After the Maratón de Almagro: Madrid

The Route: Almagro → Ciudad Real → Madrid → Madrid-Barajas Airport Logistics: Bus or taxi to Ciudad Real, then the high-speed train to Madrid Puerta de Atocha, about 50 minutes. Two nights, then Cercanías to the airport. Marathon Month: January Duration: 2 nights

Almagro ──(about 30 mins bus or taxi)──> Ciudad Real ──(about 50 mins high-speed train)──> Madrid Atocha (2 nights)
                                                                                                │
                         Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) ◄──(about 25 mins Cercanías C1)───────────┘

Most runners who travel to the Maratón de Almagro fly into Madrid, and the high-speed train from Ciudad Real makes the capital an easy two nights on the way home. Madrid's great museums are within a few hundred metres of each other on the flat Paseo del Prado, next to one of the best city parks in Europe.

January in Madrid is cold and usually bright. Afternoons are around 10°C, nights close to freezing, and the sky is often a hard, clear blue. The Christmas lights are down after Epiphany, the January sales are on, and museum queues are at their shortest of the year.

From Almagro, take the bus or a taxi to Ciudad Real, 23 km, then a high-speed train to Madrid Puerta de Atocha, about 50 minutes. Book ahead for the best fares. Atocha station is on the Paseo del Prado, walking distance from the museums.

Night One: The Prado and the Retiro

The Museo del Prado holds the Spanish royal collection: Velázquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Black Paintings and the finest El Grecos anywhere, along with Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. It is large and the floors are level, with lifts, but it involves a lot of standing; pick a few rooms and leave the rest. Entry is free in the last two hours of each day, when queues can be long. A timed ticket bought online is the easier choice.

Across the road, the Retiro park stretches over 125 hectares of level avenues, gravel paths and gardens, with the boating lake and the glass Palacio de Cristal. It is the recovery walk: flat, with benches everywhere.

Where to stay: Only YOU Hotel Atocha is across from the station, which makes arrival and the Retiro easy. Hotel Villa Real, on Plaza de las Cortes, is between the Prado and the old centre.

Where to eat: Casa Lucio, in the La Latina district, is known for huevos rotos, fried eggs broken over chips, a Madrid classic and a good post-race plate. Book ahead.

Night Two: The old centre

The Madrid de los Austrias, the old city of the Habsburgs, runs west from the Puerta del Sol through the Plaza Mayor to the Royal Palace. Most of it slopes gently. The Plaza Mayor, a closed arcaded square finished in 1619, is a larger, grander relative of Almagro's own. The Mercado de San Miguel, an iron market hall beside it, sells tapas and drinks through the day.

The Royal Palace, the official residence of the Spanish king, has a long sequence of state rooms on one floor, reached by a grand staircase.

Where to eat: Sobrino de Botín, on Calle de Cuchilleros below the Plaza Mayor, claims to be the oldest restaurant in the world still operating, since 1725. Its roast suckling pig and lamb come from a wood-fired oven, which is the right kind of food for a cold January night.

Getting to Madrid-Barajas Airport

Cercanías line C1 runs from Atocha to Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) Terminal 4 in about 25 minutes. For Terminals 1, 2 and 3, take Metro line 8 from Nuevos Ministerios, or the airport express bus from Atocha or Cibeles, which runs day and night. Allow an hour from the centre.