Madrid for The Curious Wanderers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

A temple from Aswan, 2,200 years old, rebuilt stone by stone on a hill in Madrid; the strangest sight in the city, and free.

A fan, umbrella and parasol shop on the Puerta del Sol since 1858, where a hand-painted abanico costs more than an opera ticket.

Stuffed mushrooms in cave-like rooms of a cellar on the Cava de San Miguel; the whole menu is mushrooms and the bar is the place to eat them.

A marquis's palace left as he arranged it, with armour, a ballroom of mirrors and paintings hung to the ceiling; small and nobody tells visitors.

A house museum of 1830s Madrid, with a suicide-bait boudoir, a ballroom and a gambling room; closed on Mondays.

An 1830 tavern with a bull's head over the bar; the callos and the battered cod are the right order.

A tree-lined slope of secondhand book stalls since 1925; most are in Spanish, but the maps and prints are not.

Madrid's Sunday flea market, a street of 3,500 stalls with antiques, junk and the odd bargain; go before noon.

A Guanche mummy and the skeleton of the Extremaduran Giant, 2.35 metres tall, in a museum few visitors reach; closed on Mondays.

Gambas al ajillo at the bar of a 1906 shrimp house, with the sweet red wine that goes with them.

A violet-candy shop on the Plaza de Canalejas since 1915; the violet sweets are an acquired taste and the packaging is the point.

The Prado worth the reputation: Velázquez, Goya and Bosch, taken in ninety minutes if you choose three rooms.

Vermouth on tap and a tortilla still runny in the middle at a 1892 bar; stand at the counter and be gone in half an hour.