This site was truly helpful. We just returned from a 17 day trip to Spain. Absolutely loved it. We did a 10 day southern tour (Granada, Seville, Toledo, etc.) and then spent a week in Madrid. It is great how the history of this country has been maintained. There were pickpockets all over (there were three attempts in our tour but we were all city folk and knew to be aware). In Madrid we stayed at the Hotel Tryp-Rex right on the Gran Via near Sol. The rooms are very comfortable and the bathrooms are beautiful. The first night we stayed in a room with a magnificent view of the city but it was noisey. So we changed to a room in the back. It was very reasonable when we booked through Orbitz. The metro and buslines are very easy to use and don't hesitate to visit Chinchon or Segovia on your own. Also, don't miss the Egyptian Temple. In fact, the only thing I really missed was my pillow. Spain has awful pillows.