Award-winning Travel Writer JOHN TREW’S fresh look at a favourite citybreak destination...

EVERYBODY knows how one little incident can colour your view of a place forever. For example, on my first-ever summer trip to New York, an elderly rabbi wearing an unseasonally thick black coat saw me struggling with a map; he panted and puffed along three sizzling blocks out of his way so as to point out Penn Station “in person”. I have loved New York ever since. I have always enjoyed Madrid,too, and a little act of thoughtfulness on the first morning of our latest trip has helped to reinforce my long-standing high regard for the Spanish capital as an excellent choice as a friendly – as well as fascinating -- citybreak destination.

My wife Karen and I were enjoying a much-needed caffeine-injection in a busy neighbourhood bar behind the stunning SAN MIGUEL MARKET which has become a trendy destination for cultural tourists since its recent refurbishment. To be honest,the café in the covered Markethouse itself offered only high bar-style stools which were never designed for people with short legs and big bums, like me. That’s why I chose to cross the street to sit in comfort at a wee table in a non-touristy place.

I started to take photos of a new bullfight poster taped onto the bar’s glass door which advertised the following month’s attractions at PLAZA MONUMENTAL, Madrid’s world-famous bullring. I could see the bar-owner watching me, so I stopped in case I was doing something wrong. Oh dear, I muttered, as he came over… with a sharp knife in his hand.

To my amazement, he raised the knife and carefully cut the sellotape from around the poster and presented it to me, neatly rolled up. I was overcome with his generosity and protested in the limited Spanish I acquired during my two years of night classes at Bangor Campus of SERC. “Señor, this poster, it is new, not out-of-date. You should keep it,” I spluttered. He waved my protestations aside and laughed: “These are difficult times for tourism, mi amigo, so we need to be kind to foreigners!”

Muchas gracias, Señor. You are a credit to your welcoming country and its vibrant capital which show very few outward signs of the economic hardships we continually hear about. It was therefore a real pleasure to return recently see some of the new – and not-so-new -- attractions that will consolidate Madrid’s popularity with people from our part of the world in 2012 and far beyond.

Big Beach is a Highlight of Visionary Project

MADRID RIO is the name of the astonishing urban redevelopment which has already transformed a vast area of Madrid into a sustainable way of life along a linear park for the benefit of its citizens as well as creating a truly innovative world-class tourist attraction.

This has been achieved over the past decade by moving underground much of the old M30 Ring Road which once cut Madrid in two, and by making the most of the Manzanares River which has been cleaned up and totally re-landscaped. The scale of the project is awesome,straddling a half-dozen neighbourhoods, incorporating 11 new children’s play areas, six zones for older people, 30 kilometres of bike lanes, loads of sports venues,new bridges,old bridges, art galleries, historic gardens – plus a sandy beach alongside the Matadero cultural complex!

“As citizens, we are proud of the outcome -- now that the project has been completed and the disruption to daily life eliminated,” said our charming and knowledgable official guide, Mauricio Macarron. “By next summer, when the thousands of new trees begin to bear fruit and the refurbished gardens are full of visitors enjoying themselves, it will begin to be be seen as worthwhile.”

To read the rest of John Trew's feature on his city break in Madrid and see all the pictures, pick up a copy of Northern Ireland Travel News...

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