We have a week to travel from Barcelona to Madrid next January. We are planning to travel by public transport (with a preference towards trains). Being Australians we would like to experience some "unusual" things such as mountains and snow. Any suggestions ?

Well, not far from Barcelona you have the Pirynees where you will find snow for sure in January. They worth a lot. There are many mountains over 3000m.
Closer to Barcelona is the sierra de Monserrat which I don't know how high it is.
Close to Madrid you will find mountains also (2400m the highest), they could have snow, but maybe not, you can see it in the previous weeks, you can go by train or by bus from Madrid in an hour, or an hour and a half ..

Hi Canter!

Did you visit this webpage on the net? I recomend you to take a look: http://www.tourspain.es/

About taking trains...and being Cantabrian (Spaniard from the cantabrian region, Northen Spain) I must tell you that you must vist the north and the best way to see at least something is taking the Trasncantabrico.
http://www.transcantabrico.feve.es/
It is a good way to have an incredible trip in the Green spain (Northen Spain) and have a 1st contact that will make you come back again.

You can visit other parts of Spain...and I am sure you will be nicely shocked about the gourgeous differences that you can find in such small country compared with Australia.

Let us know what did you decide to do finally... Hope you will have a pleasant time over here.

Iker

Hey! What's so unusual about snow? Ask Wolf.

Are you taking a week to get to Barcelona, or are you planning on going to Barcelona and seeing the surrounding area for a week? It sounds like the former...

In that case, I recommend you head up into the mountains into Huesca. Zaragoza, although not in the mountains per se, would provide you with a nice starting-off point. With public transport you may be a bit limited, but I think with buses you can make things work, see Jaca and enjoy the week!

CaliBasco [Who used to find snow mundane and boring when he lived in Minnesota]