Christmas in Barcelona

If you are trying to think about whether or not to make Barcelona a location for a Christmas break, you could do worse. To be fair, Brussels and Prague both perhaps have better Christmas markets and both are also very good seasonal locations.

Barcelona though is excellent as a venue for a long weekend or Christmas Shopping breaks and most shops and restaurants stay open for most of the season. There is always something to do and see in fact in Barcelona every day of the year.

Barcelona Shopping is really a big plus for the city during the Christmas period and if you are making plans now, then you could do worse by visiting Barcelona. There are so many shops and covering all of the major fashions and names, but you can also find a significant number of small independent stores, whilst the Barri Gotic area has a variety of unusual and more unique products.

NYC travel is excellent for Xmas shopping but if you want to stay or to travel in Europe and combine Xmas shopping with an excuse to get away then I'd recommend Barcelona. Flights depend on your departure location although most major airlines fly into Barcelona International airport. For Barcelona accommodation there are a few providers for holiday apartments and plenty of hotels.

Tourist accommodation choices in Barcelona

Having made the decision to visit Barcelona and having found some well priced budget flights, the next thing to normally take care is the accommodation. And it can be overwhelming.

There are many things to consider including:

• Which area to stay in.
• What type of accommodation to stay in.
• How to book it.

Where to stay - In terms of where to stay in Barcelona it really depends on what you want. Las Ramblas is one of the most popular tourist areas. In terms of accommodation it can be a bit more expensive and noisy. On the other hand it is very central, connected by metro train and the centre of the action. Other areas you might want to consider are Borne and Eixample. Still very central but less hectic.
Type of accommodation: Again, it really depends on your needs. For the very budget conscious, there are several very good youth hostels in Barcelona to choose from. For short stays of 2 or 3 days, hotel accommodation is a good bet and companies such as bookings.com or expedia are good places to find decent prices. A fairly new and popular choice these days are holiday apartments. This option often gives you much more room and the chance to have a kitchen and proper living room included for your stay. Barcelona vacation rentals can be booked with a number of companies. Another option is Boutique Hotels for high end and unique accommodation and this is also becoming popular.

How to book - If you have Internet access these days, booking cannot be much easier and if online booking is not possible, then telephone booking will be possible.

Getting tickets for Barcelona games

Many people who visit Barcelona (particularly large stag groups and also corporate groups) are often keen to get tickets for an FC Barcelona game. As well as La Liga games (the Spanish league), there are also often Spanish Cup and European Champions League games to see at the Nou camp Stadium. Recent games have also included pre-season friendlies against teams such as Man City, England.

Getting tickets for FC Barcelona can sometimes be relatively simple and sometimes not so easy. A game such as Barcelona v Real Madrid for example is tougher. Normally though you can always get tickets and the trick I have found is to use of the affiliated agencies such as the English speaking and English run BarcelonaFootballTickets.com

• By sticking with an affiliated company you know you are getting genuine tickets.
• They will normally also deliver tickets to your hotel.

Below the affiliated badge for Barcelona Football Tickets. You can contact them on Telephone: 020 8133 2317 or see their site online.

Barcelona Zoo - join us at Parc de la Ciutadella

Barcelona Zoo is in a great location (located in Parc de la Ciutadella and near to the old city center and near the beach. It is a beautiful zoo, where animals live in spacious pens. Until 2003, a white gorilla called “Floquet de Neu” (snowflake) was the major attraction of the zoo. The animal died in that year to skin cancer, but this albino gorilla still has its own website on the Internet. This is not only to keep the memory of snowflake alive, but also knowledge about the endangered gorillas across. There are descendants of the albino gorilla in the zoo, but none has inherited the unique properties of snowflake.

Even without snowflake a visit to the zoo is worth it. You will not only find hippos, lions, tigers and monkeys, but also animals that occur only in Spain. Examples are the Iberian ibex and the Iberian wolf. Very nice is the Dolphinarium. Behind glass you can see how the 'nut' swimming in the water and often they are just curious to the window to see who they are now back to peep.

Like most zoos do, the Barcelona Zoo in maintaining many endangered species. For example, in a special native center, animals are bred and later they are released into the Donana, a protected area in Catalonia. Furthermore, the zoo has electric cars, picnic areas and a mini train.
In the park surrounding the zoo is a large pond, where you can rent a rowing boat. Parc Zoològic in Parc de la Ciutadella (also entrance on Carrer de Wellington).

Opening hours: 10.00 - 18.00 (summer 7pm)
Admission: adults €14.95, children 3 to 12 years €9

The Picasso Museum - Attractions Spotlight

The Picasso Museum in the district of La Ribera is one of the most popular attractions of Barcelona. It is located in five mercantile houses which are connected and all have beautiful courtyards. The main entrance is in the Palau Berenguer d'Aguilar of the 15th century.

The museum gives a nice overview of the development of Pablo Picasso. His works hang in chronological order. The museum has many pieces from his earlier period, when he lived and worked in Barcelona.

There are also many works that Picasso made in his last period. The period 1907 - 1937 is less well represented. Unfortunately, because in this period he made very famous works. The real masterpieces you will not find in this museum, but the exhibition gives a good insight into how Picasso developed his own style.

Besides paintings, the museum holds items of ceramics and graphic work of Picasso. In a separate section of the museum you can see the changing exhibitions, but you have to pay an extra price for this. The museum is situated at Montcada 15-23, 08003 Barcelona. Opening hours: 10.00 - 20.00 (Monday closed) Price: €6.

The Joan Miro museum (el Fundació Joan Miró)

The Miró museum is a museum of modern art in Barcelona. The museum was built by Josep Lluis Sert, a friend of Miro, and was officially opened on the 10th of June in 1975. It has many paintings and sculptures by Joan Miró, but also from other modern artists.

The museum is owned by the Fundació Joan Miró and contains more than 200 paintings by Miró. The Most of these works are donated to the museum by Miro itself or by his wife. The museum includes also a library with more than 25,000 books and catalogs, audiovisual items and newspapers.

Joan Miró was born in 1893 in the Spanish Montroig, near Barcelona. Miró was a Catalan, Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramist. From childhood he began to draw, but later he also made paintings, sculptures, textile work, theatrical and monumental sculptures. Miro art is known for its original style and one of the big three, next to Picasso and Dalí, of the Spanish 20th-century Modern art. He is also seen as one of the most visual artists of the 20th century by many art critics. He worked in different styles and in his younger years he was inspired by the impressionistic work of Van Gogh. But after his meeting with Pablo Picasso, he changed for a small period to the Cubism style.

Finally, Joan Miró created, by the influence of surrealist writers and painters, a distinctive and unique style and is counted by the art of surrealism. This unique style of painting is a style that was never practiced by other people.

This style includes that the artist disconnects the technical objects of a spontaneous poetic dream world of their original function to enable them to integrate them in a graphic world. These organic figures world was dominated by the sexual issues, nature, the moon, the star, but also women. Spontaneous spring poetry is the main show.Joan Miró died in 1983 at an age of 93 years.

The museum Fundació Joan Miró is situated on the mountain Montjuic in Barcelona.

Tibidabo Tibidabo - Touring the mountains near Barcelona

Tibidabo Tibidabo, the top of mountain Serra Collserola is the highest place of Barcelona. On this place you have a beautiful panoramic view over the city but there is also an attraction park and a church. From almost every spot in Barcelona you can see the highest point of the mountain and especially the church Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor.

The church is the eye catcher of the mountain and is the first thing you see when you step out the funicular (cable car). You can visit the church for free, only for the lift you will have to pay €2,-. But when you are not interested in the church, you can also visit the old attraction park. This park is not really changed since it opened its doors in 1899. Some attractions of that time are still working.

One of this attractions is the red airplane L’avió. This plane turns circles since 1928. One century ago, this airplane was used for flights between Barcelona and Madrid.

Transport The Tibibus brings you from Plaça Catalunya directly to the attractionpark Tibidabo. But you can also take the train to Avenida de Tibidabo, this is line L7. And from there you can take bus 195 who brings you to the funicular. But in place of this bus, you can also take the historic Tramvia Blau.