A Whistlestop Tour of Madrid, Spain
Madrid is a modern, world-class, but also historic city - the capital of Spain - located almost centrally in the heart of the country.  A contrast of old and new, Madrid is a beautiful and vibrant city with great architectural interest.  You might find the drive into the city a bit boring with its suburbs of concrete apartment blocks, but once in the centre, you will enjoy the traditional streets, with medieval buildings and some narrow and very atmospheric alleys, containing shops and bars.

The old quarter has a concentration of magnificent attractions including the Prado Museum with its great art collection, as well as the Reina Sofia and Thysssen-Bornemisza galleries, displaying Picasso and many other European and American masters.

The people of Madrid are among the great attractions of the city.

The Madrid-Barcelona air shuttle service, known as the "Puente Aéreo" (in Spanish) or "Pont Aeri" (in Catalan), literally "Air Bridge", is the world's busiest route, with the highest number of flight operations (971 per week) in 2007. The schedule has been reduced since February 2008, when a Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line was opened, covering the distance in 2½ hours, and quickly became popular. Barajas serves as the gateway to the Iberian peninsula from the rest of Europe and the world, and is a particularly key link between Europe and Latin America. The airport is the primary hub and maintenance base for Iberia Airlines. Consequently, Iberia Airlines is responsible for more than 60 percent of Barajas' traffic.  In 2008, more than 50.8 million passengers used Barajas.

After the building was largely destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt and reopened in 1892. The architect for the replacement, in a wrought iron renewal style was Alberto de Palacio Elissagne, who collaborated with Gustave Eiffel. Engineer Henry Saint James also took part in the project.  This old building was taken out of service in 1992 and converted into a concourse with shops, cafés, a nightclub, and a 4,000 m² covered tropical garden. A modern terminal by Rafael Moneo, designed to serve the new AVE trains to Seville, was added to the complex.  The main lines end in the new terminal; commuter train platforms are located underground, at the ingress to a rail tunnel extending northward under the Paseo de la Castellana.

Close to the northern entrance of the park is the Estanque del Retiro ("Retiro Pond"), a large artificial pond. Next to it is the monument to King Alfonso XII, featuring a semicircular colonnade and an equestrian statue of the monarch on the top of a tall central core. The Rosaleda rose garden. Among the many rose bushes of all kinds stands the Fountain of the Falling Angel, erected in 1922, whose main sculpture El Angel Caído (at the top) is a work by Ricardo Bellver (1845–1924) inspired by a passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost, which represents Lucifer falling from Heaven.