The cultures of Madrid was dominated by its Royal history, centre of the Spanish Empire. The Royal Palace, is extremely impressive as well as other buildings  buildings used by the Spanish Monarchy, enormous cathedrals and churches are plentiful in Madrid, as well as medieval architecture, although nowadays Madrid is just as much a cosmopolitan city as Berlin or London, full of new architecture, lifestyle and culture. After a good nights sleep we set off to enjoy a fabulous sightseeing tour of the city.
 The heritage of this era is indeed still visible in the city centre, where a fiesta or party can be found at all times and one of the most liberal and colourful environments of Spain can be seen.

The citizens of Madrid, who refer to themselves as Madrileños or the more traditional and currently seldom used term “gatos” (cats), live by a daily routine that is heavily influenced by the climate. Due to the typically midday heat during summer, a “siesta” can be still observed during which some citizens take a break to cool off, though Madrileños can usually only afford this ‘luxury’ during holidays and weekends. Most stores are open during all the day; just small stores are often closed during this time. On our tour in our fabulous bright orange coach and our very handsome Spanish driver we set off on our days excursion.
Sunday is a perfect day for sightseeing in any city, no traffic to manouver through, although on this particular Sunday there was an organised run, but our guide and driver managed to negotiate the blocked roads and changed our schedule to first visit the bull fighting stadium, it was mid morning when we arrived so there were not any fights scheduled until the evening, three of our brave fellow travellers returned in the evening to witness a bull fight and enjoyed the atmosphere and excitment in the ring. We also visited the Prado Exhibiton  at the  Museo del Prado which exhibited the first documented Hispano-Flemish painting by a Castilian artist for a period of ten years as the result of an agreement signed with the duque del Infantado, it was definately well worth the visit. and the end to a wonderful day in this beautiful city of  Madrid.