From the Plaza Mayor to the Palacio Real: You will never get tired of walking through Madrid, especially through the Neighbourhood of the Austrians. This part of the city, between the Plaza Mayor and the Plaza de Oriente, preserves a large part of the palaces and convents of the Golden Age, the 17th century, when Madrid turns on to the seat of the Court of the Habsburgs. You will walk though winding streets and small squares, where you can always find a little bar, a baroque church or a secret garden. On this walk you will stumble upon the market El Mercado de San Miguel, the Palacio Real and the Teatro Real.

From Puerta del Sol to Gran Via: apart from the museums, the churches, the palaces or the gardens, the streets of Madrid themselves are of interest. This route starts at Puerta del Sol, where we can find KM 0 of the Spanish highways. Here the street Preciados starts, according to The Guinness Book of Records the second busiest street in the world. Consecutively the Gran Via, the great commercial avenue in the centre of the city, full with shops, party rooms, cafeterias, cinemas and theatres.

From Atocha to Cuatro Torres Business Area: The great artery of circulation known as the Axis of the Castellana starts at the roundabout of Emperor Charles V, continuing along the Paseo del Prado, Recoletos and the Castellana, up to the Nudo Norte, behind the Cuatro Torres Business Area. Along these avenues we can find museums, Ministries, the National Library, the Bank of Spain and the Stadium Santiago Bernabeu. The fountains of Neptuno, Cibeles and Colon or the sculptures of the Museum of Public Art are some of the monuments that can be seen along this route.

From Paseo del Arte to Madrid of the Austrians: Madrid is an outstanding destination for those who love art. Around the Paseo del Prado we can find the world’s three most prestigious art galleries. The Prado Museum preserves a complete collection of Spanish paintings from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century and has a good representation of Italian and flamenco schools. No matter how fast the visit is, one has to see las Meninas by Velazquez, the Fusillade of May 3rd by Goya, the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosco or Titian’s Bacchanal. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum covers the history of Western art from the thirteenth century to the late twentieth century. In its collection are amongst others paintings by Ghirlandaio, Caravaggio, Van Gogh and Rothko. And the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia tells the story of Spanish and European art from the avant-garde to the present taking as central axis one of Picasso’s masterpieces, Guernica. Very nearby are the Botanic Garden and the Parque del Retiro, where the visitor can continue the day with a pleasant walk. To approach the Old Madrid, it is recommendable to walk up the street De Las Huertas, which crosses the neighbourhood of Las Letras, full with antique shops, tapa-bars and charming cafeterias. Further on the Plaza Mayor, the epicentre of Madrid of the Austrians. In ten minutes, we can reach from here the Plaza de la Villa, where the Old Townhall is, and the Plaza de Oriente, with two of the most emblematic buildings of the city: the Palacio Real which interior is worth visiting and the Teatro Real, with a continuing program of opera and ballet. In this part of the city the views on the Sierra de Guadarrama are spectacular.

Madrid Rio: This great park runs along the river Manzanares for more than 10 kilometres and offers a wide range of sports and entertainment for the whole family. The river Manzanares has recovered its presence thanks to an ambitious plan that has allowed to construct an urban motorway under the ground, the old M-30, thus creating more than 10 kilometres of pedestrian and cycling routes. The new park makes visible treasures such as the old bridges of Segovia and Toledo or the Hermitage of La Virgen del Puerto, as well as new urban icons such as the Puente Monumental del Parque de la Arganzuela or the Urban Beach.