By Jeff Burdick

Madrid is an excellent international gateway with a surplus of cosmopolitan attractions. Madrid is among the great museum cities in the world, and its lively nightlife offers travelers a near round-the-clock diversity of clubs, restaurants, and distinctly Spanish tapas bars. The climate is temperate year-round, and the city's public transportation network is easy to navigate and convenient.

The Museums
Anchoring Madrid's many attractions is a golden triumvirate of top-notch museums smack in the city center. The most visited is the Prado, which is rightfully world-famous for its voluminous trove of Spanish and European masterpieces.

Next is the Reina Sofia Art Center, which houses one of the most significant collections of 20th century art including Picasso's gigantic and gut-wrenching Guernica. Finally the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza contains one of the most diverse private collections of European art in the world.

The trio is Madrid's most famous and visited, but many other smaller, excellent collections are sprinkled throughout the rest of the city. For instance, the city's two historic convents, the Encarnacion and the Descalzas Reales, house significant collections of art and furnishings that are worth the long lines.

The Royal Palace offers an exquisite royal collection inside and a verdant, statue-strewn plaza outside.

Also enjoyable is the Sorolla Museum in the ultra-fashionable neighborhood of Salamanca. It provides an enjoyable glimpse into the home and studio life of one of Spain's later masters. Like most everything in Madrid, it is easy to reach by subway.

Getting Around
The Madrid Metro is very recommendable as it costs just 80 cents (130 pesatas), and trains are frequent, clean and safe even at night.

The subway lines are continually being extended farther and farther out into the Madrid suburbs, with that latest extension being a line to Barajas International Airport.

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