Madrid: Living la Vida Loca

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Lolita closes at 4:30 a.m., so we had an early night," said a fan of one of Madrid’s most fashionable bars recently. Visitors to the Spanish capital soon realize that the locals survive on very little sleep and keep very late hours.

It is not unusual to sit down to lunch at 4 p.m. or dinner at 11 p.m. All of which makes the Spanish fondness for tapas a boon to visitors needing some tasty snacks to tide them over to the next meal.

Tapas bars can vary from spit-and-sawdust taverns like the Casa del Abuelo (Calle Victoria 12) with draught beer and wine to wash down a plate of grilled prawns or Manchego cheese to the more elegant Estay (Hermosilla 46), much loved by the Burberry-clad youth of the smart Barrio Salamanca, where the tapas are more sophisticated — as they are in the nearby Teatriz (Hermosilla 15) in a converted theater.

The wine bar is a comparative newcomer to the Madrid scene but it is gaining ground every day. One recent addition is Gonzalez (Léon 12), a former grocery shop turned into an elegant delicatessen with a discreet bar at the back.

The Guinness

STREETWISE Jogging: Best jogging: The track that circles Retiro Park is shaded by horse chestnut and other trees. Once a royal playground, the park has two lakes, acres of gardens, trees and quiet paths. It is popular at weekends with Spanish families, musicians, dancers and puppeteers. Internet Café: Café Comercial, Glorieta Bilbao 7. The places where artists and intellectuals met to gosssip and put the world to rights over coffee, beer or brandy are dying out. But the Comercial, with its tiled floors and marble tables, offers Internet service on the second floor while the old café carries on as it has for over 100 years. Log on for $1.70 an hour from 8:30 a.m. to past midnight. Getting around: Taxis are cheap and abundant with generally honest drivers. Empty taxis have a green light on the roof and a Libre card in the windshield and can be booked by phone (91-547 82 00 or 91-447 32 32). The Metro undergound railway is clean, efficient and a good bet to beat the traffic jams. Buy a Metro-and-bus ticket with 10 journeys for a mere $4. Security: No worse than in other big cities, though beware of gangs of pickpockets who stain the jacket of an unsuspecting tourist and remove his wallet while pretending to clean the stain.

Book of Records claims that El Sobrino de BotÍn (Cuchilleros 17) is the oldest restaurant in the world. True or false, its wood-burning ovens have been roasting suckling pig and baby lamb for over 250 years. It was one of Papa Hemingway’s favorite haunts — he had many watering holes in the city — but there is one nearby restaurant that proudly announces "Ernest Hemingway never ate here!"

L’Hardy (Carrera San Jerónimo 8) opened in 1839 and was a famous patisserie and restaurant with ornate private rooms perfect for discreet meetings and even for plotting financial or political coups. Pastries and chocolates are still sold at street level, which features a towering antique silver urn dispensing steaming cups of sherried consommé. The restaurant is worth the visit more for its history and decor than for the quality of its (expensive) food, although the classic cocido Madrileño, a meat and vegetable stew usually served in three separate courses, is considered one of the best in the city.

No visitor to Madrid should leave without visiting the "Golden Triangle" of art, where three great museums lie within a short walk of one another. The first stop has to be the Prado, with possibly the world’s most important collections of the works of Goya and Velázquez as well as many Flemish and Dutch masterpieces. Across the square is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum containing arguably the best private art collection in the world — 800 works from the 13th to 20th centuries. Five minutes walk down the Paseo del Prado is the Reina Sofía Art Center (Santa Isabel 52) and its gems of Spanish 20th century art. It is particularly rich in works by Pablo Picasso — Guernica holds a prime position — Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró. One ticket provides access to all three galleries for the reduced price of $7.50.

For shopping, the streets around the Calle Serrano are filled with designer boutiques, world-class jewelers and smart leather stores including that Spanish classic Leowe.One thing a visitor soon gets used to in Madrid — the noise. Spaniards talk loud and play loud, what in most countries might seem like an almighty row is merely their way of showing they are enjoying themselves, and the later the hour the higher the decibel — even at 4:30 a.m.