ICGSE 2015 (14-16 July) will be held in Escuela Superior de Informática, the Computer Science Faculty of University of Castilla-La Mancha, in Ciudad Real.
Ciudad Real (which means
‘Royal City’ in Spanish) is a city located in the Southern Central part of Spain, in the region of Castilla-La Mancha,
which is the “Don Quixote” region. It is not easy to categorize Castilla-La Mancha, for it is a region of great variety and complexity. On the
one hand, there is the ruddy red earth, the windmills, and simple whitewashed villages of the province of Ciudad Real (which encompasses most
of the area commonly called La Mancha). But there are also the strangely sculpted cliffs of Cuenca and Albacete, the hilly woodlands of
Guadalajara and the dark mystery and ancient cultures of Toledo.It is perfectly located for transport connections, as it is only 1 hour away
from the main cities of Spain: Madrid (1 hr by high speed train), Barcelona (less than 1 hour by plane), Toledo (1 hr by car), Córdoba (70 minutes
by high speed train) and Sevilla (2 hr by high speed train).
It is a modern city, one of the very few in Spain where you can forget your problems and have time to enjoy yourself. Ciudad Real’s citizens love
the outdoors, enjoying the weather and people. Their hospitality and open mindedness make visiting this city an experience that nobody should miss.
The best means of transport that foreign visitors can use to reach Ciudad Real is the train. The city has a stop on the high speed rail line (AVE) that connects it with Madrid in 55 minutes, Seville in 1 hour and 44 minutes, Valencia in 2 hours and 9 minutes or Barcelona in 3 hours and 44 minutes. The easiest way to arrive is therefore by taking an airplane to one of those cities and then taking the high speed train.
If you choose to travel to Madrid, which is the nearest city, this is what you will have to do in order to get to Ciudad Real. Once you have landed at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, you will have to decide whether you would prefer to get to Ciudad Real by car or by train:
By car
If you wish to get to Ciudad Real by road you can rent a car at the airport. It's 215km away, and the journey takes approximately 2 hours. You can check the route by clicking here.
By train
If you wish to get to Ciudad Real by train, you need to find a means to transport you to the Atocha railway station. These are your options:
- Taxi. It costs 30 € and takes 30 minutes.
- Underground. This costs about 5€ and takes between 45 and 60 minutes. However, this option is not recommended because you have to change twice before reaching Atocha.
- Airport bus. This costs 5€ and takes 40 minutes. This is the cheapest option. More information available at this link.
After arriving at the railway station, you have to buy the tickets for the train to Ciudad Real. At the station, look for the customer office that is located on the ground floor. There, in the queue for forthcoming departures, wait for your turn (sometimes you need to take a turn ticket from a machine located in the center of the room). Two kind of trains go to Ciudad Real: the AVANT and the AVE. Both take the same time but the AVANT is cheaper (about 22€). Depending on the day, these trains depart every one or two hours. Finally, once you are in Ciudad Real, you can take a taxi from the street in front of the railway station entrance, where the cabstand is.
Get a discount on your train tickets
When buying train tickets, visitors to the ICGSE 2015 can obtain a discount of 30% off the original price by either printing and showing this document to the salesperson at the moment of the purchase in the ticket office or by entering the promotional code 301505976 at renfe.com, where it will be possible to obtain information about tickets and schedules. If you choose to buy your tickets online, remember these are available two months before the date of purchase.