Take a look through these pages for essential background and contact information.

How will you get here? By plane, train, coach, or car? What are the important emergency and official services addresses and telephone numbers? Once in the city, what are the bus and underground networks like and how much do they cost? What you will need to pack: a word on the local weather. Madrid and history: what key events shaped the city over the centuries? Politics, administrations: what forces and realities govern the capital's modern life? You will find answers to these questions and much more in this section.