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August 30, 2006

discount cards for Barcelona

If you are going to spend more than one or two days in a Barcelona apartment, and want to make the most of your sightseeing, consider buying the Barcelona card:
The city tourist offices sell the Barcelona card ( 1day:16.25 euros) which gives free travel on public transport, discounts on the airport Aerobus and the Montjuïc cable car, and big reductions on museum entry and in some shops and Barcelona restaurants.

For the lovers of Art, the Artticket (15euros valid 3 months) provides half price admission into 6 major art centres and galleries (joan miro for instance)- available at participating centres, Barcelona galleries and at Plaça Catalunya and Barcelona Sants tourist offices.
To enjoy the artistical flair the city spreads just spend your holiday in a Barcelona apartment!

August 24, 2006

Picasso and Barcelona.

Picasso is a symbol of the city and this for many reasons:
He spent much of his youth, from the age of 14 to 23, in Barcelona and is said to have always thought of himself as Catalan, rather than andaluz. The time Picasso spent in Barcelona spanned the whole of his blue period and many of the formative influences on his art.
Apart from the Barceloona museum Picasso, you can still see many of the buildings in which Picasso lived and worked, notably the Escola de Belles arts de Llotja, the apartments where the family lived when they first arrived in Barcelona. Near to Calle de Ferran and to Calle Ample, you can see larges houses along here were converted into brothels at the turn of the twentieth century, and Picasso used to haunt the street sketching what he saw; women at one of the brothels inspired his seminal Cubist work, les demaoiselles d'Avignon.
The museum is located in El Borne, a very centric district of Barcelona. If you are looking for a lodging in Barcelona, have a look to the Barcelona apartments in El Borne.

August 21, 2006

shopping in Barcelona

Barcelona is for sure not as Paris for the shopping, but still there is a long tradition of innovative design, which is perharps expressed best in the city?s fabulous architecture but which is also revealed in a series of shops and malls selling the very latest in designer clothes and household accoutrements.The shop opening hours are from Monday to Friday, from 10.00 am until 2.00pm and from 4.00 to 8.00pm. Do not forget that the shops are closed during the hottest hours of the day to do the ?siesta?.The main departments stores and shopping malls stay open until 10 pm.For clothes, shoes and accessories:The classical shops such as Zara, H&M can be found in the Passeig de Gracia, Plaça Catalunya and Diagonal (metro: Passeig de Gracia, Catalunya). This district is one of the best of Barcelona, with really good Barcelona apartments and Barcelona hotels. Concerning new designers, they are located in the streets of la Ribera, around Passeig del Born where recently a series of funky shops has opened up.For secondhand and clothing, stores line the whole of Calle de la Riera Baixa (metro El Raval), calle del Carme, calle de l?Hospital and on Saturday there?s a street market here.
Antiques, arts and crafts: There are a lot of antiques stores in the old town, the best area for browsing is around calle de Palla, between the cathedral and Plaça del Pi.
Food Markets: Barcelona?s daily food markets all in covered halls,are open Monday-Saturday (closed between 3 and 5pm), though the most famous, la boqueria on the ramblas, opens right through the day.