Visit Madrid and not go to the Prado? Impossible. As a Belgian, you can’t obviously pass up the opportunity to admire a Rubens. The Prado owns one of the largest and one of the best collections of Rubens’s paintings thanks to the connection with the Spanish monarchy. There was one painting in particular that I definitely wanted to see; ‘The Adoration of the Magi’. I first came across it when I was nine years old in a Suske & Wiske comic strip. ‘De raap van Rubens’ or Rubens’ apprentice. What I didn’t know is that different versions were painted. The …

Parque de El Retiro really is a gem, a green lung in the middle of Madrid. A place to slow down, stroll, lie down on the grass, read a book or breathe in the sweet scent of roses. You can do the latter to your gusto in La Roseleda, a rose garden designed by Cecilio Rodriguez in 1915. The park has several highlights.To our disappointment, we were not allowed to enter one of them, the Palacio de Cristal due to renovation work. Built in 1881 for the 1883 National Exhibition of Mining, Palacio de Velázquez is now a museum and …