Kiss from the World in Barcelona!

Domenico and Giulia, creators of the Kiss From The World project, are coming to Barcelona to tape a few videos for their website. I'm going to be one of the interviewed people, amongst other interesting characters that are somehow related to discovering the city life from the wise tourist point of view.

They will also record a video in the same cute line of others they have in other cities.
Would you like to participate? You just have to send a kiss to the world, jump and say hi!

Meeting on July 7th at 7pm beside the subway exit of Sagrada Familia station (L2), at the crossing of Mallorca and Marina streets.

Bring all your friends along, have some fun and spread love to the World!

Join our Facebook event and group!

Tonight, Saint John's Eve!

Remember tonight is the Equinox, the shortest night in the year, a night full of magic and fire.

Last year I already wrote a long article on it, that you can check out here.

Now just a quick note so you can find out what's on!
Most people will meet by the beach in the early hours of the morning (don't forget pick-pockets might be around so... watch for your belongings!)
No bonfires will be lit in the Old Town and Waterfront areas: just a few points got permission this year. For a local experience I reccomend heading to Sarrià (from Plaça Catalunya take the Ferrocarrils Catalans train to Sarrià, L6). Right off the station you'll find the Centre Civic Casa Orlandai.

The City Council website has the more ideas to enjoy the night, including how to prepare the traditional coca bread and where to buy bangers.

And remember that the subway will be running non-stop tonight! Avoid driving if possible!

Barcelona airport has brand new terminal!

Today the brand new Terminal 1 was innaugurated in the Barcelona - El Prat international airport.

The 24 Star Alliance companies are the first to start using the Terminal, but next autumn OneWorld and SkyTeam will also join them, and that will mean 80% of the total activity of the airport.

The Terminal has been designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, and it stands out by its hightech look, and its views over the runways, the sea and the forrest nearby.

Passengers must pay attention to their reservations, as their flight must be departing from the new Terminal today. There is a bus connecting with it from the main building, departing every 7 minutes and it takes 14 minutes to take you there. There are also shuttles available from the airport train station.

You'll also need some time to walk to your gate: more than a terminal, it is almost a whole new airport by itself: with its 544.000 sq.m. / 134.43 acres, the distance from end to end is equivalent to 11 blocks of the Eixample district: 1.6 km / 1 mile. But don't worry: there are moving walkways!

Users also need to know departures are on the upper level, while arrivals are located in the basement level. There are also two money exchange points, lockers, tax refund service, lost & found,a police station, and 83 shops and cafes that will eventually grow to be 116 in the future.

You'll find all the information you need about it in the official website.

Lots of fun with the Baird

Ann and Morton Baird contacted me to help them organizing their time in Barcelona. They booked 2 city tours (one for the Old Town and the Picasso Museum, one for the Gaudí works), plus a shopping tour for Ann and a Tapas tour one evening.

Unfortunately, Ann broke her foot a few days before their trip, so she would have to be on a wheelchair during the tours so her foot could have some rest.

No problem! At home they rented a very light wheelchair that was so easy to move around, so on our first day together Morton would be pushing it. The Old Town is pretty flat and there aren't cobblestone streets nor many steps, so we could see as much as we could have seen if Ann had been able to walk. Whenever we met crowds (like in the Boqueria Market, for instance), I'd walk in front of them to open the way and protect them. And in the Cathedral and the Picasso Museum the staff facilitated us access to ramps and elevators... and Ann got in for free!

The next day Ann and I went shopping. This time I volunteered to push the chair, so Morton didn't have to come shopping (that's why most husbands are glad I offer shopping tours!). We visited beautiful stores that fitted Ann's style, and in one of them I even got her a 30% discount!! She was trying on some clothes and I heard the shop assistants talking about their new client card, so I asked and they said that if I applied for it I'd get a 30% welcome discount that Ann could use aswell. That was 70 euro less on her new dress!

Shopping tours

And that same evening we went on a Tapas Tour. It usually includes 5-6 different bars, but after the third place they were already so full. I almost had to drag them to the 4rt venue, because I really wanted them to see its ambiance. And after that they asked me to take them somewhere with live music. I remembered in one of the medieval mansions in Montcada Street they hold opera concerts on Thursdays, so I took them there. They loved it! The bar is beautifully decorated with antiques, and the singers were good and passionate about their music and interpretation. I left the Baird there at midnight during the show break, but they stayed until the end.

Tapas Tour

And the next day we had our last tour together! After Ann broke her foot we decided we rather go on private minivan with driver, instead of walking and taxi as we had originally planned. It was a good idea, as this way we saved time and got to see many places. We did the Hill of Montjuic (that we wouldn't have visited if we had walked), the appartment buildings Casa Batlló and Casa Milà/Pedrera (surprisingly, here it was Morton who got in for free because in the staff words "because she needs him to visit"), the entrance of the Park Güell (too many stairs there to see the whole site, but at least I wanted them to see the most exciting part of it) and the Sagrada Familia Church.

The driver Jose Luís and I left them back at the hotel and headed for our afternoon tour with some other clients. That was the end of three great days with the Baird!

The egg is dancing again!

Sounds like a weird tittle for a post, doesn't it? But that's precisely what it's about! Every year around Corpus Christi day, the tradition of the Dancing Egg (Ou com Balla) is celebrated in the Old Town of Barcelona and a couple of other places in the Eixample District. The force of the water jets of medieval fountains of different gothic buildings pushes up eggs, that stay dancing on the top.

This year you can see it from today until June 14th, from 10am to 8pm in the following places:

See the complete Ou com Balla 2009 map

To see a video from last year's Dancing Egg go to this old post.

A few words from the Salmons

Two weeks ago I gave two tours for the Salmons family. On our first day we had a tour on private minivan about the Gaudí works, and the next day we walked around the Old Town. These are my favorite tours to see the best Barcelona.

Here is the letter I just received from them:
"Dear Marta,
We just returned home from our trip, and I wanted to send a note of thanks for enhancing our trip with your guided visits. My family all agreed that having a guide made the sites that we visited so much more interesting. We visited the Mezquita in Cordoba and did not enjoy it very much because we didn't know what we were looking at. The audio tour was confusing and nothing like having a real live Marta. Thanks for all of your assistance in planning our trip and for showing us around your lovely city!

Sincerely,
Carol"

I'm delighted to know I contributed so much to brighten up their trip and that... no audioguide beats me! ; )
I want to thank Carol and the rest of her family their kind words and the beautiful time we spent together. As I usually say: a successful tour is the result of a team work!

Batman in Barcelona

Where would Batman go if he ever left Gotham City? Barcelona, of course!
Or at least that is what happens in the new Batman release: "Batman in Barcelona: Dragon’s Knight USA". The book has been publish simultaneously in Spain, Italy and the US.

The heroe arrives to the city chasing the evil guy scaped from Arkham. The story has a certain parallelism with the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, famous in our land because Saint George is our patron saint.

A fun way to approach Barcelona to kids and teens... as well as adults!

The Ellis daytrip to the Wine Country.

The Ellis family booked me for a few tours in Barcelona. In our last day we had planned to go to the Penedès Wine country and Montserrat. At first I had suggested we visited the Codorniu cellar, the largest in the world, because of its spectacularity. But after spending a few days with them I got to know them better and when I saw they were so much into food and wine and they had been to some emblematic French cellars already, I decided they'd appreciate something else.

So I changed bookings and got a private tour of the Gramona cellars, a local family-owned winery that has won many international prizes.
We were received there by their Communications person, who showed us personally their old cellar. That day there were people working in the old building (most of the day, the staff is working in their modern venue at the vinyards), so we were lucky to see a lady glueing labels by hand, another lady checking the machine that wraps the cork, and we even had a demostration of how they degorge the botels by hand. That was so unique! In most cellars degorging is done by machines who freeze the neck of the bottle to remove the sediments. Only very skilled workers are able to do it manually!
See my video! (oh, I'm so glad to have this video well recorded... the other time I saw it done, I didn't realize my camera was lopsided!)



After the tour of the cellar, we were taken to the vinyards to see the baby grapes: they won't be ready to be harvested until August. But the views where great! Lori said it was the first time she was taken to the vinyards when visiting a cellar!

And back to the cellar, we had a wonderful wine tasting. The Ellis had asked for a real tasting, not the average tourist one, so we got to try 3 different cavas, plus the bottle that had been degorged in front of us (it's amazing how agressive the bubbles are at that moment: it's truelly dramatic for the wine! it seems it needs a few days to reach its perfect point), and 3 wines (2 that were included in the tasting, plus a special Ice Wine for dessert that was the cellar's gift.

I'm not used to drinking much, so I was starting to (as the Ellis said) "riding the snake". But we headed soon for lunch at a great local restaurant where we were the only foreigners and had a beautiful meal before going to Montserrat.

After such an intense morning, there wasn't much time left to wander in the Monastery, but we still made it to ride the cablecar up, visit the Virgin shrine, lit up a candle for her and enjoy the place with almost no tourists around (most tour groups leave the mountain after the Choir sings, and at that time we were enjoying our wine so we missed both Choir and crowds, which was fine for the Ellis).

We decided next time they come (to see the progress of the Sagrada Familia church), we'll visit some other cellar, then drop them in Montserrat for the night (as they enjoy places when they get empty) and the next they I'll pick them up for some other tour out-of-the-beaten-track. Maybe the Cardona salt mines, who knows?