We did not meet with Gonzalo as he had to make a business trip. But he arranged for his friend, Juancho to meet us. When we arrived by taxi after a delayed flight, Juancho was waiting for us on the street outside the apartment. A great start and welcome.

Juancho gave us a tour of the apartment and was helpful with directions to the nearby local market (Mercado Cebada), supermarkets and orientated us generally to Madrid.

The apartment is clean, comfortable and spacious enough for the two of us during our one-week's stay. It comes fully equipped with household appliances in good working order. We like the flexibility of staying in an apartment rather than a hotel as some days we might feel like cooking, especially with the fresh food market nearby. There are of course many options to dine out being in the heart of Old Madrid and especially in the street where the apartment is situated as the taxi driver told us it was known as the street of restaurants.

Location is excellent and we felt safe walking around the neighbourhood. We walked to most of the attractions and recommend joining a "free" walking tour to get a feel of the city. A couple of times we used the metro at La Latina which is very close to the apartment. We also took the metro from Tirso de Molina to go to Atocha Renfe to catch the train for a day trip to Toledo. Toledo should not be missed although it is much cooler there than Madrid.

After finding our way around Madrid, we decided, on departure, to take the Aeropuerto (airport bus) from Atocha to the airport. This only cost Euro 5 per person and the journey took about 40 minutes.

Communication with Gonzalo was easy via airbnb and he was very quick in his response. He was kind to allow us to stay without charge past the official check-out time, as we had a very late flight and the apartment was not due to be occupied until the next day.

We find the rental charge to be very reasonable for such a great location and would not hesitate to highly recommend his apartment.