MADRID

Situated on the 40th parallel (on the Castilian Meseta), Madrid occupies the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula. The city stands at a height of 2,200 feet above sea level, its buildings rooted in the sandy soil of some low hills. It is sufficient to say that the reproductions of its luminous skies gave world fame to the best painter of all times: Vel�zquez. The beautiful skies of Madrid have since been described as "Velasque�os".

Madrid enjoys more cloudless days than almost any other city in Europe. The average atmospheric pressure is 706 mm.The air is purified in the peaks and pine groves of the nearby Guadarrama mountain range. Spring in Madrid is a season of bright sunshine and cool breezes. In autumn there are those clear blue Vel�zquez skies and the air is warm. King Philip III, born in Madrid, made it the capital of Spain in 16'6, at a time when "Don Quixote" had already become a familiar figure in the world. Precisely one year previously, its first edition was printed on the presses of Juan de la Cuesta, in the popular street of Atocha. Madrid has its small river, the Manzanares, which contains little water but is spanned by several historic bridges. All the main roads of Spain radiate from the "Kilometer 0" mark.Madrid has the railroad station: Chamart�n and Atocha, as well as the South bus station. You may reach Madrid by air through the Madrid-Barajas International Airport. Madrid's Puerta del Sol is lively and popular and is the terminus for all the underground railway communications (Metro) and many of the buses. Over the last ten or fifteen years Madrid has grown by leaps and bounds. The population is now four million and the city spreads over an are of 607 square kilometers. There is much of great historical interest and some things that are modern and of undoubted value. We have the Madrid of the House of Austria, the Madrid of Bourbon Kinds, Goya's Madrid,the Madrid of the Prado Museum, and the Madrid of the Romantics or Isabelline. There is the commercial, financial and industrial Madrid as well as the picturesque Madrid of the Rastro (a sort of flea market); the Bull-fighting Madrid; the "Flamenco" Madrid with its singers,dancers and guitarist; and the Madrid of antique dealers and artists. We shall get to know them all in duecourse.

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