Things to do — Madrid

Madrid organises its cultural and gastronomic offer around several unmissable poles.

The museum triangle is the primary reason to make a special trip to Madrid. The Museo del Prado is the most important Spanish and Flemish painting collection in the world: the Velázquez rooms (Las Meninas, the royal portraits), the Goya rooms (the Black Paintings, the Majas, the vast historical canvases) and the El Greco rooms fill a full day for a serious art lover. Add Titian, Rubens, Bruegel and Bosch and you understand why the Prado is frequently cited as the greatest painting museum on earth. The Museo Reina Sofía holds the most complete collection of modern Spanish art anywhere: Guernica occupies its own room on the second floor, surrounded by the preparatory studies that reveal how the painting came to be. Dalí and Miró are represented with equal depth. The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza completes the triangle with Impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir), Expressionists and Old Masters — a private collection purchased by the Spanish state in 1993.

The historic centre walks well. The Plaza Mayor (seventeenth century, 129 m × 94 m, 237 balconies) is one of the finest Baroque squares in Europe. The Puerta del Sol is kilometre zero of all Spain's roads. The Royal Palace (3,418 rooms, the largest royal palace in Europe by floor area) is best admired from the gardens. The Almudena Cathedral, completed in 1993, is worth a visit for its neo-Gothic interior and dome views.

Madrid's street food scene concentrates in several quarters. La Latina (Calle Cava Baja) is the tapas headquarters: calamares a la romana in a bocadillo, patatas bravas, boquerones en vinagre. The Mercado de San Miguel (near the Plaza Mayor) is a covered gastronomic market for standing plates of jamón, oysters or croquetas. The Chocolatería San Ginés (open since 1894, 24 hours a day) serves Madrid's most famous churros con chocolate — non-negotiable, ideally at 3 am after a night in Chueca.

The Parque del Buen Retiro (350 hectares, rowing lake, Crystal Palace, rose garden) is the capital's green lung and where Madrileños come to picnic on Sundays. The El Rastro flea market (La Latina, Sunday mornings) is one of the largest open-air markets in Europe — vintage clothes, antiques, bric-a-brac and an atmosphere unlike anything you'll find on a weekday.