[Formerly YB-2]

Great hotel. They treated us about as good as possible. Bottle of bubbly & a dozen grapes, each, for New Years Eve (tradition is to eat a grape at each stroke of midnight). Here's Fuente de Neptuno from our room. Prado is across the street to the right and 'old town' starts a block to the left. Just follow the Calle del Prado, which runs thru the heart of same. We had a couple of good meals at the Lamucca de Prado a few blocks up on the Calle del Prado. We ask about one of the better Rioja wines and the 'wine guy/owner' brought over a bottle, opened it and poured all of us a very generous pour and joined us to give it a try, on-the-house (excellent, BTW). There are several good restaurants on the Plaza de Santa Anna (where we met for the tapas tour) and Puerta del Sol. We also had a great meal at the La Fragua de Vulcano, about a block off the far corner of the Plaza de Santa Anna. And, about another 1000 great tapas/restaurants in easy walking distance around the area. Vermouth on tap at most (like beer). Make sure to have some pulpo tapas. Hope you have as great a time as we did. Madrid deserves more press as a destination. We are really looking forward to our next visit.