The Sagrada Família supports official tourguides

After Pope Benedict came to dedicate the Sagrada Família church last November 7th, the number of people that were giving tours inside it without the required license had significantly increased. In order to fight against fraud, they have just created a system to identify entitled guides (official Catalonia licensed tourguides such as myself, teachers with students, and the church staff) so it's easier to spot the unauthorized ones, which will immediately be expulsed from the enclosure.

A notice has been hung at the groups entrance, and since now on every time I take clients inside I'm given a special sticker with my name on it, my official tourguide license number and the date and time I entered.

It's a great idea to promote quality explanations and stop illegal guides from acting against the law.

In the picture, me at the Sagrada Familia with my sticker on, the notice hung at the groups entrance and the sticker.

And still another blog where I've collaborated

As I've mentioned in previous articles, I advertize in several online guide listings such as Toursbylocals.com.
Now they have just launched a blog, and I have been selected to be their first guide to collaborate with a post with my suggestions on the 5 top things to do in Barcelona.

I've been interviewed!

I'm thrilled to announce that I've started collaborating with PromptGuides.com and soon you'll be able to read my blog posts on Barcelona food, sites and more. And just to start with, they've interviewed me to introduce me to their readers!
You can read the interview here.

Saturday afternoon at the Tàpies Foundation

The Tàpies Foundation is one of the most difficult museums to keep up with, from a local tourguide point of view: they rotate the artwork in display in their "permanent" collection every few months, so it's hard to develop this feel of closeness and almost intimacy we often get to acquire with pieces in other museums such as the Picasso, Miró or MNAC museums where despite some rotation their best works are almost always displayed.

This is why I decided to freshen up my knowledge and resources and joined a public guided tour last Saturday afternoon. I was not the only official guide there, as my colleague Paquita Vázquez had had the same idea, and I found her insightful comments as enlighting as the museum's guide explanations! By the way, I also want to thank her for sending me her own pictures of the famous giant Sock sculpture, even if in the end I decided the ones I took with my phone were good enough for the blog.

The guided tour was structured in 3 parts: first going to the rooftop terrace to see the Sock, then visiting the permanent collection on Tàpies works, and finally visiting the temporary exhibit, nowadays Organigrama, by Ibon Aranberri.

I was a bit disappointed to realize that some good 10min were lost just going up and down stairs. It is true that being an old industrial building connecting the different levels wasn't easy, but itinerary efficiency is one of the rules for a great tour.
And probably if the order had been different we'd have saved up some time and the guide would have been more relaxed, as I could sense she had to respect tour time restrictions (which is not always the guide's responsibility or choice) that forced her to rush over the works.

Also, the Tàpies collection was displayed in one single floor way too small. From the over 700 pieces in their collection only... 18 pieces between paintings, drawings and sculpture were shown! That was probably the most disappointing thing. It felt more like an art gallery than a true museum.
Plus, as I was mentioning before, there wasn't much time to go in depth in most of them so all in all we were given a rough introduction to key themes that repeat through Tàpies evolution (crosses or T's, the sublimation of the humble, materials...).

The rest of the tour (some 10-20min, according to the timings the guide had told me) was dedicated to the temporary exhibit in the basement. But I must admit I didn't stay because my boyfriend and I were invited to a double birthday family dinner in his hometown, Sant Sadurní d'Anoia in the Wine Country, and we had to drive there.

I understand the Foundation's commitment to promote other contemporary artists. The Miró Foundation works along that path aswell, but at least their permanent collection is much more consistent. So it's probably time the Tàpies Foundation finds a larger venue that allows them to continue supporting the younger generations but also puts in relief Tàpies works and approaches them better to the general public. Now it's the time to create deeper relationships between his works and the people, instead of a dizzyness originated by excessive rotation.

By the way, if you are interested in getting the best out of your visit to any Barcelona Museum, don't forget to book one of my Museum Tours.

Training visit: Bacardí house

As I've mentioned other times, low-season is a time to refresh knowledge and learn new things and tools for my tours.

Some weeks ago I joined a special training visit to Casa Bacardí, the newly open showroom in Sitges about the world-wide known rhum company, that was actually founded by a humble man born in Sitges. Now the company wants to honour his origins and has created a museum in collaboration with the local town council that has allowed them to use the old market building.

During the visit we not only learnt about the live of the founder, Facundo Bacardí Massó, and the history of the brand, but we also discovered how rhum is produced and... they thaught us how to make a real mojito!

It's a great way to complement any trip to Sitges. Let me take you on a excursion there!

Madrid networking

Sometimes my clients have asked me if I could recomend someone in Madrid for a private tour. I'd heard from some people but never having really met them I didn't feel comfortable recomending anyone. Today, though, I had the opportunity of some real networking.

Gemma is the owner of http://madridcoolandcultural.com/, she was going to be in Barcelona for the weekend and contacted me to meet up. We had a coffee in a lovely cafe in the Eixample, near her hotel, and she is lovely! Energetic, enthousiastic, entrepreneur and passioned about art and her city. The kind of people I'm glad to recomend! She's lived in the US for several years, so her English must be really good (although I admit we only spoke Spanish and some Catalan - as she lived in Catalonia for some years in her childhood and youth!). Her tour offer sounds really nice too, quite in a similar line to mine: I can wait to visit her and check some of her favorite 100yo cake stores!

Visiting the Palau Moxo

On Thursday the administration of the Palau Moxo organized some tours to present their palace to the Barcelona local guides, and of course I didn't miss it and I loved it.

It's a unique opportunity to visit a private mansion of the 17-hundreds located at the heart of the Old Town. They keep original pieces of furniture and the building is still nowadays inhabited (that's why part of the house isn't open to visitors).

It's been opened recently, and therefore it's not yet in most guidebooks, what makes the experience even more charming as it's off the beaten paths. Plus you can rent the place for private events.

Don't miss it!

Http://www.palaumoxo.com

I'm featured in a video on Ourexplorer.com

I advertise in several online tourguide listings.
One of them, Ourexplorer.com, is celebrating its second anniversary and they asked the members to send them a short congratulations video. And I've been featured!
I appear in the fifth place, around the 33 second.

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.

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!

Nature is powerful

Wow, this is the first year in all my 10 years as a tourguide where the power of nature gets to affect travellers in a big way here in Barcelona.

The first time was the storm snow I reported last month. It started during a tour with the Stein, and then I got a group cancelling their FC Barcelona Tour and their Helicopter rides. Too bad!

Now, it's the Iceland vulcano ash cloud. And funnily, it has affected me in several different ways:

--- Yesterday I had a tour with the Sullivan, who didn't know if their flight would be finally departing this morning. Hopefully it did!

--- Then I got a call from Seldon Young, for whom I organized a whole 10-day program for his YPO group in 2007, who after this became a good friend and has recomended me to so many people since. He was travelling in Europe and got stuck here with some other friends, and he asked me to show them the city. We had a wonderful 6h tour today.

--- Tomorrow I'm having the Bennett for another 6h tour. Looks like they finally managed to fly from Philadelphia. Great! As we have a beautiful program with them tomorrow including all their favorites, some contemporary architecture, and some cheese and tapas!

--- Finally I have another group, bussiness people, who couldn't make it and will be post-poning their trip.

I'm glad no big harm has been done and things are working well. So far, the Barcelona airport is reopened and they are working to get things back to normal!

More on Official Tourguides

Following the previous post on official tourguides, I just submitted a whole article to Tripadvisor on what must someone accomplish to be a fully licensed Barcelona tourguide and how to recognize guides who give tours without the necessary accreditations.

You can read it here.

New tool for my website and my clients: Witur itineraries!

Some time ago I was introduced to Witur a website and also an Ipod/Iphone application (I mentioned it in an older post), but I didn't really started using it until very recently.

I've already created a few itineraries that will be linked from my website, so I can provide my clients and website visitors a more detailed idea of what they can expect to see during the tour they book with me. I find it is an interesting tool that adds up to my current offer including my Picassa Albums and my Youtube videos.

Please check them out! I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments!

Only official tourguides

Lately you can see in the main tourist sites and monuments a sign saying only tourguides licensed by the Catalan Government are allowed to give explanations as tourguides there.

In Spain, each Autonomous Community (region) organizes exams to grant licenses to anyone wanting to work as a tourguide. To enter the exam you need to have completed a higher university degree, then pass a multiple-choice test an oral exam proving your specialised knowledge on local history, heritage, culture and tradition, as well as some group dynamics and psycology, economics and politics. In Catalonia you also need to prove you can express yourself in both Spanish and Catalan, and then there are additional language exams for people wishing to work for foreign tourists.

I passed my exam in 2000, and I've worked as an official tourguide of Catalonia ever since. My license is a symbol of my quality and proffessionalism, and I sport my yellow badge somewhere visible always during my tours (I call it "my uniform"!)

With this card, I can explain in any tourist site and I can even skip the lines in most of them when my group is smaller than 10 people (very useful for my private tours!)

Me and my official guide license, with the Forester girls during a tour in the Boqueria Market.

My website inspired a new gadget for Beoglobe online guide listing!

As a free-lance tourguide, my website is my main advertising tool. However, I also advertise in proffessional profiles in several online tourguide listings.

I was just contacted by one of them, Beoglobe.com, to let me know that they loved the introductory videos I have in Foreverbarcelona.com, and decided to "copy" my idea to improve the service they offer to the guides advertising with them. So my website has inspired them! And now any Beoglobe tourguide can send them a video so the website administrators upload it on their profile.

I'm happy to be "inspiring"!
Here is the translation of the letter they sent me (original in French here):

Hello Marta,

We are always looking to improve beoglobe.com offering new possibilities.
The most recent one affects you directly, as we chose your site to illustrate it: it's about video uploading.
We found yours were particularly convenient, as they allow potential clients to "get to know" the guide better, assessing their language skills.

Feel free to check the result on your profiles:
http://www.beoglobe.com/p/guide-fr-617-espagne-Barcelone-Anglophone-Francophone-Hispanophone.html
http://www.beoglobe.com/p/guia-es-617-espana-Barcelona-Ingles-Frances-Espanol.html
http://www.beoglobe.com/p/guide-en-617-spain-Barcelona-English-French-Spanish.html

Do you like it?

For beoglobe.com safety reasons, only beoglobe.com administrators can add or remove videos right now.

Have a nice day
Xavier Fabre

I took a course on the Catalan Way of Saint James

Low season is a time to keep training and learning new things that can be interesting for me and my clients, so Monday and Tuesday I attended a workshop organized by the Tourism Department of the Catalan Government.

In the middle ages, pilgrims used to cross Europe to reach Spain and visit the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the Apostle Saint James is supposed to be buried. Now the traditional paths pilgrims used to get there have become a very popular holyday experience that mixes religion, with hiking/biking/horse riding, enjoying nature and gorgeous landscape, getting to know first-hand the local lifestyle, and discovering valuable architectural and artistic heritage.

Although the Catalan ways to Santiago aren't as famous as the two northern ones, pilgrims have also traditionally crossed our region on their way there, and now the Tourism Department has collaborated with different specialists to promote them. Guidebooks are being issued, the paths have been marked, and they are working to get more and more services open for pilgrims along their routes. Althought it definitely isn't as fully equipped as the traditional paths are, our ways are a great option for those who have already done the others and are looking for something new, and it's also way less crowded that any other other option.

As for me, although obviously not many pilgrims are likely to use tourguide services, I thought the worshop was very interesting and I learnt a lot about the routes and what you find along the way. I now actually feel like exploring pieces of it with my boyfriend some weekend!

In the picture, you see me with Carme Marsal, co-author of the guidebooks issued by the Tourism Department, who gave 3 of the workshop's lectures.

I learnt more on contemporary architecture with the Arquibus

From october 1st to 8th is taking place in Barcelona the city's architecture week: Archiset.
One of the many activities organized around the event is a bus tour around some of the most representative sites that have received the Barcelona architecture price, the FAD.

I followed the tour with a friend of mine, Eva Palacios, who is an architect, because I wanted to learn more things that I could use in my Contemporary Architecture tours. So far, my tours have covered the "star sites" by big international architects such as Jean Nouvel, Richard Rogers, Frank Gehry and so on. Now I'll be able to add a few more sites by Spanish architects that might be interesting for highly specialized clients.

Ivan, the architect-guide, was very professional and helpful, although we were disappointed to see that due to the Barcelona RedBull Air Race, a big part of the itinerary had been cancelled and nothing had been previewed to subsitute it... Well, at least after the tour Ivan was happy to answer all our questions on the sites we were most interested in.

You can still take the tour until October 8th (although there might be problems with the tour on the 7th due to the bus strike).

More information about the Arquibus tour here (in English).
More information on the other Arquiset Week activities here (Spanish only).

I spent a great day with Domenico and Giulia, from Kiss the World

As I anounced in a previous post, the owners of Kiss From The World contacted me to help them in their Barcelona project.

I met this adorable couple at their hotel in the Raval district, and we spent the day interviewing interesting local characters like the owner of a spadrille store, the most famous barman at the Boqueria market, a local cheese seller, a Barcelona artist and the owner of Maigot, a cute local-tourist bar on the way to the Park Güell.

We had a lot of fun together, so I decided to go with them to Sagrada Familia where they had to record the other part of their project, the "fun" part, where they say hi from in front of an emblematic local site and send a kiss to the world.

They were really lovely, and I can't wait to see the result of their work, that is schedule to be online around September after they come back from their summer trips where they'll keep working for their project.

Stay tuned for more!

Rated 2nd best tourguide blog in the world!

I'm so very pleased to announce that this blog has just been rated second best tourguide blog in the world by the travellers website Ourexplorer.com.

Check out their post here.

Marta on Jamie's Magazine!

As I had announced last February in this blog, I gave a few tapas tours to two journalists from the Jamie Magazine, by the famous British chef Jamie Oliver.

The number with their story has just been released, and they mention me. I'm even in one of the pics!

Congratulations to Paul Dring, journalist, and William Meppem, photographer, for their beautiful story!