2023-03-18 40 -3

Sat 18 Mar 2023 in 40,-3: 40.4092984, -3.6887635 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

on a crosswalk across a busy street in Madrid

Participants

• π π π (talk)

Expedition

I was travelling through France and Spain and arrived in Madrid by train from Zaragoza on the 18th. Very unusually for me, even while travelling, I had not checked the new coordinates the day before and only did so on the train – that's when I noticed that the hash lay only 350 m from the train station I would arrive at, Madrid Atocha, on a crosswalk across a street. Basically a perfect location!

After exiting the station, I walked the street that led northward and arrived at the crosswalk after not even five minutes. The street was quite busy, and a traffic light managed the pedestrian crosswalk. When I arrived, a whole kindergarten class was walking right over the hashpoint. Many thousands of people must've reached the hash that day without even realising it!

On one of the long green traffic light phases, I stood myself in the middle of the street, took pictures and screenshots and presumably generally looked like an idiot tourist to the passers-by. I took a short video and then walked to the city center and my hostel to stash my luggage. Not bad, reaching a geohash within your first 10 minutes in a new capital.

Later that day, I walked through El Retiro Park north to south and then back to the center. Without meaning to, I had to pass over the exact crosswalk of the hash, which probably earns me the Easy Geohash achievement, since I literally would've had to go out of my way to not reach it. First time that's happened to me.

While researching things to see in Madrid, I found out that the northern, older part of the train station actually has an entire tropical garden inside it, complete with giant palm trees and paths through the plants. Of course, I had to go there two days later. It's quite amazing, just look at the pictures! Unlike any station I'd ever seen, more cities should do this. Did not visit the hashpoint again though.

Photos

to follow (9 pictures & 1 video + tourist pics)

Achievements

Land geohash, Public transport geohash?

π π π has visited an Easy Geohash by reaching the (40, -3) geohash on 2023-03-18 without really trying.