You can also take a vertiginous ride on the monorail through the roof of the motor museum and on to Palace House and its gardens. Seated in your little carriage, you're twirled around corridors of displays and blasted with the sounds and smells of yesteryear.Beyond the museum, kids can get a taste of life in the fast lane on the Fast Trax virtual racing games, or enjoy a spin through the motoring century in the simulator. But topping the bill is the Wheels exhibition, a multimedia extravaganza bringing alive 100 years of motoring history. You can also explore an old red London bus, while watching a video of its history. There are informative displays on every imaginable aspect of motoring - from road design to spark plugs - while a science section allows hands-on exploration of the basic principles of cars and their engines.

Crammed with more than 250 classic cars and motorbikes, it's like Miss World for four wheels. The bulky Daimler 1899 12HP, the majestic, brass-and-green Bugatti 1910 Type 13, the elegant Bluebird land speed record breaker: these are the starlets of motoring, their glamorous bodywork gleaming with a shine you could powder your nose by. But Beaulieu is not just a load of old cars. You don't have to be a motoring enthusiast to enjoy the museum at Beaulieu Emma Haughton and her family were unexpectedly captivated. Whatever misgivings you may have about the impact of the internal combustion engine, Beaulieu's Motor Museum is undeniably fascinating. Don't hang about, though: this is a well-known prostitutes' corner.

Before taking the airport bus for your flight home, have a coffee in Gijon, Paseo de Recoletos 21, a traditional marble-and-mahogany coffee-house, where elderly gents still hold forth in their discussions or tertulias, as they did a century ago.. Available from Galean, an orthopaedic and exercise goods supplier on Carretas 31. It's a bit nippy just now for a boatride on the lake, or to linger with the fortune tellers, the buskers or the open- air chess enthusiasts, so tramp on and admire the statues, the rose garden and the lovely trees.Icing on the cakeThe coolest souvenir is an oilcloth tablecloth of a post-Franco map of Spain with its 17 autonomous regions clearly delineated. By Sunday lunch time bargain-hunters pile in from the nearby Rastro street market.A walk in the parkThe Retiro, once the monarchs' private garden, is a vast, leafy space in the heart of the city.

Spicy chorizo sausage and smoked salmon canapes will set you up for the day - or at least until siesta-time. Creamy cherubs and gilded curlicues make you smile, and the surrounding cobbled hilly lanes show a gentler side to this roaring city.Bracing brunchSqueeze in sideways to Diaz y Larrouy, Cava Baja 6, a Basque delicatessen and bar that serves sturdy rioja wine in squat tumblers, and a fierce, sloppy cheese called torta de casal with wedges of good, salty bread. The warren of little rooms with wooden benches and tables gives a casual "ahoy lads" feel to a classy operation.Sunday morning: go to churchMadrid's churches are mostly heavy, depressing places but an exception is El Basilico de San Miguel, just off the Plaza de Cordon, a sweet, rococo confection built during the rule of the Habsburgs that could have been plucked from a side street of old Vienna. And the restaurant for unadorned fishy delight is La Trainera (Lagasca 60), run since the Fifties by cheery Miguel Garcia, whose grandfather used to bring fish to the capital in his ice-covered donkey cart. This is an austere haven of steel and leather Art Deco curves, unchanged since the Thirties. Occupy one of the side benches, sip the best mojito in town and savour the hush.Dining lateMadrid may be 300km from the sea but it has the best and freshest fish in Spain, possibly Europe. Or, if gory bullfight videos are not to your taste, head for Chicote, the city's smartest cocktail bar, at Gran Via 12.