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Madrid, Spain

The capital of Spain is an impressive city full of grand architecture, green parks and lively nightlife. From the Palace Real (Royal Palace) to the club Kapital, Madrid's seven story dance club, Madrid has things for everyone to do from day to night. Madrid, like London, and unusually for European cities, is full of parks, including Parque de Retiro and the Botanical Gardens. The Parque de Retiro is the largest park in Madrid and popular not only with tourists but with Madrilenians as well, with street performers and regular concerts. Home to the monument to King Alfonzo XII is the artificial lake Estanque del Retiro where boats can be rented or sunbathers can relax. The Botanical Gardens is by the famous Prado Museum - Spain's answer to the Louvre- and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. On the city centre, Puerta del Sol is a kind of mini Times Square, close to the exquisite Plaza Mayor and the statue El Oso y El Madroño (the bear eating fruits from a tree) which is the symbo…

“Madrid's hot new district”

By Edward Owen for The Sunday Times First Published June 14, 2009 Until recently, visitors to Madrid’s central tourist area were warned away from the adjacent old hillside district of Lavapies. The former medieval Jewish enclave and working-cla… Read more...

Written by press. Continue reading on timesonline.co.uk

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The best things to do in Madrid

The top 5 experiences in Madrid. There are 21 more experiences in Madrid. See all »

Prado Museum
Madrid's Museo Nacional del Prado has one of Europe's most important collections of paintings and other art. The core of the co…
Guernica (Picasso)
'Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-four bombers, on Apri…
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
The 'Reina Sofia' is devoted to 20th century Spanish art. There are unrivalled displays of the work of Spain's best-known artis…
Almudena Cathedral
Bright, romantic and almost palace-like, the Almudena stands in the centre of Madrid. It was initially designed in the mid-19th…
The Garden of Earthly Delights (Bosch)
The Garden of Earthly Delights is the center panel of a triptych by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. Painted around 1504, The Ga…