Visitors coming to Madrid are often nervous about being targeted by scammers. A legitimate fear if you don’t understand the language and are reliant on the kindness of bilingual strangers to help you navigate your way around a foreign city. As problems can start as soon as you get off the plane with unscrupulous taxi …
Just one hour’s drive from Madrid, the city of Toledo was once famed throughout Europe for its lively intellectual and economic life, a rich heritage that was deeply intertwined with the history of the Jewish people. Though obliged to pay higher taxes, Jews were left free to practise their faith, first under Muslim and later …
From Islamic origins to saintly bones, to mind blowing miracles, here are a few surprising things you didn’t know about Madrid. Its name derives from Arabic Top of our list of things you didn’t know about Spain’s capital is that its name derives from Arabic. The settlement was chosen for its strategic position high above …
The murder of a 15-year-old boy earlier this year might have left many wondering if Madrid was a safe city to visit. This machete attack was particularly shocking as it took place outside a nightclub on Calle de Atocha right in the centre of Madrid. Reported widely in the English language press, the incident led …
Soviet-style concrete monstrosity Earlier this month the new granite face of Plaza de la Cebada was unveiled to very little fanfare. While locals might have been excited to see a shiny new sports centre appear on what was once an empty lot, it’s hard to imagine anyone was particularly impressed by the blank stone surfaces …
Caught on canvas or let off the hook? Portraiture is a tricky business. An artist has to balance capturing the true likeness of the subject with flattering their ego. If said subject is a nasty piece of work, the job just gets even trickier. This post features three portraits of Spain’s most notoriously nefarious rogues, …
An inconvenient truth For many years, historians did not want to accept the fact that Muslims created the settlement of Madrid. Instead, the story went that the Romans founded Spain’s capital city. But the archeological evidence points in another direction. While Madrid was near an old Roman road that went from Merida to Zaragoza via …
If you’re looking for tours and tapas away from the tourist traps, then look no further! I’ve been running unique tours that show another side of Madrid for a while now. So, with mask laws lifting, it seems like the perfect time to add drinks and tapas to my itineraries. As I’ve been doing this …
Madrid has lost many treasured bars to the pandemic and last year, it looked like Café Barbieri in Lavapiés was going to be added to that list. Though the closure of this institution was announced in May 2021, I’m delighted to report that the café reopened under new management last month. Even better, with the …
Taking place just two years after Franco’s death in 1977, the Atocha Massacre was one of the darkest episodes in Spain’s transition to democracy. However, while the assassins aimed to goad the far right into a bloody exchange that would justify a coup, the wholesale murder of leftist lawyers and trade unionists instead met with …