Pickpocketing and theft are a problem in Madrid but it is not something to worry about if you take a few sensible precautions. Obvious things to AVOID are carrying your wallet in your back pocket, or valuables in a back pack on your back – both are asking for trouble. Handbags should be carried under [...]

Street Maps on the web
For a fully searchable map of Madrid, the best solution we’ve found it over at elmundo.es – it’s pretty good on the whole of Spain as well.
To stick in your pocket:
The Popout Madrid Map is extremely handy – small, light and pocketable (includes a metro map as well).
Madrid Metro Maps

Metro Madrid [...]

August
If you can stand the heat… August is still damn hot, but the city is eerily empty. There is no-one here! Most of the Madrileños are down at the beach and the city comes to a virtual standstill. Roads can be crossed in relative safety (there are hardly any cars on most of them), and [...]

Worth checking out:
“In light of the fact that a number of people sent me this week’s New York Times Travel section’s 36 Hours: Madrid, I thought I’d share with you my own 48 hours in the city.”
Read the rest at España Profunda

1. Due to the fact that Madrid refuses to enforce a national no-parking-on-the-pavement law, you can park wherever you please (see photo above).
2. It’s fun. Video game fun in fact, as you weave between incensed traffic-bound car drivers.
3. It’s fast. Faster than any other form of transport in fact. Everywhere is suddenly 15 minutes away [...]

There is no doubt that Madrid is getting taller. Just look at the photo above, taken from the hills below El Escorial. For a long time the Torre Picasso was the biggest skyscraper on the block, but 4 new upstarts have recently arrived in the north of the city. Set to be the tallest skyscrapers [...]