Hotel Victoria 4

The Gran Vía is famous in Madrid for many reasons, the main one is maybe that it is one of the main arteries in the centre of Madrid. However, Gran Vía is also the area with the highest concentration of cinemas and theatres in Madrid.

You can start in Callao, and then go down Gran Vía towards Plaza de España, Plaza de Callao also has its own cinema and one of the best sandwich cafés in Madrid, Rodilla. This home grown sandwich chain serves really different sandwiches with creative and delicious fillings.

If you continue towards Plaza de España, on your way you will find innumerale little cafés and bars where you can taste some of the local tapas or just simply relax in front of a cup of coffee. In Plaza de España you will be able to pay a visit to the statue dedicated to the great writer Cervantes and his most prominent creations, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

From this mini-garden square you can take the chance to admire some of the local 20th century architecture, like the Edificio España (Spain Building) that overlooks the square with its massive body of brick and metal.

In Calle Martín de los Heros you will find Cines Renoir and Cines Golem, where you can enjoy the latest releases and art movies in their original language.

This is one of the sightseeing routes on foot that you can do from Hotel Victoria4.

Categories: Guías Madrid

Madrid has been since the seventies a great place for going out and enjoying yourself at night. Ever since the “Movida Madrileña“, the Madrid night groove scene, the city has been constantly improving and moving with times.

Madrid has some of the best night clubs in much of Spain, and who knows, even Europe. Balcon de Rosales is one of those places, situated in Paseo Pintor Rosales, S/N, just a short distance on foot from Hotel Victoria4, this nightclub is divided in three distinctive dance areas.

The most impressive area is without a doubt the dance floor overlooking Madrid’s unique and huge urban park, Casa de Campo. Entrance is free but drinks are a bit pricey, between 9-12 Euros. The DJ plays a mix of national and international songs and you can also start the night dining in its restaurant.

Joy Eslava, just off Puerta del Sol in Calle del Arenal 11, has been entertaining myriads of young and not so young people since 1981. This club is well known for the variety of its music and its shows. Tickets are 12-15 Euros.

Kapital has to be the biggest nightclub you have been to, with seven floors and three huge dance floors. It is situated in Calle Atocha 125, in the very centre of the city.

The best thing is that after a whole night fun, you can just take a stroll to your hotel, Hotel Victoria 4 or just simply take a short cab ride home.

Categories: Noche Madrid

Madrid, as any big city, is surrounded by smaller but not less interesting towns. The fantastic public transport system of this city is fast, clean and reliable and it will take to many of all the small towns and villages in the region.

Aranjuez is a special town, it is not just beautiful, but it carries a lots of history for the Spanish people.

The town was declared “Conjunto Histórico Artístico” in 1983 (Historic Artistic Grouping) and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site.

You can start your trip to Aranjuez from Madrid from the stations of Atocha Renfe or Charmartin, from where you can take a train directly to the town.

One of the main sights in Aranjuez is the Royal Palace or Palacio Real de Aranjuez. This Palace is one of the residences of the King of Spain but it is also open to the public.

The other great sight of this town are the gardens around the Palace that date back to the Habsburg period. The Garden on the Island is situated on a man made island, and there you have also the Casa del Labrador a small, tiny palace situated in the Jardín del Principe or Princess’ Garden.

Besides all of these wonderful sites, the town of Aranjuez is a wonderful excuse for a quite day of strolling and sitting down on cafés to see life as it happens.

At the end of the day you can take the train that will take you back quickly to the centre of Madrid, and from there you will just have a short walk to Hotel Victoria4.

Categories: Excursiones

In the centre of Madrid, next to Puerta del Sol, there is a great selection of restaurants, cafés, bars, fast-food restaurants and eateries in general where you can refill your batteries.

Today we are going to visits some of the most celebrated and famous temples of food in Madrid.

One of these temples is Casa Lucio in Cava Baja, 35. The stars in its menu are cocido (a stew with chickpeas, potatoes and pork’s meat), fried eggs, hake or steak.

If you find a table it may be that you will be surprised when next to you sits a famous Real Madrid football player, a member of the royal family like King Don Juan Carlos himself, models like Kate Moss or actresses like Paz Vega. It is a classic venue, where customers bring the glamour with them.

In Calle Jovellanos, 3 you will find one of the best Basque cuisines in the area, restaurant El Txoko.

Their main specialties are cod souflet, oven baked black pudding with apple and also anchovies with olive oil. Don’t forget to eat these dishes with Txacoli, a white wine with an excellent flavour that goes especially well with fish.

Categories: Gastronomía

It is a great and perfect show, a complete menu for dance lovers. The Teatros del Canal will be the stage chosen between the 27^th of October to the 6^th of November for the show “Samsara”, an original, innovative and bold choreography of the Comunidad de Madrid’s ballet by Victor Ullate.

The performances will take place from Tuesday to Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays there will be two shows at 12pm and 6pm.

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Categories: Arte y cultura

The experts say that Madrid is the world capital of Flamenco. Without any animosity against Andalusia, where this form of art was born, the capital of Spain has the best venues where you will be able to enjoy the Flamenco magic.

Passion, strength, intensity, some happiness at times and some pain at times, these are the basic ingredients of flamenco singing and dancing, an art that has been declared Immaterial Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

In our search for the best Flamenco stages in Madrid we will have to stop at El Rincon de Jerez, a venue situated in Barrio de Salamanca. This place has a distinctive Flamenco atmosphere with a daily show.

Another flamenco temple is El Corral de la Moreria, one of the most famous and old flamenco stages in the world, in Calle Moreria, 17. From 1956 it sells out almost every night because of the prestige of its singers, guitarists and dancers.

You will also be able to enjoy a delicious dinner with good quality dishes, this venue has been mentioned on the Michelin Guide. This venue has also been visited by great cinema stars like Rita Hayworth, Nicole Kidman or Natalie Portman.

Categories: Guías Madrid

Autumn has arrived in the capital of Sapin, the cold and the rain are here to stay, at least for a while. It is high time to put your winter clothes in storage, take out the coats from last year and fish for those raincoats and brollies.

It´s also the moment to start looking for alternative plans for your weekends or those days off. Madrid has many different opportunities for leisure.

There is a very interesting visit that you can embark on during one of those winter rainy days. This trip could start in the Market of San Miguel, a few metres away from Plaza Mayor in the centre of the city.

This singular building, built in 1916 is a good sample of iron construction. Now it is home to 33 market stalls selling high quality food products.

The Market of San Miguel is a place where you can buy real delicatessen products, almost luxury items. It is also a great place for enjoying fantastic tapas and different and tasty dishes that will make any mouth water.

When you leave this spectacular building you can go to the Plaza Mayor, in this square, a meeting place for many different characters of the city, you will be able to hide away from the rain and enjoy the wonderful views of a beautiful part of Madrid.

Categories: Excursiones

There is an event in Calle Arenal, 11 in Madrid on 9th of November that you can’t miss, the band Los Delinquentes will play in Joy Eslava. This gig is scheduled to start at 9pm and ticket prices are 20 Euros.

This will be a historical event because this rock band will entertain the audience with music in a multimedia soirée that will also have video projections with images of their past. In this way the audience will be able to enjoy the first images recorded of Miguel Benitez, Canijo, Diego Pozo and the Banda del Raton.

This band from Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz) will play songs from their debut album, El Sentimiento Garrapatero que nos Traen las Flores (The Good Feeling when They Give us Flowers), published in 2001.

They will also introduce songs from their latest work Los Hombres de las Praderas y sus Bordones Calientes, (The Men from the Countryside and their Hot Sounds) with the collaboration of Tomasito.

This band that came together in 1999 is original and different because of its fusion of styles. In their work they blend flamenco, rumba, rock and reggae.

Categories: Ocio y eventos

The Vicente Calderon Stadium has a surprise inside for all football fans, its museum. This valuable exhibition is considered one of the five most important and prestigious in the world of football because of the quantity and quality of the pieces kept in it.

The museum is open for visits from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11am to 7pm. The ticket price is 6 Euros, but if you want you can also pay for a guided tour of the stadium and in this case the full price is 10 Euros.

The museum takes up 600 m2 of space and it represents the history of the whole life of this football team. In the room called “100 of red and white pride” you can find all the different T-shirts models that the footballers in this club have worn during its life, from the old-fashioned design of the first uniforms to the current and more modern one.

The most visited area is the glass displays with all the prizes and cups won by the Atletico de Madrid from its creation on 26^th April 1903 thanks to the efforts of a group of Basque students up to now.

Don’t miss either the spectacular collection of boots and footballs.

Categories: Guías Madrid

The Prado Museum in Madrid will show up to the 25th of September the exhibition called “Rome”, Roma. This exhibition has brought to one place all the works produced in the Italian capital during the first years of the 17^th century.

The Prado Museum can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday, including bank holidays, from 9am till 8pm.

The ticket price is 8 Euros, with reduced prices for students and over 65s at 4 Euros.

Roman classism as a tendency was born to finish with the overelaborate style of the Barroque and its way of understanding art. For this new artistic current nature was the starting point for creation, the source of beauty, following the concepts inherited from Classical Greece.

Some of the most important authors that followed this current were Annibale Carracci, Poussin, Paurl Brill and Claudio de Lorena, among many others, even though they did not manage to achieve international recognition.

The main representative artist of this movement in Spain was painter Juan Bautista Maino, whose work we can enjoy in the Prado Museum including the piece La Magdalena Penitente.

Categories: General