Madrid

Madrid sits on a plateau more than six hundred metres up, which makes it the highest capital in the European Union. The city stays up late, terraces are still full after midnight, and hot chocolate with churros is an early-morning habit. The Prado Museum holds one of the greatest painting collections in the world, with Goya, El Greco and Hieronymus Bosch in the same rooms, while the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum tells the rest of European art two streets away. The Royal Palace of Madrid has more than three thousand rooms, which makes it the largest royal palace in western Europe. El Retiro Park lays out a boating lake and a glass palace among the trees. Around the Plaza Mayor, bars serve thin-sliced ham and fried squid in a bread roll. And football belongs to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, sold out week after week.