Amazing Toledo
by agarcia
Former capital of Spain, Toledo is certainly one of Madrid's better daytrips. The city historic center, with its remarkable medieval flavor, was designated by Unesco as a world heritage place, and thus ensuring an endless succession of tourist shops, tourist restaurants and a healthy dose of traffic jams due to the presence of tour buses in the area. However, not being an "off the beaten path" location doesn't conceal Toledo any of its multiple attractions: The gothic cathedral, the imposing Alcazar, countless museums... this is a location that deserves a whole VT page (working on it ;-) ) http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/3c2c4/3db3e/
On the sweet side: churros and turrón
by marielexoteria
I remember eating churros first in my home town when I was a kid. Those days they sold them with sugar on top. Nowadays there's a place called Soleil where you can buy them with vanilla cream, apple, nutella, etc. fillings.
You might be wondering, what is "churros"? A churro is a pastry made of fried dough. This dough has flour, oil, sugar and salt. The dough is then mixed and squeezed out of a churrera, a syringe with a star-shaped nozzle (much like those used when putting the frost on cakes). You can also find them with fillings like those above.
In Spain they're traditionally eaten at breakfast with hot cocoa but they can be enjoyed at any time of the day.
Another sweet I grew up seeing my dad eating is turrón. I never liked it and IMO it's an acquired taste. A turrón is best explained as hard nougat mixed with toasted almonds, sugar, egg white and honey. Turrón is a seasonal sweet and it's consumed during Christmas, but I managed to find some at the tax free shop at Barajas airport in June, which I sent to my dad as Father's day present.
La Barranca
by aeroarce
This is a natural place near the village of Navacerrada, at Madrid's mountains. The place is superb and a great walk between pines an jaras. You reach the entrance after passing a ruined hospital and there is a litle dum (where the pic was taken). At that level you have two parkings to leave the car (almost the only way to get there). Then a track starts going up mountain following a river, it has some recreational areas to pic-nic, and you can follow the path or loose your self on any of the litle paths that start along and walk around.
Fnac
by jacob_m about Department Stores
Fnac is orignially a French chain but has entered foreign markets and now exist in countries like Spain, Portugal and Belgium.
They offer a very large assortment of CD's, videos and books and often have sales and promotions.
This must be the largest musicshop in Madrid. Three floors (or was it four?). CDs, Videos, Books. Average prices. Neither cheaper, nor more expensive than average.
The Wizard
by vanessadb about El Mago
El Mago (read The Wizard) is a charming small bar in the Malasaña district open till late. It's basically composed by a bar, that almost takes up all the space, but if you're lucky you might find a comfortable seat in one of the cute little niches behind... some of these offer you a pretty romantic setting ;-)
Drinks are cheap too, so it's a pretty good place to go to relax a bit before heading to the afterhours to dance yourself away. None
Sign in with Facebook
In front of Museo del Prado
Real Monasterio de La Encarnación (Madrid, España)
1917 vodka bar
Plaza Mayor (Madrid, España/Spain)
