Madrid - The 24 hour society

Madrid has been known for many years now as a party town, where bars and discos stay open until 6 or 7 in the morning. Having said that, the majority of bars away from party zones will either close by midnight, or perhaps 2 or 3am at the latest. I'm no longer of an age to keep those hours, but I've stumbled across a couple of things recently that indicate how the tourist/hospitality industry in Madrid manages to earn money at all hours of the day. The first was after a weekend conversation with a local bar-owner, albeit a trendy place rather than the eating establishments. It was 2 in the afternoon, and I ended up being the only customer so I asked him - does your bar attract the evening crowd then? (generally eating places are packed at the weekend) He told me that yes he gets a lot of customers at night, and indeed his particular bar stays open until 7 in the morning at weekends! Apparently it's a common thing for party goers to come to Madrid for the weekend from northern European countries, and spend their time clubbing and bar-hopping. Some even go without booking a hotel room for those 48 hours, so they only need to buy the cheap air ticket. I can only guess at what substances they take to keep going... The second example is at another end of the spectrum. Passing by Plaza de España each day I've noticed you often see a group of Japanese or Chinese tourists taking photographs. We are talking about 30 or 40 people, and I never seem to have seen them going into local bars or shops. It clicked this morning what the score was - I saw them getting on a tourist bus to go to the shopping village at Las Rozas. No doubt they also visit scenic places like Toledo or Segovia, but for that particular set of tourists Madrid is a place to buy premium fashion brands at reduced prices. So my chances of selling English or Spanish language books to them are probably close to zero. :( Talking of timetables, I'm afraid that my bookstore, Offside Books, does not keep extravagant hours. We are normally open from 10.30 to 15.00 and from 17.30 to 20.30 You may notice that the shop closes for the Spanish lunch period. I need this time, not only to get something to eat myself, but also to do some errands away from the shop. So please forgive me if you're in the area but the shop opening times don't fit your schedule!