Practical information

About Spain and Madrid

Visas

Visas are not required for citizens of most European countries, permanent residents of a Schengen state, as well as for a series of other countries. If you need a visa a personal invitation letter may be necessary (see annex documents right below), which you may request from the Organizing Committee. Conditions such as the remaining validity of your passport may also apply. Here are some documents to assist you. We leave it under your responsibility that you check that these conditions still hold at the time of your departure.

• Information about entering Spain may be found from a variety of soruces, such as spainvisa, shengenvisainfo, and also the online visa application. Please check carefully that the dates for the visa include the full range of the School!
• Holders of permanent residence permits issued by a member Schengen state can enter without a visa. The residence permit and passport should be valid at least 90 days after the entry date.

Practical information

• Euro is the only currency in use.
• Power plugs and sockets are on the Europlug compatible standard, voltage 220V.
• EHIC: European Health Insurance Card. This card is free and allows attendees coming from European member states to receive medical treatment for free or at a reduced cost. Probably to be requested from your provider of health insurance.

Travel information

Madrid can be easily reached by train, which we encourage you to consider, to minimize the carbon footprint resulting from your participation in the school. Yet, in some cases this may not be practical. In case you use the plane, consider avoiding taking several flights in a row, as each take-off and landing highly contributes to carbon emission.

The school place is 30km North of Madrid, in the city of Miraflores de la Sierra. It can be reached conveniently by public transportation, using the intercity bus 725 running every 15 minutes or so 7 days a week. Besides these, to make it easier to travel to La Cristalera a few special buses have been scheduled by the organization. These leave from the Atocha train station in Madrid, which can also be easily reached from the airport.

• Sunday 03/09: departure 19.00 - Estación AVE ATOCHA - LA CRISTALERA
• Monday 04/09: departure 13.00 - Estación AVE ATOCHA - LA CRISTALERA
• Friday 15/09 - departure 13.30 LA CRISTALERA - Estación AVE Atocha

The number of seats is limited so it is necessary that attendees book one in case of need. To do this, attendees have received specific information.

Local information

Conference site

• The conference site is the La Cristalera, 30km North of Madrid.
• Accommodation and full catering are covered by the registration fees, on the basis of two or more persons per room. Accommodaition is provided from Monday 4th evening (Sunday 3rd on request, depending on your date of arrival) to Friday 15th morning
• You should bring with you toiletries (soap etc.). Linen/blankets and towels are provided.
• Laundry is not availabel onsite, but will be organized by La Cristalera once or twice a week, at moderate cost.
• WiFi is available onsite.
• A swimming pool is available. Do not forget your swimming gear.

Practical

• Information about climate and clothes to bring will be provided at a later stage.
• Posters: we encourage participants to bring posters to present their work. Posters will be hanged during coffee breaks and special sessions. The preferred size of the posters is A0 portrait. Early in the time schedule oral sessions have been scheduled for quick presentations of the participants as an introduction to their poster (two slides max). Please have such slides prepared in an electronic format! Poster prizes wil be awarded, including voucher for free participation to the next Joint European Magnetic Symposia conference.
• Familycare can be considered upon request.