After the Maratón de Toledo: Madrid
The Route: Toledo → Madrid Atocha → Madrid-Barajas Airport Logistics: Avant train to Atocha, the centre on foot and by metro, Cercanías or airport bus to the terminal. Marathon Month: November Duration: 2 nights
Toledo ──(about 33 mins Renfe Avant)──> Madrid Atocha ──(about 25 mins Cercanías C1)──> Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD)
The Maratón de Toledo finishes an hour's journey from Madrid, which is where most runners arrived and will leave. Two nights in the capital turn the airport run into a proper end to the trip.
November in Madrid is cool and usually dry, with sunny afternoons in the low to mid-teens and cold evenings. The Retiro's trees are at their autumn colour through the month.
Renfe Avant trains run from Toledo to Madrid Atocha in about 33 minutes, roughly hourly. Buy tickets on renfe.com or at Toledo station; trains fill on Sunday afternoons and Monday mornings, so book ahead.
Nights One and Two: Madrid
Atocha station is at the southern end of the Paseo del Prado, the avenue that holds Madrid's three great art museums. Everything below is within a flat walk of it.
The Prado is the first stop, on the Paseo del Prado a few minutes from Atocha. After Toledo, go straight to its El Greco room to see the painter's work outside the city where he made it, then to Velázquez and Goya. The galleries are large but level, with lifts and benches. It opens every day; buy a timed ticket at museodelprado.es.
The Retiro is the recovery walk. Madrid's great park, behind the Prado, has wide, level paths of gravel and tarmac, a boating lake with the monument to Alfonso XII, and the Palacio de Cristal, a glass pavilion used for exhibitions. A loop of 2 to 3 km is easy; rowing boats can be hired on the lake if the arms have more left than the legs.
The old centre, around the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol, is 20 minutes' walk from Atocha or a short metro ride. The streets are gently sloping. The Mercado de San Miguel, an iron-and-glass market hall beside the Plaza Mayor, is a good place to graze on small plates.
Where to stay. Hotel Catalonia Atocha is a few minutes from Atocha station and the Prado. NH Collection Madrid Paseo del Prado stands on the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo between the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum.
Where to eat. Botín, near the Plaza Mayor, claims to be the oldest restaurant in the world and is known for roast suckling pig and lamb from its wood-fired oven; book ahead. For something quicker, the counters of the Mercado de San Miguel.
Getting to Madrid-Barajas Airport
Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) is about 25 minutes from Atocha on Cercanías line C1, which serves Terminal 4, or by the Airport Express bus, which runs around the clock from Atocha and Cibeles to all terminals. Check which terminal your flight uses.