three days in madrid--what to do? (and what NOT to do?)

the reason i didnt' like it might have to do with the fact that i was backpacking by myself for a month in europe after college. i didn't plan ahead where i was going. when i made my way to madrid, i didn't get into the city until late at night (midnight to 3am?) and all the hostels were full. so i'm lost in a city with nowhere to stay. i ended up in a really expensive hotel (it was only like 60$/night, but way more money than any of the other hostels i was staying in). the following nights i found a really cheap place (6$/night) but it was all the way at the furthest subway stop. from there i had to walk 15minutes down a desolate dirt road and when i got there, i was the only english speaking person. one time when i was walking along said road, i started noticing condoms littered here and there, and finally saw some people fucking in their car. in my 3rd grade level spanish, i asked the guy at the hostel if there were 'bad women' out there. he said, 'very bad'

i also hear they have nightclubs that go crazy all night, but i think they're probably pretty cheesy

This is one Spanish city I've never been to but were I to visit, I'd be looking for this sort of thing:

http://sic.sapo.pt/images/articles/25381/real-madrid-beckham-raul2.300x402.jpg

Bu that's just me. Don't forget to take lots of pictures!

If you're in Madrid on a Sunday, go to the Rastro flea market (basically around the Latina subway stop). Even if you don't want to buy anything, it's a lot of fun to walk through the crowds. There's all kinds of junk, antiques, clothes, etc. for sale. Watch for pickpockets though (always a good idea to be alert no matter where you're at in Madrid - I got picked on the subway first time I went in 2001).

If the weather's nice, the Parque del Buen Retiro (or just Retiro) is a nice big park to walk through, just a little east of the Prado. The big pond is nice and there's a fun little outdoor cafe (might be too cold though).

The neighborhoods I really like are El Rastro, La Latina, Embajadores and Lavapies (south of the Puerto del Sol) and Malasana and Chueca (north of the Puerto del Sol). You should have no problem finding nice cafes/bars/fun stuff to do. I have some friends who live right by the Embajadores stop, there's some fun stuff to do around there. If you walk from there twoards the Reina Sofia/Atocha train station down R. de Valencia/R. de Atocha, there's a nice free contemporary modern art museum space (called the Casa de something or other) that's worth checking out (I think Wire played a new music fest they had there in October right after I was there). Oh and around Lavapies there's a couple of rooftop cafes, if it's nice, that's a fun way to see the city (I remember one right across from the CNT office).

What else? Walk around the Palacio Real and the Opera for historic type stuff. Near the Opera is a famous churros y chocolate place for late night chocolate (though it's a little touristy). Anyway, have fun!

the thing i liked most was the surrounding area: there are tons of gorgeous small villages, espcially in the mountains to the north. in one of them (i forget the name, a bit past torrelodones) there's 'el escorial', an old palace/monestary that is incredible. and day trips to toledo or segovia are quite worthwhile as well...

xpost also everything hstencil said above is true, particularly about the retiro, lavapies, and the thyssen-bornemisza, which id left out of my museum list due to an inability to spell it. the rastro market is very cool, but suffocatingly crowded in my opinion.

Also, a side trip to Toledo or Segovia is a good idea. Haven't been to the latter, but Toledo is a beautiful city.

I used to not like Madrid so much based on my first trip there (and afore-mentioned pickpocketing experience), but if the weather's nice, it's just as great as any other Spanish city (although generally I like the Andalusian cities and Barcelona a teensy bit better).

I've been there once for a couple of days--& went to toledo--but didn't do much besides visit the prado & a bunch of bars.

Anyone going to the Summercase Festival? Besides the two days there, I was wondering whether I should go for 1 or 2 extra days; any thoughts?

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hstencil and jc otm upthread. Amazing how little such a big city has changed in 7 years.

I live downtown in Malasaña and it's where most of the good restaurants/nightlife happens... the problem is that nightlife in Madrid starts at 12pm so you've got to have some good energy to survive the Madrileñan night. I sometimes start
drinking a few street beers in the plazas (an activity known as "botellones"). The closer one to my home is Plaza Ildefonso, basically you get a lot of tourists and locals drinking beers (sold by shady yet smiley chinese folks) and eating italian fast food in the street, in weekends there's group of people playing guitar and singing and its a good place to meet and talk to strangers. Drinking beer or wine inpublic places isn't precisely legal tho so keep an eye every now and
then, the police don't really mind and they sometimes stroll around to see everything's ok but they might fine you (150euros I think...) if you're very cynical about it.

Most bars around here close at 3 or 4 and then people hit the clubs and will then end in a few shady places (hint: Laidy Pepa and
specially Toni2 are strange but fun places for after-partying. The former is an underground pasta place that gets crowded around 6am and the later bar filled with Madrileñans of all ages singing around a piano).

These places are of course not so common tourist activities. For a more traditional plan I'd recommend Nell's which has brilliant music and is filled with good looking people. Sundays I like to drink in the terrazas at La Latina (near El Rastro) or have picnics at El Retiro or Templo de Debod.

Food here is excellent... tourist friendly franchises are 100 montaditos (tapas and beers for 1 euro), Casa Labra and Museo del Jamon. If you got the money "Casa Lucio" is a great restaurant and "el mercado san miguel" is a food market that is a must see even if you don't buy anything).

"el mercado san miguel"

Co-sign

Any particularly good places with a classic / historical atmosphere for a beer or a coffee? Cafe Comercial?

noted! anything else?

try not to pretend they will care about your success at valencia 11 years ago, and don't re-sign higuain

ha

Don't drink till 5am when you have to catch a train at 8am to a wedding in Zamora.

noted

And don't put your contact lenses in in the toilets near the baggage carousel (so you can wear your sunglasses in the blinding sunlight) but then foolishly leave your glasses in those toilets and only realise once you have passed through customs and exited through a sliding door guarded by gun-toting uniformed men who speak a language in which you can only say "mi nombre no es Juan Carlos". Things will just get messy.

this is good stuff but its no taribo west story

oooh so you're doing a whole spanish jaunt? awesome. how long in madrid? i was not really blown away by the city itself (the museums on the other hand - whouuuuf! if you're into art, you might seriously think about budgeting a full day at least for prado and a half day for reina sofia - and i'm sure others would double or triple those numbers). and we didn't even get to thyssen-bornemisza!

imho it was just kinda blah somehow. but i bet it's a much better place for like, chilling out and drinking and having a picnic in the park than it is for maxmimum archi-nerd adventure. probably a lot of good stuff that just wasn't on our radar wavelength. so we focused on some really interesting post-2000s housing schemes on the periphery, and the brutalism of saenz de oiza (torres blancas) and fisac (some really great churches). but that's probably for the hardcore only. mainly it was a good point from which to launch into a series of really really fabulous smaller towns in the general vicinity.... if you're the kind to go gaga for really picturesque medieval fabric - - - the wild hilliness of toledo (plus contemporary designer super-escalator to get you up there), the golden glow of salamanca's material consistency, the intact and walkable walls of avila, the aqueduct in segovia, and of course all of them have great churches. and those are just the ones we went to!

madrid though... very little sticks in my memory. we ate a fancy dinner in a place in the train station, which is a good "crystal palace" type 19th century train station. i can't remember if the food was really that great but it was a nice setting.

ha im not going to be able to keep up with your posts at this rate

yeah flying to seville sat-wed then train on to Madrid til weekend is the plan.

have heard v similar about Madrid, no great hardship to spend the days wandering and eating tbh

Madrid's a nicely put-together city but the museums are the real draw. I went to the Prado as soon as it opened and immediately went downstairs (most visitors start on the top level and work their way down). I had a room full of Goyas to myself for the best part of 30 minutes.

classic place for a beer: Cervéceria Santa Barbara in the Plaza de Santa Barbara, near metro Alonso Martínez. easy from there to go to Chueca.

I love Madrid, it's appropriately heavy for an imperial capital

but the museums are the real draw

otm

everyone otm, museums are incredible. Also loved the Chapel of St Anthony of La Florida, church with amazing ceiling/murals by Goya.

Bump cos i'll be there soon.
Any recentish recommendations for food etc?

Places to wander around?

I have not been, but someone I trust who eats in Madrid a bit has recommended the following restaurants:

Sacha Restaurante
El Senor Martin
Restaurante Desde 1911
Taberna Verdejo
Restaurante Lana

Knowing them, these restaurants are probably pricey and pretty fucking amazing.

Also, Maribel's Guides (google it) have pretty recommendations for restaurants and sights (better than most published guidebooks).

pretty good

For tapas:

Bodega de la Ardosa (very old school and divey in an interesting way)
Casa Revuelta (kind of a one item place, fried fish, brilliant tho)
Casa Gonzalez
Casa Toni

But obviously this just tip of the iceberg. The squid sandwich at La Campana is worth trying too.

I would recommend visiting the Temple Of Debod also. Google it! Prob need to go early to avoid huge queues but it is sort of amazing.

Oh and if you're into wine and you want to sit somewhere more old school but with a brilliant list that includes younger producers, Cuenllas

If you hit Chueca, you must go to El Cisne Azul. Mushrooms!

Really enjoyed this bit of writing on the Prado.

https://greg-gerke.medium.com/spain-madrid-prado-goya-efc12f7696a9

Was there in February and walking around the royal palace after dark was pretty cool, and the terrace had a nice view of city lights

Prado is pound for pound the greatest museum I've ever been to. Nearly every piece is a famous masterpiece, including some of the most famous pieces of all time: Garden of Earthly Delights, Las Meninas, entire rooms of El Grecos, Titian's Charles V, Goya's black paintings. Just incredible.

I think only Reina Sofia rivals it.

Maybe I was jaded by already knowing about Las Meninas but I was more spellbound by the other Velazquez (and they have a heck of a lot)

a day trip to Toledo on the train is pretty fun.. you can buy a sword!

Haha i'm definitely going to Toledo!

Thanks all, taking notes.

I fell in love with Malaga in December.

Definitely allow some time to see the art collection at Toledo cathedral. It’s phenomenal.

there's a cool old church in Toledo that has an El Greco, took me awhile to find it though... also, it's a real church with people praying and shit, it's not a museum

(Toledo also has an amazing outdoor escalator that just goes on and on)

We had great breakfast at Nomade Cafe (sic, there is another similarly named place) and veg dinner at La Encomienda.

Prado third/fourth-ed. I think we spent more than six hours there.

If cathedrals of sport are your thing, the Bernabéu Stadium tour is impressive -- redonk number of trophys and the building is immense. But if I were around to see a Rayo Vallecano game, I'd love to go there.

Also, the Malasaña neighborhood is fun to walk around in. Didn't realize that's where we were while we were there, but found it just now by searching for "vintage stores" in Madrid. Almost all of them are in that neighborhood.

O cool that's where we are staying! I noticed a sweet looking record shop just up the street.

Arrived a bit knackered and its fucking freezing so ate local at Vega Alamo (Vegan) which i can recommend for anyone coming later to this thread.

Thanks for all the tips. Looking forward to the next few days.

3 days in Madrid is not enough. Particularly if you are doing the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Museo Reina Sofía.

Every time -after hours of looking- when i thought "ok i'm too tired, time to go" i'd turn a corner and there would be something amazing and i'd stay a bit longer.

My tip for anyone going to visit these three would be to buy the Art Walk ticket online at Thyssen-Bornemisza. It costs 6 euro less than at the Prada but gives you the same thing. Walk straight in at Thyssen-Bornemisza, and go to the "no queue" lines at the other two (just ask at the entrance queue NOT the ticket queue). We were worried about queues inspired by varying degrees of confusion online but it took us maybe 10 mins to get into the Prada. Crowded inside of course but not uncomfortably so and if a little patient could get in front of any work you wanted too.

I feel like i hardly saw the city.