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Salamanca , the area north of the Parque del Retiro, is a smart address for apartments and, even more so, for shops. The barrio is the haunt of pijos - universally denigrated rich kids - and the grid of streets between c/Goya and c/Jose Ortega y Gasset contains most of the city's designer emporiums. The buildings are largely modern and undistinguished, though there is a scattering of museums and galleries that might tempt you up here, in particular the Lazaro Galdiano, the pick of Madrid's smaller museums. Taking the area from south to north, the first point of interest is Plaza de Colon (Metro: Colon), endowed at street level with a statue of Columbus (Cristobal Colon) and some huge stone blocks arranged as a megalithic monument to the discovery of the Americas. Below it is the 1970s Centro Cultural Villa de Madrid , which is still a good place for film and theatre and occasional exhibitions (Tues-Sat 10am-9pm Sat & Sun 10am-2pm). Across the square, if your taste runs to tableaux of matadores being gored, or vain attempts to recognize Juan Carlos, there is diversion at Paseo de Recoletos 41 in the Museo de Cera (Mon-Fri 10.30am-2.30pm & 4.30-8.30pm, Sat & Sun 10.30am-8.30pm; ?9; Metro: Colon), a pretty lamentable wax museum. Off the square, too, with its entrance at c/Serrano 13, is the Museo Arqueologico Nacional (Tues-Sat 9.30am-8.30pm, closes 6.30pm in July & Aug; Sun 9.30am-2.30pm; ?3, free Sat 2.30-8.30pm & Sun; Metro: Serrano). As the national collection, this has some impressive pieces, among them the celebrated Celto-Iberian busts known as La Dama de Elche and La Dama de Baza , and a wonderfully rich hoard of Visigothic treasures found at Toledo. The exhibition, however, is very old-fashioned and rooms are often closed for somnolent rearrangement, sometimes at very short notice. In the gardens, downstairs to the left of the main entrance, is a reconstruction of the Altamira Caves, with their prehistoric wall paintings. The Museo Lazaro Galdiano (Tues-Sun 10am-2pm, July & Sept guided tours in the evenings 7-11pm, closed Aug; ?3, free Sat; www.flg.es ; Metro: Gregorio Maranon/Ruben Dario; closed for the time being) is some way north at c/Serrano 122. This former private collection was given to the state by Jose Galdiano in 1948 and spreads over the four floors and 37 rooms of his former home. It is a vast jumble of art works, with some very dodgy attributions, but includes some really exquisite and valuable pieces. Among painters represented are El Greco, Bosch, Gerard David, Durer and Rembrandt, as well as a host of Spanish artists, including Berruguete, Murillo, Zurbaran, Velazquez and Goya. Other exhibits include a collection of clocks and watches, many of them once owned by Carlos V. Not far to the west of here, across the Paseo de la Castellana, is another enjoyable gallery, the Museo Sorolla , c/General Martinez Campos 37 (Tues-Sat 10am-3pm, July & Aug closes 2.30pm; Sun 10am-2pm; ?2.40, free Sun; Metro: Gregorio Maranon/Iglesia). This is a large collection of work by the painter Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923), displayed in his old home and studio; the best paintings are striking, impressionistic plays on light and texture. The house itself, with its cool and shady Andalucian-style courtyard and gardens, is worth the visit alone. A little to the north just off the Paseo de la Castellana on c/Jose Gutierrez Abascal is the Museo de Ciencias Naturales , or Natural History Museum (Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 10am-2.30pm; ?2.40; Metro: Nuevos Ministerios), one of the most interactive of the traditional museums in the city centre, with audiovisual displays on the evolution of life on earth and plenty of dinosaur exhibits. Further north along the Paseo de la Castellana, you reach the Zona Azca (Metro: Nuevos Ministerios/Santiago Bernabeu), one of Madrid's newest business quarters, with its tallest skyscraper - the 43-storey Torre Picasso (designed by Minori Yamasaki) - and corporate headquarters. Just beyond it, and easily the most famous sight up here, is the magnificent Santiago Bernabeu football stadium, home of Real Madrid.
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