By Joan Scobey

Things are cooking in Madrid, and not just tapas. Real Madrid, its hot soccer team, won last year's European championship and is a favorite for the 2010 World Cup. A roster of world-class architects are redefining its world-class museums. Eight Madrid restaurants now have Michelin stars, and Sergi Arola, the rocker turned chef trained by legendary Ferran Adria, has a global rep.

Once the staid and less-stylish sister to Barcelona, Madrid is now a center of cosmopolitan cool.

Bilbao may have its Gehry and Valencia its Calatrava, but as soon as you land at Barajas International Airport, you'll see why Madrid holds its own as an architectural destination. Shortly after it opened in 2006, the colorful terminal and its undulating roof by British architect Richard Rogers won the prestigious Stirling Prize. In the city center the Paseo del Prado is a Museum Mile of starchitects — Rafael Moneo at the Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza, Jean Nouvel at the Reina Sofia, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron at the CaxiaForum with its dense vertical garden wall, not to mention works by Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, I.M. Pei and Zaha Hadid around town.

You don't need to be a soccer fan to be caught up in Real Madrid mania. This spring the home team paid Manchester United a record $130 million for Cristiano Ronaldo, 2008 world soccer player of the year. Even without him, the team won nine big European Cups and was ranked No. 1 in the world until the United States pulled off an improbable upset in June.

A tour through the Real Madrid Bernabeu stadium, now the fourth most popular attraction in town, fills in all the gaps: a trophy room with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gleaming silver trophies; a museum tracking the history of the century-old team; a vast array of club-related memorabilia; a route up to the Presidential Box and down to the pitch. The highlight: the locker room — the Visitors, not Real Madrid's — where you can have your picture taken with a cutout of the two pre-Ronaldo faves: forward Raul Gonzalez, simply known as Raul, and goalie Iker Casillas. Look for Ronaldo's figure soon.

At the Real Madrid shop you can pick up "hero jerseys," including the new Ronaldo 9 shirts ($85-$145). For all tour particulars, including buying tickets online, visit http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satellite/en/Home.htm.

In addition to those Michelin-starred kitchens, there's great dining at a raft of restaurants, but more fun is visiting a string of tapas bars and sampling several varieties of those tasty bites at each one in an early evening tradition called a "tapeo." If you can't wait until 9 or 10 p.m., the earliest time dinner is served in Madrid, a tapas bar crawl is a wonderful moveable feast and a fine way to mingle with the locals. (Time Out Madrid has great tapas listings throughout the city.)

On a recent trip to Madrid I discovered the one place that beats a tapeo: Cocina Cayena, a cooking school where I learned how to make tapas. In a sunlit kitchen a dozen of us, minimum for the class, worked at a spacious white horseshoe counter, chopping and preparing ingredients for a variety of tapas that chef Mariano Velazquez, who worked with Sergi Arola, actually cooked.

Here's the lineup (and our lunch menu): Tortilla de Patata (Spanish potato omelet), Calamares a la Andaluza (fried squid), Croquetas de Jamon (ham croquettes), Salmorejo (thick red tomato soup with chopped Serrano ham and eggs on top), Pisto Manchego (chopped vegetables cooked in tomato sauce), Scrambled Eggs With Cheese and Mushrooms, and Arroz con Leche (sweet rice).

Cocina Cayena offers four different programs, including traditional Spanish cuisine. Classes, with lunch, are $70-$85 per person. Calle Colombia 45, 011-34-91-359-4487, fax: 011-34-91-359-4102 , [email protected], www.cocina-cayena.com (website in Spanish).

One way to enjoy several Madrid pleasures at once is to dine at one of the field-side restaurants at Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium (see below), where you can sample some tapas, kick back with a bottle of Rioja and cheer the home team. Ole!

IF YOU GO

Where to stay: The Westin Palace Madrid, Plaza de las Cortes 7, 800-325-3535, 011-34-91-360 8000, www.westin.com/palacemadrid. A century-old grand dame with 418 rooms and 50 suites and an art nouveau stained-glass dome was completely refurbished with 21st century amenities.

NH Paseo del Prado, Plaza Canovas del Castillo 4, 011-34-91-330-2400, www.nh-hotels.com. Fully refurbished hotel with 116 rooms, marble bathrooms, flat-screen TV.

Where to eat: Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Concha Espina 1, has three restaurants overlooking the soccer field. Puerta 57 (Gate 57, 011-34-91-457-3361), has a classical decor, traditional cuisine and a voluminous tapas menu; Asador de la Esquina (Gate 46, 011-34-91-443-0675) is for grilled fish and meat; and Realcafe Bernabeu (Gate 30, 011-34-91-458-3667) is casual and family friendly, with an open-air terrace.

La Bola Taberna, Calle Bola 5, 011-34-91-547-6930, www.labola.es. An evocative 19th century restaurant and the place for Madrid's singular specialty, cocido, an entire meal cooked in an earthenware pitcher.

Palacio de La Mision, Calle Principal de Provincias 9, 91-464-7777. Charming patio dining in the Casa de Campo.

Teatriz, Hermosa 15, 011-34-91-577-5379. Excellent Italian cuisine in a former theater that has been turned into a stylish and amusing restaurant by Philippe Starck.

Santo Mauro, Hotel AC Santo Mauro, Zurbano, 36, 011-34-91-319-6900. An international menu served in the library or delightful patio of the former villa of the Duke of Santo Mauro.

Sergi Arola Gastro, Zurbano 31, 011-34 91-308-7240, www.sergiarola.es. Master chef Sergi Arola's newest and most serious restaurant.

Arola Madrid, Argumosa 43, 011-34-91-467-0202, www.arola-madrid.com. Sergi Arola's hip cafe in the Reina Sofia Museum, with DJ music in the spacious bar at night.

Joan Scobey is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.