Madrid highlights guide

Gran Via is the most central street of Madrid, close to practically everything, in the main shopping and entertainment area of the city. Nearby is Plaza Cibeles square.
Here is Madrid's best shopping area with its many stores on Preciados, Carmen and Arenal Street as well as the Corte Inglés.
El Corte Ingles (The English Court) is Madrid's main department store and Spain's largest departments store chain. It was founded in 1940 by Ramón Areces, who had been working before in a Madrid tailor shop on the calle Preciados.

Midnight on Friday is when the city gets ready for the night's drinking and revelry.

The major museums are El Prado, Reina Sofía Art Centre and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museums.

The Prado Museum. Long queues snake round the building at weekends. You can't visit it in 1 day, you should make several trips, each devoted to 1 particular artist, e.g. Goya or Velasquez. Time we waited in queue: 1/2 hour. Admission: about £ 2 per head

The Reina Sofía Museum, whose long Spanish name is Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, is Madrid's main venue for national and international art exhibitions. It hosts various art-related activities, including conferences, courses, contemporary music concerts, poetry recitals. In 1990 the collection of modern Spanish art was added to the Reina Sofía Museum, and shortly after it was decided to move to the Reina Sofía Picasso's famous Guernica with its preliminary sketches and drawings, which had been kept in the Casón del Buen Retiro, part of the Prado Museum.
This move remains controversial: Picasso had explicitly made clear his desire that the Guernica should be exhibited in the Prado and, although its current room in the Reina Sofía was built for Picasso's masterpiece, people often complain about difficulty in seeing the entire painting, despite the fact that it is no longer kept behind a bullet-proof glass shield.
The Museum is Madrid's Museum of Contemporary Art, the city's answer to London's Tate Gallery or Paris' Pompidou Centre.
This museum/art centre is recommended as a 'must' because it is where Madrid's most important modern art exhibitions are displayed. The permanent collection in the Reina Sofía Museum is almost entirely made up of Spanish art from the 20th century, with works by many major artists: Picasso, Miró, Oteiza, Julio González, Tapies, Equipo Crónica, Gerardo Rueda. But on permanent display are also works by international artists like Barnet Newman and Soto.
On the top floor is the museum's library, the largest in Spain devoted to art.
The museum's building has a superb mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder.

Other main cultural and tourist sites are the Puerta del Sol, Palacio Real, Parque del Retiro (Retiro Park) and Plaza Mayor.

Palacio Real (Royal Palace) in Madrid is described by most visitors to the city as one of the most beautiful things to see in the whole of Spain.
It is a colossus of about 2800 rooms, of which 50 open to the public.
It is splendid, from the glorious painted ceilings and crystal chandeliers to the Porcelain Room and the incredible decorations in Spanish marble and gilded stucco. It contains important works of art including frescoes by some of the greatest artists, such as Tiepolo and a precious collection of paintings including Velázquez, Caravaggio and Goya. Visit the Hall of Mirrors, Queen María Luisa's Plasterwork Room, and the Gala Dining Room, all dating from the reigns of different monarchs. The Throne Room has Tiepolo ceilings and crimson walls.
The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of His Majesty The King of Spain, who uses it for official ceremonies but does not reside there.
The remote origins of the Palace go back as far as the 9th century, when it was built as a fort. On this ancient fortress the Old Alcázar was erected in the 16th century. This was destroyed by fire on Christmas Eve 1734, and King Philip V had a new Palace built on the site from 1738 to 1755, where King Charles III took up residence in 1764.
Visits are free on Wednesday for citizens of EU countries.

Atocha railway station has regional trains, including to Escorial, Toledo, Segovia and other places.