Berlitz Pocket Guide Madrid (Travel Guide eBook)
By Berlitz
()
About this ebook
With an iconic style and a bestselling brand, this is the quintessential pocket-sized travel guide to Madrid - now with a bilingual dictionary
Plan your trip, plan perfect days and discover how to get around - this pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering fun and interesting things to do and see in Madrid, from top tourist attractions like The Prado, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, El Escorial and Plaza Santa Ana, to hidden gems, including Parque del Been Retiro, La Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida and Museo Nacional Centro dearie Reina Sofia.
- What to see: comprehensive coverage of the city's attractions, illustrated with striking photography
- What to do: how to make the most of your leisure time, from local entertainment to the best activities and shopping
- History and culture: giving you a deeper understanding of the city's heritage, people and contemporary life
- Practical tips: where to stay, dining out and how to get around: reliable recommendations and expert travel advice
- Dictionary: quick-reference bilingual language guide to help you with vocabulary on the ground
- Covers: Old Madrid, Paseo del Prado, Recoletos and Castellana and Malasana and Chueca
About Berlitz: Berlitz draws on years of travel and language expertise to bring you a wide range of travel and language products, including travel guides, maps, phrase books, language-learning courses, dictionaries and kids' language products.
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Berlitz Pocket Guide Madrid (Travel Guide eBook) - Berlitz
How To Use This E-Book
Getting Around the e-Book
This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Madrid, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.
The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Madrid, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.
In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.
Maps
All key attractions and sights in Madrid are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.
Images
You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Madrid. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.
About Berlitz Pocket Guides
The Berlitz story began in 1877 when Maximilian Berlitz devised his revolutionary method of language learning. More than 130 years later, Berlitz is a household name, famed not only for language schools but also as a provider of best-selling language and travel guides.
Our wide-ranging travel products – printed travel guides and phrase books, as well as apps and ebooks – offer all the information you need for a perfect trip, and are regularly updated by our team of expert local authors. Their practical emphasis means they are perfect for use on the ground. Wherever you’re going – whether it’s on a short break, the trip of a lifetime, a cruise or a business trip – we offer the ideal guide for your needs.
Our Berlitz Pocket Guides are the perfect choice if you need reliable, concise information in a handy format. We provide amazing value for money – these guides may be small, but they are packed with information. No wonder they have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd
Table of Contents
Madrid’s Top 10 Attractions
Top Attraction #1
Top Attraction #2
Top Attraction #3
Top Attraction #4
Top Attraction #5
Top Attraction #6
Top Attraction #7
Top Attraction #8
Top Attraction #9
Top Attraction #10
A Perfect Day In Madrid
Introduction
The heart of Spain
Culture and nightlife
Geography
Architecture
Modernity and tradition
Options from Madrid
A Brief History
Spain’s Golden Age
Madrid’s rise to Capital
Decline and decadence
The Civil War
Modern Spain
Historical landmarks
Where To Go
Old Madrid
Plaza Mayor
Plaza de la Villa
La Morería and La Latina
Palacio Real
Almudena Cathedral
Plaza de Oriente and Opera
Puerta del Sol
Huertas and Santa Ana
Lavapiés
Calle de Alcalá to Plaza de Cibeles
Paseo del Prado
Museo del Prado
Highlights of the Prado
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Atocha
Other museums
Parque del Retiro
Real Jardín Botánico
Recoletos and Castellana
Around the Paseo de Recoletos
Colón
Along the Castellana
Salamanca
Gran Vía, Malasaña and Chueca
Gran Vía
Malasaña
Chueca
Plaza de España
South of Princesa
Moncloa and the West
Casa de Campo
Excursions
El Escorial
Valle de los Caídos
Toledo
Segovia
Aranjuez
Chinchón
Ávila
What To Do
Shopping
What to buy
Entertainment
Nightlife
Music and theatre
Sports
Children’s Madrid
Calendar of events
Eating Out
Mealtimes
Restaurants and menus
Castilian specialities
Regional specialities
Drinks
Opening hours, payment and prices
Reading the Menu
To help you order…
The basics…
…and read the menu
Restaurants
plaza mayor and la latina
Huertas, Santa Ana and Lavapiés
Palacio Real and Opera
Sol, Gran VIa and Chueca
Salamanca, Castellana and Prado
Outside madrid
Ávila
San Lorenzo El Escorial
Segovia
Toledo
A–Z Travel Tips
A
Accommodation
Airport
B
Bicycle rental
Budgeting for your trip
C
Camping
Car hire
Climate
Clothing
Crime and safety
D
Driving
E
Electricity
Embassies and consulates
Emergencies (see also Health and medical care and Police)
G
Getting there (see also Airport and Driving)
Guides and tours
H
Health and medical care
L
Language
LGBTQ travellers
M
Maps
Media
Money
O
Opening times
P
Police
Post offices
Public holidays
R
Religion
T
Telephones
Time zones
Tipping
Toilets
Tourist information
Transport
V
Visas and entry requirements
W
Websites and internet access
Y
Youth hostels
Recommended Hotels
Sol, Plaza Mayor, Santa Ana
palacio real and opera
Gran Vía, Chueca, Plaza de España
Salamanca and the Prado
Outside Madrid
Ávila
Segovia
Toledo
Dictionary
English–Spanish
Spanish–English
Madrid’s Top 10 Attractions
Top Attraction #1
Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications
Plaza Mayor
Take a seat at a terrace café and watch the world go by at the busy centre of local social life. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #2
Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa
A popular showcase of art of the 20th and 21st centuries, including work by Picasso and Luis Buñuel. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #3
Getty Images
Puerta del Sol
The plaza’s clock tower overlooks the bustling heart of Madrid and chimes in Spain’s New Year revelry. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #4
Shutterstock
El Escorial
The palace created by Felipe II, where Spain’s Golden Age is writ large. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #5
Public domain
The Prado
Spain’s rich artistic heritage is conserved in one of the world’s most prestigious museums. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #6
Corbis
Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales
A unique chance to see the artistic heritage of a working convent over 450 years. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #7
Shutterstock
Plaza Santa Ana
A great place to start el tapeo, the ‘tapas crawl’. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #8
Shutterstock
Palacio Real
Elegant centre of royal Madrid. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #9
Getty Images
La Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida
Goya’s frescoes adorn the cupola of this 18th-century chapel. For more information, click here.
Top Attraction #10
iStock
Parque del Buen Retiro
Its trees, lawns and lake make this Madrid’s most child-friendly green space. For more information, click here.
A Perfect Day In Madrid
9.00am
Santa Ana
Join locals for coffee and fried churros as the day gets underway on this classic tree-lined plaza in the city’s 18th-century quarter. Don’t miss the colourful tiled friezes on bars around the square.
10.00am
Green oasis
Explore the beautifully tended Real Jardín Botánico where dahlias were first planted in Europe. Three greenhouses are filled with desert and tropical flora and there is an appealing garden gift shop.
11.00am
The Prado
Visit one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Do not miss the restored Renaissance Patio de los Jerónimos. The Spanish paintings, largely collected by the royal family, include masterworks by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Goya.
1.00pm
Art and aperitivos
Take a break in the top floor café of Herzog de Meuron’s CaixaForum arts centre where you can sip an aperitivo and look down on the adjacent vertical garden, a rich tapestry of globally sourced plant varieties.
2.00pm
Classic cocido
Madrid’s celebrated chickpea stew, or cocido, with its own soup and vegetables, is cooked the old-fashioned way in earthenware pots over charcoal at La Bola, where you lunch with locals at a leisurely pace.
4.00pm
Guernica
Pablo Picasso conceived Guernica, one of the 20th century’s greatest paintings, as a protest against the Nazi bombing of the Basque village, in 1937. See it hanging alongside his preparatory drawings on the second floor of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.
5.30pm
Shop till you drop
Pedestrianised Calle de Fuencarral, running off Gran Vía, is the city’s most fashionable shopping drag. Here you can find hip Spanish fashion brands from Camper shoes to Custo and Hoss Intropia clothes, plus other European fashion. Cafés, bars and ice cream parlours offer retreats from the street.
7.30pm
Tapas time
Enjoy the city’s magical dusk light with a paseo, or evening stroll, through the sloping old streets that link the Plaza Mayor to the Cava Baja in the medieval old town. Locals end the day there with a glass of fine wine and tapas in coaching inns and designer bars.
10.30pm
Flamenco
Book ahead for the late show at one of the city’s tablaos, or flamenco clubs, like Casa Patas. Here you will witness an authentic flamenco experience and see artists perform flamenco song, guitar and dance in an intimate and atmospheric environment.
Introduction
Madrid was little more than a farming town on the arid central plains of Castile when Felipe II plucked it from his royal cap in 1561 and proclaimed it home to the Spanish Court. Ever since then man-made Madrid, which took the reins of Spain’s Golden Age, hasn’t stopped growing and asserting itself. Though one of Europe’s youngest capitals, it’s had time and the ambition to rival Spain’s more historic cities, including Seville and Valencia. Today it is Spain’s political and economic hub. Only Barcelona matches its metropolitan importance.
The heart of Spain
Behind Felipe II’s royal decree lay a clear logic: Madrid, smack in the centre of Iberia, would promote the monarchy’s authority over regional power bases in a newly unified Spain. Today, Madrid is that cohesive centre and more. It is a city to which people have migrated from all over Spain in search of new opportunities; a place where few people claim deep roots.
Yet at the centre of the modern metropolis, a region of just over 6 million people, its medieval heart lies almost untouched, the alleyways silent at night. For while Spain has leaped forward economically since the 1970s, Madrid is no less characteristically Iberian for that and revels in its traditional way of life. Once, its immigrants were from the Spanish countryside. Today, its newcomers more often come from Latin America and Eastern Europe, but their new customs and fiestas are equally absorbed into the local pattern of life.
One step to heaven
‘De Madrid al cielo’ is a popular saying, which means ‘From Madrid, one step to heaven.’ As western Europe’s highest capital, Madrid boasts spectacular sierra skies and autumn sunsets, captured by Velázquez in his paintings.
Other regions of Spain, such as Catalonia and the Basque country, are more proudly independent in their traditions. Barcelona, Granada and older Castilian court cities possess greater architecture. Many smaller Spanish cities have finer historic quarters. But Madrileños don’t begrudge those places anything. Their city may be a planned bureaucrat’s town, but its buzzing quality of life keeps Madrid just one rung down from heaven, or so the local saying goes – and many Madrileños believe it.
Culture and nightlife
In recent years the city has nurtured Spain’s most sophisticated cultural life: opera, theatre, zarzuela (a form of light comic opera), contemporary dance, jazz and rock, film, circus and graffiti. All have found new audiences here, as has flamenco, Spain’s