hot in Madrid: some variations.

1) by 11 AM it is intense, dry heat so bright that you are already looking for shade. Your face is red (despite 2 litres of water intake). You take refuge in your AIRCONDITIONED hotel or apt, and eat, sleep, and hang until at least 5 or 6 when it starts to get bearable.

2) By 4-5 PM the "bochorno" weather comes in. That's like a blast of windy furnace heat that predicts a storm (or not). If you are lucky you'll hear some rumbling and maybe some actual rain.

3) The steady slow Madrid bake. 10 am, fresh, almost cool. Ah, gunna be bearable! noon, still ok. After lunch (was it the red wine)? the heat level seems close to... unbearable. After siesta, you realize the heater did go up, and now you have to wait until after sundown for the delicious night cool.

Solutions: museums, parks, pools (there are some!), a quick trip to el escorial or another coolish sierra town, and, best of all, for you young folks: party all night, sleep all day!

More solutions: the Botanic Garden; and the Atocha train station, which has a microclimate, (there is a great, very elegant, restaurant inside the station called Samarkanda)

Yes, the Botanic gardens are a great place for a rest in the shade! I spent a couple of hours relaxing unter the cover of a maple (?) tree listening to the gentle sounds of the fountain I was near to. Heaven. The trickling sounds didn't give me a problem because I needed to drink more water, not get rid of any!

Pim, I love those terrapins in Atocha, they can help you to while away the time whilst escaping the sun. They are so funny.

Haven't been or looked at the restaurant though.

Jo

Madrid is pretty hot in the summer but being a Texan I am used to that. All I can say is god love the beer vending machines....we definately need those in Houston!

pim writes: You can't be talking about June, 2001 when I arrived from Dublin (12 degrees celsius) to Madrid (it was still 39 degrees celsius at 21:00). I had to continue down to the coast - our relatives from Madrid had gone to the mountains to escape the heat. Temperatures were around 42 degrees celsius the last week of May and the first week of June. It was a 'heat wave!' Were you there?