Still amazed at the Sagrada Familia Church

I've been entering the Sagrada Familia Church a few times a week these last 10 years, and still nowadays it continues amazing me: every new detail, every new element completed, every change...

This week I really felt there like the very first time. Since next November the Pope of Rome will be consacrated the interior of the Church, the workers are hurrying up to have the naves ready for the visit. This week they have finished retiring the scaffolding they used to build the central skylight over the altar. Seeing that space finally cleared really touched me. The view of the golden rays of the vault, and the elegance of the four red porphyr columns just left me without words.

I'm excited about the many more surprises coming up along the summer, as more and more of the inside will be completed. I have no words to express the way I feel about it.

Ms. DeAutremont opinion

I had two days touring with Diane DeAutremont and her group. We did a halfday excursion to Girona and a walking tour of the Barcelona city center that included the Picasso Museum.
She just wrote me about a book on Picasso and Matisse (we were talking about Picasso's relationships hate/love with other artists of his time during our tour), and she also had some words for me:

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with you earlier this week. You do an excellent job and we will remember you as well as Barcelona!

Thanks - Diane

The Lende loved touring with Miriam!

During the high season (that in Barcelona can often go from March to October), sometimes I so busy that I can't cater all the requests I get for tours. This is why sometimes I use the services of my dear friend and colleague Míriam Jover to take care of my clients on days that I've already been booked by someone else. (Of course I let them know I won't be their guide and I make sure to give them reference on Míriam, so they can decide if that's ok with them!).

Well, this week I had her showing around the Lende, while I was with the Leifer. She met them at the Park Güell and then continued on a 6h city tour. Here is their feedback:

Hi Marta -

I just wanted you to know how much we enjoyed sightseeing with Miriam yesterday. She is both charming and very knowledgeable about Gaudi, as well as Barcelona in general. We enjoyed meeting her and had great fun being with her. It could not have been a better day. Thank you for arranging it for us!

Best,

Elizabeth Lende

I knew they'd love Míriam, as we have a very similar style: she is fun, and knowledgeable as well as professional and dynamic, and we got our official tourguide license on the same year so we have similar experience too.
Again, when I wrote them asking for permission to post their letter here, they still had only good words about her:

Yes, it would be fine for you to use what I wrote on your blog. She is very good, lots of personality and a willingness to focus on what the client wants rather than proceed with a "canned" presentation about the sites.

I'm so pleased I can rely now on someone else to help me keep sharing my love for Barcelona!

Feeback from the Murph

Maybe you remember a recent post where I talked about the Murph's tour and our visit to the romanesque Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp (along with our excursion to Montserrat and our city tours).

Well, here is the letter they have sent me:

Dear Marta,

Thank you so much for the two wonderful days we spent with you touring Montserrat Monastery, various Gaudi sites, Montjuic and the Old Town walking tour. Your knowledge of the historical events that occurred at these sites over centuries greatly enhanced our appreciation of the history of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain. Your enthusiasm and professionalism in wanting to please your customer were evident. We were so fortunate to find a guide with your qualities and attitude.

This trip was one of the most memorable of our travels and again we want to thank you for being a part of it.

Please send best regards to Ramon, your driver, as he was a true professional.

Thanks again,

K and J

Texas, USA

Words like these make me feel proud and flattered. But that wasn't all! When I wrote them back to ask for permission to publish their letter here, that was their answer:

Marta,

Of course you may use our letter in your blog. We still feel so fortunate to have found you to help us experience your city. We had a wonderful time, learned so much and are truly amazed at how luck brought us together. We both doubt that we will ever experience a guide service of your quality again. You have spoiled us!

Best wishes,

K and J

Texas, USA

I am fortunated too! It's a privilege to have developped a business that is my passion and that allows me to share so much and contribute to enhace people's time in Barcelona!

Training seminar: Revisiting Modernism + Visit to the Museu del Modernisme

Continuing with the training sessions organized by the Catalan Gouvernment, this morning I attended a very interesting seminar on Modernism.

The well-known art historian Mireia Freixa gave us a lecture on how Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) has been interpreted through the last century and what are the current new approaches.
Next, her doctorate student Ms. Fátima López told us about a new route on the local industrial past based in the story of the Vilumara family (documented silk merchants in the middle ages, still in the textil industry in the 18 hundreds), and then introduced us to the few pharmacy stores that have preserved their original furniture and decoration from the Modernist times.
I found both speaches very illuminating, and I took some good ideas and resources to add up and enrich my own tours.

But the best part of the training session was visiting the recently open Museu del Modernisme. Ms. Freixa gave us a great tour totally focussed on our "tourguide needs".

This Museum is run by the Pinós family, owners of the Gothland art gallery (the first in town to start dealing with modernist items). A totally private initiative, it is a delicious show based on the private collection on the family that makes a great introduction to the local modernist furniture, painting and sculpture. A must for those wanting to get a closer insight to this exciting period for the history of Barcelona... and neither as far not as long-to-visit as the MNAC, the ultimate museum of Modernism in town.

I trully recomend it, and I hope I'll be including it soon as a regular part of my tours!

By the way, I want to acknowledge Ms. Gema Losa, from the Museu del Modernisme, for allowing me to take these pictures and to publish them.

Sant Ponç fair, every May 11th!

Every May 11th, in Barcelona is celebrated the Fair of Saint Pontius. Nothing to do with Pilate... it's about the patron saint of herbalists, who according to the legend visited Barcelona and realizing the many diseases the population was suffering, started preparing potions and ointments to cure them. As a sign of appreciation, herbalist fairs have been runned in Barcelona in his honour since the 15hundreds.

I was born and raised in the Sarrià district, which is one of the few local neighbourhoods that still keeps this traditional fair every May 11th. I've got great memories of visiting the fair in Plaça Sant Vicenç, enjoying the smell of the herbs as well as the parfums made by a local producer, the taste of the honey and other artisan food, the fun of seeing real bees in their honey combs... It was a magical day!

But after I moved to leave in Gràcia some years ago, going back to Sarrià in purpose for the fair hasn't always been possible. Instead, it's become more convenient for me visiting the main Sant Ponç fair in the city: the one along Hospital street, in the Raval quarter (Old Town). That's what I did this year, and I took some pictures for you.

Two more Sant Ponç fairs totally tourist free: in the Poblesec district (Blai street) and in Nou Barris (Via Julia).

Plus this year I had an extra: in one end of the Fair, along Rambla del Raval, was taking place a gathering of lace-makers!

Eating vetegarian tapas is possible too!

Although most people have a quite "carnivorous" concept of tapas, it is perfectly possible to have authentic tapas in a totally vegetarian style!

A couple of weeks ago I had Brian and Bev Bennett, who are really vegetarian foodies. Appart from having a great city tour specially designed to include some of their favorite contemporary architecture, we also enjoyed walking around the Boqueria Market (although we avoided the fish and meat sections as much as possible), stopped at a little great cheese store, and for lunchtime we had some wonderful veggie tapas in one of my favorite bars of the Eixample district.

Here are some of the delicacies we tried:
- Grilled green asparagus.
- Thinly sliced fried artichokes.
- "Bravas" potatoes with spicy sauce.
- A plate of Spanish cheese.
- Melted 4-cheeses "pintxos" (Basque toasts)
- Season vegetables mil-feuilles.
- "Calçots" green onions with Romesco sauce.

And I might still be missing something out.
They were so happy with our choices, and there were still other specialties we didn't try. They were amazed they had eaten so much and still there were other vegetarian options in the menu left!

It's not the first time I take vegetarian eating tapas, and it's usually easy to have a nice varied lunch in a couple of wonderful restaurants I know.
I haven't given a complete 4h veggie tapas tour hoping from bar to bar, but I imagine that could work aswell. I'd even daring enough to try with a non-dairy / vegan tapas tour, although I imagine our choices would be much reduced... But as long as there was willingness and good humor, it should also be a successful foody evening!

Flower Power for the kids!

Spring is a time when I get many requests of tours for students who are on a trip visiting Barcelona. Sometimes, appart from the usual cultural tours, their program also includes some specialty tours related to their studies.

This week I had the kids from Lycée Briacé (Nantes, France), who are taking agriculture studies with a special focuss on the flower market.

Their travel agency had arranged a professional visit to the Wholesale Flower and Plant Market in Vilassar de Mar, and I joined them there to help translating from Catalan into French, their mother tongue. We first were shown a video on the history of the Market, then our guide Ana informed us about how the market operates, and finally we were allowed up on a passarelle from where we could see the market in full action. That was so interesting!

After that, we continued to Barcelona, where I gave them a tour of our Botanical Garden. I've always loved plants (that's thanks to my grandma and my mom!), and I really enjoy giving garden tours. We discovered there how the Mediterranean climate is also to be found in other areas of the world (California, Australia, Chile, South-Africa...), and how plants from points so distant one from the other have adapted to similar weathers in similar ways. It was fun comparing species, and learning curious facts on their seeds, flowers, leaves, as well as their uses.
I was sad to see how the last snow storm had damaged and burnt many of the most delicate specimens, but it was beautiful to see the "survivors" in full bloom!

Training sessions on communication skills

The Department of Tourism of the Generalitat, the Catalan Government, is very interested in keeping a high level of professionalism amongst official tourguides, as we are embassadors of our land. This is why they run a program of continuous training covering many different areas.

This time I attended a seminar on Communication Skills.

We discussed our communication styles, our weaknesses and strenghts, resources to deal when a conflict occurs... We specially worked on practicing deep listenning skills and mastering our emotions, as well as how to structure our speaches (introducing ourselves, presenting information, ending a tour...).

It was quite open-minding and I gained some good ideas and strategies to make my tours even more successful!

Sant Pau del Camp, a little known jewel!

Although most people just have the time to see the basic Old Town, which would include the Gothic Quarter (Cathedral, Jewish section, medieval alleys and squares...) and the Born section (Santa Maria del Mar, Montcada street, maybe the Picasso Museum aswell), sometimes I'm asked to include in our itinerary other places off the beaten track.

This is the case of the Murph. After a halfday trip to Montserrat, and a Gaudí and Montjuic tour, we still had planned a discovery of the Old Town. So after stopping for lunch at one of my favorite bars of the Boqueria Market (they really wanted to have an authentic food experience, and we had it!), we headed first to the Gothic Quarter and the Born section.

The Murph love architecture and were specially interested in the Middle Ages. They had made some research and had found out about one of the oldest monasteries in town: Sant Pau del Camp. I'm rarely asked to take someone to this charming little-known place, a jewel hidden in the "wild" Raval district. So I was very pleased to take them there.

From the Born area we crossed the Mercè quarter (another area that I rarely include in my average tours... except for a couple of great taverns in my tapas tours!), passed by Palau Güell and entered the multicultural streets of the Raval that took us to this romanesque monastery built over 1000 years ago in what used to be the countryside around Barcelona (hence its name: St. Paul of the Field).

The Murph enjoyed its ancient architecture (specially its cozy cloister) and its millenary history. And after the visit I took them to a nearby avenue and helped them getting a cab back to their hotel. This had been an exciting and illustrating day!

Barcelona tours for corporations!

Barcelona is a very busy bussiness city. Many international corporations have headquarters and offices here, and often our city is chosen for corporation meetings and trainings.
But when bussinessmen and corporation employees travel for this kind of events and have to spend many hours with their colleagues, not everything is work! Often their programs include dinners and, why not?, short tours to give them the opportunities to discover the city and have a break from such intense work hours.

So when a corporation contacts me, I know they will be having special needs. They don't usually have 4h to spend touring (and most of the members of the group wouldn't have the energy to last that long after their meetings and before dinner!), so I have to offer them shorter itineraries that maximize their available time taking into account starting and ending points, opening hours and sunlight, as well as the group's interests.

My explanations also must be lighter and fun when possible, although of course they still have to be informative. It is important to tune into the group's mood as quickly as possible, so they enjoy themselves during our short time together.

This week I had two corporation tours. The first one was for Recticel Iberica. They arranged a very entertaining tour starting with a visit of the Casa Batlló (inside), then a walk down Passeig de Gràcia to the Old Town where we had some pintxos (traditional basque tapas) and drinks, and we continued walking around the Gothic Quarter and the Born section until I dropped them at a great restaurant in the Old Port.

Then yesterday I had some employees on a trainning for Procter & Gamble. We started in the Sagrada Familia church (outside), then we drove along Passeig de Gràcia seeing Casa Milà/Pedrera and Casa Batlló from the bus, and we finished with a nice stroll around the Gothic Quarter and the Born section, before we got to their restaurant near Plaça Urquinaona.

So if you are from a corporation and are looking for something entertaining to do with your colleagues coming to Barcelona for business, please contact me and check out my website to get some ideas on what could we include in your tour!

By the way, I can also organize private tours for your clients if you wish to treat them!