Madrid: A Guided Travel Journal

Free. One page. Print it, fold it twice, and it ends up the size of a passport.

Most visitors lose their first day in Madrid because they are running on their own clock. The city eats at two and dines at ten. Bars charge three different prices for the same beer, and all three are printed on the menu. A caña is small on purpose. This sheet settles all of that on the plane.

It is laid out as four panels, so each quarter is readable on its own once it is folded:

THE MADRID DAY

Eight hours that matter, from breakfast standing at the bar to the last metro and the night buses out of Cibeles.

THE RULES NOBODY WRITES DOWN

Ten of them. Order at the bar and pay at the end. Standing costs less than sitting. Tapas are not free here. Never order sangria.

SAY THIS, ORDER THIS

Eight phrases that change how a bar treats you, and eight dishes worth ordering, with the one line each that tells you what you are actually getting.

NINE BARRIOS, AND THE PRACTICAL PART

Where to go and what each neighbourhood is for, plus 112, the metro line in from the airport, and where pickpockets actually work.

No prices and no opening hours, because both go out of date and this is meant to be worth carrying next time as well.

You receive it in A4 and US Letter. Print on plain paper, fold in half, then in half again.

It is drawn from Madrid, A Guided Travel Journal, which is 110 pages of the same thing with room to write in it. Downloading this also puts you on a short list I write to now and then about the next city in the series. Leave whenever you like.