Barcelona vs Madrid

Whilst most people rate Barcelona as the best city for tourists in Spain, we loved Madrid a little more. Barcelona is wonderful; busy and vibey with loads of interesting areas and plenty of tapas bars and restaurants. The Ramblas, a wide pedestrianized street running uptown from the waterfront is busy all day and night. Gaudi and the modernista architecture is quirk,y to say the least. We had late nights; the locals never eat dinner before 10 or 11pm and found such a great old grill house, we ate in the same place 2 nights in a row. We sampled more than our fair share of Rioja with Dom.We chose the city campervan parking as opposed to a suburban campsite, wonderfully located, but rather like living in a truck stop.
In Madrid Helen joined us and the tapas tasting, late night dining and Rioja sampling continued. Madrid has a laid back feel for such a big city and I think there are more bars per street than any other place I have ever visited. The Art Museums are world class; we visited 3 and each day we suffered from art overload!