columbian and Colonial New World collections) and Museo de Traje (fashion & costume collections)
- Chamberí:
- Fuencarral street to la glorieta de Quevedo (square of Quedevo, intense street life)
- Plaza de Olavide and its surroundings (also vary lively)
- Salamanca: Swanky neighborhood, fantastic shopping, high end restaurants & bars (although you can find less expensive places as well)
- Calle Alcalá from Cibeles, through the Puerta de Alcalá (a large shopping and architectural axis), to Goya metro stop
- Retiro park!!!
- My favorite big streets: Calle de Serrano, Calle de Velazquez, Calle del Príncipe de Vergara -- I live in this area so know it fairly well, there's so many great restaurants and cafés with outdoor terraces & lots of amazing shopping
- Parks & Cemeteries
- Parque del Retiro - MUST SEE!! :)
- Casa de Campo
- Madrid Río
- Parque del Oeste, Parque del Capricho, Parque de Juan Carlos I, Quinta de los Molinos, Parque de la Fuente del Berro, Parque de Valdebebas
- Visit the Cementerios Históricos (Almudena, San Isidro, etc.)
- Madrid bears the imprint of the presence of many great artists and writers:
- Jorge Luis Borges lived for a time in la Puerta del Sol (Argentinian short-story writer, essayist, poet, translator, overall key figure in Spanish-language literature)
- Pablo Picasso in la plaza Tirso de Molina (Spanish artist)
- Pablo Neruda in la Casa de las Flores, in Arguelles (famous Chilean poet & diplomat)
- Diego Velázquez is buried in la Plaza Ramales (Spanish painter, leading court painter of King Philip IV & one of the most important artists of Spanish Golden Age)
- Francisco Goya lived in an alley near calle Santiago, and taught at la Real Academia de San Fernando, a beautiful eighteenth-century neoclassical palace on calle de Alcalá, with its own interesting art collection (influential Spanish romantic painter, considered last of the Old Masters and first of the moderns)
- On different visitable places associated with Goya in Madrid see this excellent article by Andrew Ferren in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/travel/22journeys.html?_r=0
- Buñuel, Lorca and Dalí met and studied many years in la Residencia de Estudiantes, a center for research in the sciences, arts and humanities that led to the incorporation of women in scientific research in the 20’s (near the Museo de las Ciencas Naturales, on the Paseo de la Castellana
- You can see an exhibition on this exciting time in the residence, along with the reconstruction of a typical room when Lorca, Buñuel and Dalí lived there in the 20’s