Saturday walk #1 Madrid: art, food & coffee

Saturday walk #1 Madrid: art, food & coffee

Never has a Monday been further away than Saturday morning. You wake up and the possibilities for the two days ahead seem endless.

It's our favourite time of the week and we celebrate it in this series of walks through cities we love. First stop: Madrid!

From Huertas to Chamberí, not to mention Chueca, Callao or Malasaña, Madrid has squares, shops, hotels and restaurants that we visit again and again.

In the Plaza de España is the most colourful hotel we have ever stayed in, the Barceló Torre de Madrid. Designed by Jaime Hayón and decorated with his pieces for Fritz Hansen, &Tradition, Gubi and Cassina. We love hotels and especially eating in bed in our bathrobes.

There are many speciality cafes in Madrid that are perfect for recharging your batteries before a day of sightseeing. We love ACID Café and ACID Bakehouse, where as well as coffee we occasionally buy a brioche or organic cinnamon roll to go.

Colección SOLO is an international arts project that supports and exhibits contemporary artists works.

You can book guided tours of their annual exhibitions and we cannot invite you to do so any more, they are beyond all expectations and always surprise you.

The next step: Formaje, the temple for cheese lovers like us. Manchego DOP, Stilton or Crottin cendré fermier are always in our shopping basket. The aroma, the silence and the interior design by Cobalto Studio make entering Formaje an experience for all the senses.

In the morning, Plaza de Olavide, in Chamberí, is the perfect place to read in the sun, buy wine or books, and in the afternoon, have a beer on one of its terraces. In one of the streets leading off the square you will find Hecho, a shop that sells honest items because, as they explain, you always know who made their products.

Books! We can't live without them. We spend hours reading dust jackets and get butterflies in our stomachs when we push open the black door of the Taschen bookshop in Madrid.

We love stopping in the Madrid Edition hall to have a drink while we browse through the books we've bought. My favourite spiced tomato juice is definitely here.

Madrid's cultural offerings are seemingly endless. If you're not going to see a show tonight, you can always pop into the Sala Equis, where you can eat, drink and watch OV films. Don't miss their cycles and meetings with actors and directors.

While we're telling you all this, we're already planning our return. When will we see you in Madrid?