Having learnt the lesson from last night that siestas don't necessarily lead to energetic nights out, we skip a snooze and set off an hour earlier on Saturday, heading straight for La Chueca. The streets are even more mobbed than usual and pedestrians weave through bumper to bumper traffic on the narrow roads, the Soho-esque vibe of this area drawing crowds of locals and tourists alike.

Here in this garden of earthly delights there's a few things guaranteed to tickle our senses; good food, great wine, beautiful scenery, fine weather, fabulous conversation, magical music and so on - it's why travel can be so enriching. And of course, then there's shopping.

While New York is famously the city that never sleeps, Madrid is the true 24-hour metropolis with many of its citizens not even thinking about dinner until 11pm and nightlife not getting properly swinging until 2 or 3am and continuing well past dawn. While that seems perfectly reasonable in the likes of Ibiza, I can't see that Coman and I are likely to have that sort of stamina on a short city break.

Coman's appearance in Madrid is a long time coming. It's almost 11.30pm before the knock on the hotel door comes, as I'm flicking through the rather hilarious Spanish ads that run between game shows. To kill time beforehand I've had a lazy wander along the Gran Via and popped into El Jamon, a tapas bar, for some Iberico ham, manchego cheese and San Miguel, but it's just filling the hours until we're reunited.

All work and no play makes William a dull boy... and we can't have that! Not when there's sunshine and excitement to be had away from the cold, grey disappointment of the British weather.