I agree. Madrilenos are fully justified in being very proud of their city. They are right in claiming and asserting that it is well worth seeing.
While Madrid is something close to heaven, Barcelona is insomnia city. You live without sleep. Nobody goes to a disco before 2am and you can ring up a friend at midnight and ask: "What are you doing tonight?"
It was through visiting Madrid and Barcelona that I discovered that Spain has its own distinct personality and diversity.
Spain's geography and climate vary dramatically from one region to the next. Flying from Barcelona to Madrid on low-cost airline Vuelling, I saw sweeping plains of wheat on higher ground with vineyards, which in turn gave way to mountains, sun-bleached, dry and rocky on their southern face.
Spain is family-oriented. And evenings are prime time in its cities and villages. In summer, daylight lingers until 10.30pm and clusters of families - mothers, fathers and children - can be seen on the streets well after midnight.
In fact, I saw people walking around at 2am, before power cleaners began working on the streets an hour later. Spaniards think nothing of spending hours strolling or sitting at sidewalk cafés or in town squares.
The numerous bars that line the streets serve a fragrant café cortado (espresso with a tiny bit of milk). And if one feels indulgent - or more accurately, overindulgent - one can treat oneself to fresh-baked almond or apple-filled pastries from the cafeteria.
The restaurants are fantastic and are famous for succulent roasted young lamb and leeks stuffed with seafood and covered with whipped cream, garlic and roasted red pepper sauce. Their sautéed wild mountain mushrooms, huge prawns grilled with garlic and a bit of olive oil, and assorted offerings of wild game are also popular.
I enjoyed sampling tapas, those small Spanish dishes that can be appetisers or a meal. I liked starting the day with chocolate con churros, the Spanish breakfast treat of fried dough and hot chocolate that is so thick and rich that it tastes like liquefied chocolate pudding.
I also enjoyed shopping at Elcorte Ingles and the famous boutique, Zara.
Like the Spaniards, I learnt to sleep late and eat later, so lunchtime, the heavy meal of the day, took place between 2 and 3 o'clock, followed by a siesta of sorts.
Some shops are open from 10am until 1.30 or 2pm, and then reopen at 5pm, so there isn't much to do in the afternoon.
Older men use this time to play cards or dominoes in the bars, and women spend it cleaning up after the large midday meal.
In the warm summer evenings one can sit outside at one of the many neighbourhood cafés, perhaps drinking a glass of cheap but good Spanish wine or sherry and nibbling on juicy Spanish olives. Sitting outside is one way to avoid the ubiquitous cigarette smoke, but it has other advantages. One could watch entire families walking back and forth around plazas or out to the local park with its rows of poplars and jogging trail.
If one feels energetic on a weekend evening one can visit one of the numerous discos and pubs that don't open before 10pm or even 11pm, just after the evening meal is completed.
Spaniards take their culture seriously, and they're eager to share it with interested visitors. In Madrid and Barcelona, Spaniards took me on informal tours of local historical spots, pointing with pride to various landmarks.
Spaniards are lively, charming and friendly. They are congenial by nature, and many speak at least one other language, especially English. They're tolerant of foreigners, and friendly conversations are struck up easily. They have a zest for living. No wonder this nation of 39-million people draws as many as 57-million visitors a year.
For Spaniards, Barcelona was invented for the weekend break. Amazing architecture, nonstop entertainment, fabulous shopping and some of the best food and wine in Spain. The city is also a centre of the art, style and fashion world.
While in Barcelona, make sure you visit the Christopher Columbus monument, the 70m-high signpost to the most exciting boulevard in Europe. Spain's famous son, Columbus, returned there after discovering the Americas in 1492.
He sailed right into the city's medieval shipyard, which has survived almost unchanged since the 15th century and now houses the city's maritime museum.
Around the Port Vell complex, the 8km beach and promenade, you will find bars, restaurants, a shopping mall and a 7m statue of a prawn.
Real creatures of the sea can be found in the aquarium, where moving walkways carry visitors, protected by glass, through shark-infested waters.
Its stalls are piled with produce: aromatic grapes, shiny shellfish, blood-red peppers, giant watermelons, plaits of garlic and succulent Serrano hams.
If that sharpens your appetite, try traditional restaurants such as the atmospheric Caracoles, a rabbit warren of tiny rooms, balconies, corridors and cubbyholes where the din is overpowering and the paella and suckling pig sublime. Enjoy the chocolate croissants, paella, tortilla and gazpacho.
For football fans, the rave restaurant is Magic Barca, dedicated to the city's football team. Decorated with FC Barcelona trophies and souvenirs, it screens the club's matches over the past 15 years.
Visit the Camp Nou, home soccer stadium of FC Barcelona.
Also take a look at La Familia Sagrada - brainchild of the city's loopy genius, Antonio Gaudì, who died in 1925.
The steeples of his unfinished masterpiece tower over Barcelona's rooftops while the walls drip and bubble like candlewax and are pierced with cave-like windows.
All in all, Barcelona is a beautiful and historic city.
Madrid is terrific, particularly its art museums, architecture, boulevards, the bullfights, restaurants and tapas bars. It is hard not to have a good time in Madrid.
On a plateau in the middle of the Iberian Peninsula, Madrid lies at the highest elevation of any capital city in Europe. What particularly impressed me about Madrid was not only its hospitality and sociability, but the knowledge people have of their art and history.
Madrid's Golden Triangle of Art centres probably has more great works of art per square kilo- metre than anywhere else in the world.
The Prado, one of the top museums of the world, is the key point on this triangle. About 500 of its 6 000 paintings are on permanent display. The focus, naturally, is on the greatest Spanish masters - Velazquez, Goya, El Greco and others.
At the nearby Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia Art Centre) one can find the works of Spain's three most renowned modern masters: Picasso, Dali and Miró.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in the Villahermosa Palace, houses the finest private collection in the world, nearly 800 great paintings plus other works owned by the mining and shipping tycoon Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. The three museums alone are worth the trip to Madrid.
All the areas of Madrid that are of interest to tourists are reasonably close together and easy to get around. The Royal Palace and Retiro Park are the heart of Old Madrid, with monuments, museums, churches, historic buildings, grand squares, broad boulevards, twisting medieval alleys, hundreds of restaurants, cafés and fine shopping.
The Royal Palace is a good spot to begin touring the old quarter of historic Madrid. Some of the palace rooms - such as the throne room, the banquet hall and the private apartment of its first occupant, King Carlos III, with its 2-ton crystal chandelier - are so opulent that you have to see them to believe their splendour.
There is also the Royal Carriage Museum, which is outside the palace in what once was a royal park. The elaborate carriages, mostly of 18th-century vintage, include one donated by Napoleon.
Madrid's most interesting church, the Cathedral de Santa Maria Real de la Almudena, is situated beside the Royal Palace. The cathedral officially opened in 1992, in a ceremony presided over by Pope John Paul II; it took a century to build.
About halfway between the Royal Palace and Retiro Park, a vast green zone with lakes, fountains and lovely gardens, lies the Puerta del Sol, the crossroads and nerve centre of Old Madrid. Ten streets converge here and so do three subway lines.
The Plaza Mayor is nearby. Opened in 1620, it is one of the loveliest squares in Madrid as well as one of the largest and grandest squares in Europe.
This is the best spot in Madrid to listen to street musicians, look over the works of local artists, shop in quaint little boutiques and enjoy a coffee under the Spanish sun.
Lastly, what is Spain without bullfights? Every bullfight is a drama, a one-act play, which is why, at Madrid's Plaza de Toros de las Ventas, they only seat people between acts. Latecomers have a beer at a bar on the concourse, watch the action on TV and wait.
Spain - land of fiestas, siestas and the sparkling Costas - also has some of Europe's liveliest resorts and best beaches.
However, it was through Madrid and Barcelona that I discovered that Spain has its own distinct personality and great diversity.
- Visas: South African passport holders need a Schengen visa.
- Getting there: Iberian Airlines flies directly from OR Tambo Airport to Madrid.
- Accommodation: Varies from five-star to budget hotels to inns.
- Getting around: Spanish public transport is good and visitors will have absolutely no problems getting around big cities. Car hire is readily available and the distances between cities are not large. The scenery is always attractive.
- Info: Check out the websites OK Spainand Tour Spain