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Parque de Atracciones de Madrid is found just outside the centre of the Spanish capital reachable by its own station, Batán on the dark blue (number 10) line of the city's efficient Metro system

The park is split up into four distinctive sections, with all of the thrill rides located within the industrial styled Zona del Maquinismo, all the childrens rides inside the Zona Infantil, leaving the family rides divided between the remaining Zona de la Naturaleza and Zona de la tranquilidad

The Gran Avenida runs from the main park entrance up the centre of the park which is home to a lavish water feature overflowing with small cascades and many fountains, framed by a large observation platform themed as a tree house which looms over the park, sadly this attraction was closed and seems to be sealed off from the park

Parque de Atracciones is surprisingly green for a city amusement park, the welcoming scenery is enhanced by considerate landscaping, tall shady trees and picturesque fountains, most of which can be appreciated from the Zeppelin suspended monorail that gracefully glides around the grounds

Themeing is another nice surprise to find at the park and is exceptional in places, such as the grand stone fort which serves no obvious purpose other than to stand in front of the entrance to the Los Fiordos chutes ride, with its cooling giant splash

Water rides are a prominent feature at Parque de Atracciones, in addition to the chutes, rapids, log flumes, both adult and junior versions, there are also three themed boat tour rides to be found including, Fantasía a peculiar Spanish version of "it's a small world", Rio Encantado an odd fairly tale ride and La Jungla set in dense trees with many animatronic animal scenes

There are also a few quirks in the works not to be missed like La Reina de Africa a fun house walk through set on a traditional Mississippi boat, El Templo Perdido an oversized dodgems ride and Telesaurio a bizarre flying telecombat ride which has cars that can be rotated around in a circle

Zona del Maquinismo is home to the park's three big coasters and is padded out with a substantial collection of machine themed flat rides which are Top Spin, Frisbee, Condor, Pirate Ship, Enterprise, Wave Swinger and Rainbow, along with Lanzadera a standard Intamin freefall ride that provides a great view out across Madrid from its highest point

Tornado the parks inverted coaster was receiving a new coat of paint during our visit, and was partly in its old green colour and partly in its new black look, the ride was nice but nothing exceptional with two vertical loops and a corkscrew

Tarántula didn't spin as much as you'd expect from this style of coaster but what it lacked in spinning it made up for in speed with exceptionally fast pacing, making fiendish use of the hillside terrain. Underneath this coaster was the interactive suspended La Cueva de las Tarántulas ride where you zapped spiders with a laser gun inside a dark mine cavern

The outrageous orange track of Abismo towers above the entire park, the absurd vertical lift climb induces a great amount of anticipation, as the train rolls gently out of its inverted summit quickly gathering a great deal of momentum leaving the surprisingly comfortable train to hurtle though the rest of Abismo's acrobatic antics at a sheer insane speed, delivering a surprisingly good wild, crazy, fast ride

Parque de Atracciones de Madrid offers a great distraction from the cultural delights of Madrid with a great collection of modern thrill rides and some more unusual family attractions all set in some magnificent pleasant grounds