Venue

BICS 2010 conference will be held at the ETSI Industriales - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Address: Calle Jose Gutierrez Abascal, 28006 Madrid

venue ETSI Industriales. Photo from huahe (flickr). Creative Commons License.

Madrid

Madrid is the largest city of Spain and its capital, with a population of 3 million. Madrid is best known for its great cultural and artistic heritage, a good example of which is the El Prado museum. Madrid also boasts some of the liveliest nightlife in the world.

The culture of Madrid was dominated by its religious and Royal history. Enormous, monolithic cathedrals and churches are plentiful in Madrid, as well as medieval architecture, although nowadays Madrid is just as much a cosmopolitan city as Berlin or London, full of new architecture, life style and culture.

alcala Puerta de Alcalá. Photo from marcp_dmoz (flickr). Creative Commons License.

The city is also the epicentre of the famous Movida, Spain's 80s punk movement that bred personalities such as the director Pedro Almodóvar. The heritage of this era is indeed still visible in the city centre, where a party can be found at all times and one of the most liberal and colourful environments of Spain can be seen.

royalpalce Royal Palace. Photo from luispabon (flickr). Creative Commons License.

Some popular districts are:

  • Malasaña- Alternative area, full of all kind of people hanging out at pubs, bars, cafes, squares and small shops. Mainly rock and punk music, some of them still open from "La movida madrileña" (beginning of 80's).
  • Chueca- By Malasaña and Gran Via, it is the gay district (although noone is ever excluded) with a very strong personality. New design, trendy shops, cool cafes. Pop and electronic music.
  • Lavapies- Lavapies is maybe the most cosmopolitan and hippy area at the same time in Madrid. Indian restaurants, alternative coffees, African music and South American shops. Walking around for a coffee is well worth it.
  • La Latina- By Lavapies, it is the place to go for tapas and full of bohemian young people looking for stylish bars. It hosts the most popular flea market in Madrid, every Sunday morning.
  • Salamanca- Plenty of expensive boutiques, uniques shops with impossible prices and department stores.
  • Moncloa- Due to proximity to the main University in Madrid (Universidad Complutense), Moncloa is associated with students and a student lifestyle.
  • Barrio de las Letras- Many of Spains most famous writers lived there (Cervantes, Quevedo, etc.). It is among Lavapies, Puerta del Sol and Paseo del Prado. It is an area full of history and interesting buildings and is also well-known because of its concentration of bars, pubs, restaurants and hotels. As it is centred on tourism, it is not visited as often as other areas in Madrid by the locals.
lalatina La Latina. Photo from tonymadrid (flickr). Creative Commons License.

(Information collected from wikitravel)

More info about Madrid:

Access from the Airport to the ETSI Industriales - UPM:

Barajas airport has 4 terminals divided in two sections. In both cases you can take the metro following the signs in the airport. There you have to take line 8 (pink) direction to NUEVOS MINISTERIOS. Once in this station you can decide wether you get out of the metro and walk for 5 minutes to the venue or you transfer to line 10 (dark blue) in direcction to PUERTA DEL SUR for just one stop to GREGORIO MARAÑÓN. GREGORIO MARAÑÓN is the closest metro station to the BICS venue and takes just 2 minutes walking to the venue. The following maps show the metro lines and the way to the venue from both metro stations.

metromap

Reaching the ETSI Industriales - UPM from Gregorio Marañon Station takes just 3 minutes walking. Take a look at the following map.


Open bics 2010 venue in google maps