Madrid

We landed in Madrid at around midday and decided to taxi the 35-minute journey towards our apartment in Chueca (there are local buses into the centre and trains also) as the kids were exhausted from the early start.

First things first: coffee. A few doors down from our apartment is Breaking Coffee, an unpretentious coffee bar that takes its coffee seriously. As we sat with our espresso tonics and fresh juices for the kids, our travel stress started to fall away.

We explored Chueca, wandered the narrow streets and admired the beautiful architecture, noting the prolific number of trendy cafés, bakeries and boutiques that have popped up amongst Chueca's presumably longer-standing sex shops and dive bars. ("Mummy, why is the biscuit in that window shaped like a penis?” provoked a conversation I wasn’t quite prepared for.)

Chueca seems particularly great for menswear stores, like 305, Blaw and TRG all within a few minutes' walk, as well as some great pop-ups and concept stores. We also loved Dr You, a beautifully curated wellness store, Casa Gonzalez & Gonzalez for homeware, the Taschen Store and gawping at the ornate stonework of the Longoria Palace (worth checking out their exhibition schedule), opposite the Aesop store. Before heading back to the apartment for some downtime, we picked up some snacks for the week and a few breakfast provisions from Colmado de Bienes (there are several mini supermarkets in the area too).

After a rest, we walked over to Mercado San Antón for something to eat. Each district in Madrid is distinct and each has its own fresh food market at the heart of it (many of the stalls are now cafés). Mercado San Antón was quiet on a Tuesday evening so we sat with a glass of wine and a few plates of tapas in the central seating area. There is also a restaurant on the terrace which looked beautiful but is on the formal side – book in advance if possible. Luckily, the market area downstairs was perfectly casual for our overtired, on-a-knife-edge kids.