Dry plateau air, and dinner that starts at ten
Madrid sits high, so the air is dry: sharp blue winter mornings, summer afternoons when the streets empty. The centre smells of churros frying and brake dust. Madrileños watch a foreign car circling for a space with the calm of people who came by metro.
A terrace lunch on Plaza Mayor, and a drive down Gran Vía
Plaza Mayor is a fine square to cross and a poor one to eat in: the terraces are priced for the view. I walk ten minutes south to La Latina instead.
The second trap is the drive-through tour. Gran Vía, Sol and the old town sit inside Distrito Centro, and a loop in an unregistered foreign car costs €200, halved if paid promptly. I would not do it once.
Sunday morning at the Rastro, snails at Cascorro
The Rastro fills the streets below Plaza de Cascorro and down Ribera de Curtidores on Sundays and public holidays, 09:00–15:00, over a thousand stalls. Go at nine with small notes.
Afterwards, snails in sauce at Casa Amadeo. The Rastro lies inside the Centro zone, so do not drive: ride the metro to La Latina or Puerta de Toledo on Line 5.
Register the plate at Bustamante, or park outside the boulevards
The city's rule for foreign plates is one sentence: bring the registration certificate and the technical sheet to the specialised mobility office at Calle Bustamante 16, appointment required. Línea Madrid: 010, or 914 800 010 from outside the city. No fee or processing time is published; book before you leave home.
Even registered, a B or C car may enter the centre only to park in a public car park or garage; ECO and zero-emission cars circulate freely. Cars with no label — roughly petrol before 2000, diesel before 2006 — have been barred from the whole municipality since 1 January 2025. The warning-letter grace period to 31 December 2026 covers such cars registered in Madrid, not visitors.
Kilometre zero, and the museum mile from the car park
Puerta del Sol — the plaque for Kilómetro Cero, where Spain's radial roads are measured from, lies in the pavement in front of the old post office.
Museo del Prado — Velázquez's Las Meninas and Goya's black paintings. Book on the museum's own site; I give it a morning.
Parque del Retiro — walk to the Palacio de Cristal, a glasshouse by a pond.
Palacio Real — on the zone's western edge. I go for the square in front more than the rooms.
Templo de Debod — an Egyptian temple on a ridge looking west over the Casa de Campo. Come at sunset, and park at Cuesta de San Vicente below it.
San Francisco el Grande — a dome 33 metres across, one of the largest in Europe, and Goya on the walls. The one most visitors skip, and my favourite.
Sardines standing up, eggs broken on Cava Baja
At Bar Santurce you eat grilled sardines standing; there are no seats. Taberna Antonio Sánchez cooks old Madrid, and El Capricho Extremeño piles toasted bread with octopus, eel or ibérico ham.
For dinner, huevos rotos — fried eggs broken over potatoes — are the dish of Cava Baja, and Casa Lucio is the name everyone gives. I order them with a vermouth and eat at ten like everyone else.
Sheep on Calle Mayor, then a Christmas market of shepherds
The Fiesta de la Trashumancia walks a flock of sheep from the Casa de Campo by Cuesta de la Vega, Calle Mayor and Sol to Cibeles and back, roughly 10:30–14:00. esmadrid lists 24–25 October 2026; a local news site says Sunday 18 October. I keep the car out of the centre that morning.
The national-day parade is on 12 October. From late November to 31 December 2026 the Plaza Mayor Christmas market fills 104 stalls with nativity figures. Carnival runs 6–10 February 2027, Holy Week 19–28 March, and San Isidro ends on 16 May 2027 with rosquillas, the saint's doughnuts.
What's on
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 24–25 October 2026 (esmadrid); a news site says Sunday 18 October | Fiesta de la Trashumancia: the flock walks from the Casa de Campo by Cuesta de la Vega, Calle Mayor and Sol to Cibeles and back, about 10:30–14:00 |
| 12 October 2026 | The National Day parade |
| Late November – 31 December 2026 | Plaza Mayor Christmas market, 104 stalls of nativity figures and decorations |
| 6–10 February 2027 | Carnival |
| 19–28 March 2027 | Holy Week processions in the centre |
| Early May – 16 May 2027 | San Isidro, the patron saint's fiestas, at the Pradera, Plaza Mayor and Las Vistillas |