Madrid is sometimes seen as the stuffier counterpart to Barcelona. In this week's Travel Show podcast, Fionn Davenport discusses the city with The Irish Time's Conor Pope and Mark O'Neill from the Little Museum of Dublin, and they conclude that the perception is unfounded.

Spain's bloody civil war is sometimes represented as facist Madrid versus the underdog revolutionaries, unfairly says Fionn. "You always associate Madrid with being the Franco city, and Barcelona as being the antithesis of that, when in truth, Madrid fought as strongly if not more strongly."

Nor is Barcelona more fun than Madrid. "New York claims to be the city that never sleeps. Forget about that - Madrid is the city that never sleeps' says Conor Pope. "In Madrid the pubs are comptely desolate until one or two in the morning, and when they fill up, they stay full until 8am".

And Madrid competes well with Barcelona in the cultural stakes. Most famous of its many galleries is the Prado, with its endless rooms of paintings by great masters, but for Mark O'Neill the Thyssen-Bornemisza is most interesting, with its eclectic collection of works and styles. 

To hear the discussion, log on to The Travel Show's soundcloud page or subscribe for free via iTunes.