Albacete

Introduction

Albacete is a city in the Spanish region of Castile-La Mancha. The city has about 170,000 inhabitants and is located about 250 kilometres southeast of the capital of the country Madrid.

Sights and Activities

Cathedral

The Cathedral of Juan de Albacete was finished in 1959, but construction began already in 1515, on the sight of a mudejar temple. Only since 1949 the church was granted the title of Cathedral, when the diocese of Albacete was formed. One notable fact is that the bells of the Cathedral are pretty young, and date from the late 1940's. The original bells were melted down during the Spanish civil war in 1936.

Museo de Albacete

The museum of Albacete excists since 1927, and is divided into subsections for archeology, fine arts, and ethnology. The main building (Albacete Provincial Museum) stands in the Abelardo Sánchez Park. The Joaquín Sánchez Jiménez Archaeology Museum has a fine collection of (pre-) Roman artifacts.

Weather

Albacete has a continental mediterranean climate. Winters are cool while summers are hot. Winters and summers are usually dry. Because of the continental nature of the climate there is a large temperature variation during the year. Precipitation is low and mainly concentrated in spring and autumn usually falling in the form of rain, but there is occasional snow.

Getting There

By Plane

Albacete Airport (also known as Los Llanos Airport) is only served by Air Nostrum which flies to/from Barcelona, and seasonal flights to/from Lanzarote and Palma de Mallorca.

By Train

The trainstation is located on the east side of the city. From december 2010 Albacete (and Alicante), will be connected by AVE to Madrid and eachother, reducing the time to get to/from Madrid or Alicante from Albacete to around 1,5 hours. For more information check the website of Renfe

By Car

To get to Albacete by car from Madrid you follow the A-3 that leads to Valencia, and take the A-31 further south. Beyond Albacete the A-31 continues to Alicante. The A-32 (later the N322) head in a south-western direction toward Ubeda and Jaén. The A-30 heads to the southeast to Murcia and Cartagena.

By Bus

The busstation is situated next to the trainstation.

Sleep

Upscale

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is widely available within Spain. Most airports have wifi-zones and in most towns there are internet cafés or shops where you can use internet for a fixed price. Wi-Fi points in bars and cafeterias are available after ordering, and most hotels offer Wi-Fi connection in common areas for their guests.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The international access code for Spain is +34. The emergency number for police, ambulance and the fire brigade is 112.

In cities you can find plenty of public phones, and 'locutorios'. The latter are small shops where you can use the phone and use internet. Most of them also sell prepaid cards for mobile telephones. These shops are used a lot by foreigners to call to their mother country.

The main mobile network operators in Spain are Yoigo, Vodafone, Movistar and Orange, as in most of Europe voice and data coverage is generally good in urban areas however it can be patchy in rural locations. Cheap mobile phones (less than €50) with some pre-paid minutes are sold at FNAC or any phone operator's shop (Vodafone, Movistar, Orange). Topping-up is then done by buying scratch cards from the small stores, supermarkets, vending points (often found in tobacco shops) or kiosks.

Post

If you want to post a card, you can head to the post office (Correos). The Spanish post is not yet as efficient as colleagues in other countries so receiving a card can take a bit longer than the number of days that it should take. On the website of Correos, you can find the locations of nearby post offices.
Post offices are generally open from 8:30am to 2:00pm, although times will vary according to the size of the city/town and the main post offices might be open until the early evening. Most will also open again on Saturday mornings, but in the smaller towns will close as early as 12 noon. When posting a letter, look for a yellow box and, if possible, post at the post office itself where there will also be divisions for local, national and international mail. Be prepared for long queues at the post office. This is why tobacco shops sell stamps and many will also have the facility to weigh packages. Standard letters/postcards of up to 20 grams sent within Spain are €0.34. However, non-standard letters/postcards of up to 20g are €0.39. Letters/postcards of 20 to 50 grams are €0.45. In the case of international shipping, the price is €0.64 to most countries within Europe for standard envelopes (letters/postcards) up to 20g, for a few European countries and outside Europe it is €0.78. If you want to send a package you are probably better off with a private courier company like TNT, DHL or UPS, as they offer quick and reliable services against competitive prices.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website