Photo: IDTP-Europe
To see a worthwhile part of Madrid that doesn't figure in most tourist guides, take your walking shoes up to Moncloa, a barrio northwest of the center. You'll find few tourists here, but plenty of locals: families with children in strollers, elderly people out for a walk, and lots of students thanks to the proximity to the Universidad Complutense, Madrid's biggest university. The streets are wider here than in the center, and there's plenty of traffic. Moncloa was my old neighborhood and it's a great place, but it's about as different as you can get from Lavapiés.
