Blog for Spain events, vacations and travel

Until next Wednesday, the final day of the city festivities throughout Barcelona, Spain, you should attend any or many of the planned activities.

600 activities are planned in total, so there should be something for anybody. One of the big attractions are the live music concerts, which are free and possible to listen to in many places, such as Plaza Catalunya, Plaza Real, both in the very city centre and Parc del Forum, the former Forum area besides the sea.

At Parc de la Ciutadella, one of the main green areas of Barcelona, several free open-air movies are shown every night, and Asian cuisine can be tasted every day from midday to 1 am in the morning.

Another attraction is the International Fireworks Trophy to be held right on the beach and celebrated on 4 days, or better said: Nights, at 10.30 pm.

Human castles on Plaza Sant Jaume and running, fire spying dragons around the Cathedral area / Via Layetana street form also part of the huge offer on activities.

If you want to learn something about the Catalonian traditional culture, then Barcelona is a must these days.

Wafir with Nilo Azul
Mostoles (Madrid) - Lake stage at Finca Liana Park -
Sunday, August 17th - 21:30h - Free entrance

After the success of the Cherno More on August 3, Wafir comes back to the same stage, with his own project of Sudanese music, that winks some other traditions, like Castilian or Balcanic.

Wafir’s career along his 17 years in Spain has gone trought so eclectic experiencies like ancient music with Eduardo Paniagua, celtic pop with Hevia, Galician folk with Luar Na Lubre, Castilian folk with La Musgaña, Jewish music with Klezmer Sefardi and Radio Tarifa rich fusion. Even the most commercial pop, like Amistades Peligrosas’ has took advantage of his versatility and know how.

Info supplied by MapaMundi.

Line-up: Wafir Shaikheldin - ud, percussion, accordion, voice, nay. Salah Sabbagh: darbuka, riq, duf. Pedro Esparza: sax, flutes. José Luis Yagüe: doublebass.

Rent a self-catering holiday apartment with a capacity for 2-4 people in Boo de Pielagos between August 24 and 31, and take advantage of paying 4 nights while you stay 5 nights. Apartments are about 6 car mintes from Santander in North Spain, the so-called Green Spain. 

See information under:

http://www.spaindreams.com/eng/info/ru_dunas.htm

The equipped apartments dispose of terrace or balcony and safe deposit box. Access suitable for disabled people and 2 swimming pools for you to enjoy.

The three stars rated Aparthotel Playa de Liencres in Boo de Pielagos, only few minutes from Santander in Northern Spain, has a last minute offer for accommodation from August 17 to 24. Stay for 5 nights in an apartment for vacation rental in front of the Nature Park Dunas de Liencres and the golf course Abra del Pas, and only pay for 4 nights.

More information on the Aparthotel in Cantabria, Spain, under:

http://www.spaindreams.com/eng/info/ru_lienc.htm

Installations include an outdoor pool as well as a covered swimming pool, a restaurant and a games room. Check for this great offer.

As from tomorrow, July 24, and during 4 days, the 12th. Eurogames, basically for and organized by homosexual and transsexual people, are held this year for the first time in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Along sports events there will be cultural and leisure activities throughout the city.

More than five thousand athletes from all over Europe will compete in 25 different areas with the idea to fight against discrimination of the homosexuals in the world of sports. although the competitions are open to anyone. Sport events include basketball, soccer, swimming, rugby and much more.

Tomorrow starts the fashion show for selected brands Bread & Butter in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, at the Montjuic fair trade area, just on Plaza Espanya. The tradeshow will be on until Friday, July 4, and more than 100.000 visitors are expected.

New structured areas include Sport and Street, Urban Superior, Fashion Now, Sportswear and Denim Base. Apart from more outdoor presentation and exhibition space, you can also choose from various restaurants and chill out areas during the event.

The night of June 23 is an important festival and event in many towns and cities, especially along the Mediterranean coast from Barcelona to Alicante, being there the most important festival of the year. Sant Joan, the shortest night of the year, is celebrated with parties, fireworks and bonfires.

Lots and lots of people gather in public places, streets, squares and beaches. Many towns give out fire wood to be burned on the beaches, where families and groups of friends get together having dinner, eat sardines as being an important part of this special night and event, party and fun all night long.

Jumping 3 times over a bonfire, will purify that person and brings luck for the following year, as the tradition tells.

In Barcelona, the metro (underground) service will operate all night long and the beach cleaning service will start at 6 am. Luckily, June 24th is a holiday.

Exceptional concert full of the sensuality and passion of this still quite unknown kind of music that is a face of the kaleidoscope that our culture is: Andalusi music, a legacy that has an enormous influence in our nowadays musical activity.

A line up of well experienced musicians with varied backgrounds: Vicent Molino, ex-Radio Tarifa, Jota Martínez, hurdy-gurdy and percussions player, the veteran multi-instrumentalist Wafir and the Syrian Salah Sabbagh, get together to make alive the Andalusí traditions, a legacy that flourished in our land for eight centuries. Ancient instruments together with some more modern, in a proposal full of beauty and daintiness. In this ocassion they have also the presence and the dance of the pretty Monica Sade with them.

Line-up: Wafir Sheikheldin - accordion, ud, viola, percussions, vocals; Vincent Molino - ney, axabeba, cromorno, oboe and chirimia; Salah Sabbagh - darbuka, riq, daf; Jota Martinez - hurdy-gurdy, ambient, cantara and tambours; Monica Sade – Oriental dance.

The concert will be open air and for free on June 21, at Plaza Mayor (City Hall Square) of Griñón, town near Madrid, at 11 pm on June. 

Information supplied by MapaMundi Concerts.

Tonight Josep Carreras, the world famous tenor, is back at the Gran Liceu opera house in Barcelona, to commemorate the 50th anniversary since he debuted there.

Included are works by Alessandro Scarlatti, Francesco Paolo Tosti, Giacomo Puccini and Nicola Valente among others. Carreras will be accompanied on the piano by Lorenzo Bajav.

At the Liceo in Barcelona there is also an exhibition about the tenor.

A great place to see this concert is at the Plaza del Mar, Sant Sebastian beach at the Barceloneta, where a giant screen is installed, apart from live broadcast on TV and radio.

The International Exhibition of Zaragoza 2008 with its slogan “Experience the biggest water festival on earth”, has kicked off this weekend in the capital of Aragon, being Zaragoza the fifth largest metropolis, located almost half way between Madrid, the capital of Spain and Barcelona, the buzzling, modern Gaudi city on the east coast of the country. 

With the new high speed train it will take you only 90 minutes from Madrid and 2 hours from Barcelona to get to the Expo, in case you do not want to stay in this old Roman city. 

The opening hours are from 9 am to 3 am, and 90 thousand visitors are excepted each day until the closing date on September 14, with a total of seven million visitors. 

5 thousand shows of 100 countries, apart from organizations and corporations in 140 pavillions are scheduled, and where the Expo 2008 combines leisure, visual and cultural elements. Performances go from Bob Dylan and Daniel Barenboim to Cirque du Soleil. 

You can get there Esther by bicycle, taxi, water taxi along the Ebro river, bus, car, air cable cars or on foot from Delicias railway station, which is nearby. 

Services at the 140 hectares big grounds, bordering the Ebro river include: 

Vehicle hire for people with reduced mobility 

Prams and pushchair hire 

Left luggage locker hire 

Animal minding facility 

More than 50 restaurants, cafeterias and bars

This afternoon in the Innsbruck soccer stadium in Austria, Spain achieved a very important win over Sweden in the second game within their group.

Valencia forward David Villa, pretended by Real Madrid and FC Barcelona among others, scored the final 2:1 goal in the minute 92, when everybody thought of a draw being the final result between these two National teams during the Euro 2008 soccer championship in Austria and Switzerland.

Fernando Torres, the blonde Liverpool forward, scored his first goal, in this quite equal match during the first half, in the minute 15. Ibrahimovic, the Swedish forward, playing in Inter de Milan (Italy) and who is the best paid soccer player in the world with 12 million Euro per year, drawed the match in the minute 34.

In the second half Spain was clearly superior, trying to score another goal, whereas Sweden seemed to be happy with the 1:1, when in the last minute a long pass reached Villa, who was calm enough to beat the Swedish goal keeper below.

Spain has won now both games, after their clear 4:1 win over Russia last Tuesday, where Villa scored a hatrick. After two games he is the leading scorer of the EURO 2008 soccer championship with four goals.

Depending on the result between Greece and Russia, who are playing right now, Spain might not need to win their last game next Wednesday against Greece to be first of their group and this way avoid the Netherlands, the best team right now after beating Italy and France.  

This weekend you can enjoy the Gran Premio de Catalunya de MotoGP (Motorcycling World Championship) at the Montmelo circuit, north of Barcelona.

You can follow the race of the Catalan Grand Prix on the 20 giant screens installed, viewable from any corner of the public areas. If you come with children, the ones under 5 years old have free access during the whole weekend. Cars and motorbikes have a free parking space, although the best way to access the access is on foot after taking a bus or train.

Between June 19 and 21 you can attend in Barcelona any of the day (starting at 1 pm) or night (some of which start at 5 am) concerts of this year´s Sonar festival at the SonarVillage, SonarComplex and other Sonar areas, full of progressive live music from Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Canada, USA, including bands such as Yazoo, Madness, Shackleton, Daedelus, Boys Noize, Camille, Blackjoy, just to name a few, or see recent multimedia arts, audio-visual concerts as well as many well known DJ´s.

Chuchurumel delights us on Sunday June 8 at the Lake stage of Finca Liana Park in Mostoles (Madrid) with the ancient flavour of the traditional music and singing from the deep Portugal, covered with the most innovative technologies and stage conception.

Hurdy-gurdies vs. video, Bagpipes vs. samples. Mandolins vs. programming. An eye-catching visual and musical show, exquisite and fascinating, based on contrast: innovative tradition and rooted modernity.

Information supplied by MapaMundi Conciertos.

Until May 31,  the music festival Primeravera Sound is on again in Barcelona. The main events take place at the open air area Parc del Forum, just besides the sea with music from hip hop to rock and bands such as Public Enemy, Young Marble Giants and Lightspeed Champion or Portishead.

Some free performances take place for the first time at the Joan Miro park, just opposite the former bullring arena and very close to Plaza Espanya.

Come and enjoy day and night concerts at this every year better known music festival.

Until Sunday 25, you still have the possibility to discover the actual China photography at the Palau de la Virreina, just off the famous La Rambla boulevard in the centre of Barcelona.

More than 100 works between 1994 and 2006 from 30 young Chinese artists are shown in this exhibition, including photos of areas such as cities, consumption or cultural influences, a reflection from each artist in a personal, own way.

These days, during Corpus Christi, one of the most popular and traditional festivals is held in Catalonia, north east of Spain. The so called ” Patum “ in the city of Berga. This festival was declared in the year 1983 of National Interest and World Heritage by the Unesco in 2005.

If you are in the Girona or Barcelona area until this Sunday and have some spare time, you should not miss a visit to Berga to enjoy their streets and squares full of music bands, dances such as the traditional Catalan Sardanes, theatre, fire spying dragons, drums, giants, fireworks and of course lots and lots of people having fun, apart from a Putum for children, a recent idea.

The origin of the Patum comes from the traditional medieval theatre performances, which go back to the XV Century and still show a lot of sensations such as passion, mystery and happiness.

The Contemporary Cultural Centre of Barcelona, short CCCB, located in Ciutat Vella (Old City) of Barcelona, will hold again this year a flamenco festival, which you should not miss in case you like the authentic stuff, not the tourist orientated shows.

Until this Saturday, music and flamenco shows include artists such as the female classic and vanguardist flamenco dancer Carmen Cortes, or Rosario Montoya Manzano, called La Farruca, daughter of the legendary dancer Farruco. Another invited artist is Iniestra Cortes who was definitely discovered by Cristina Hoyos in 1992.

We would like to inform you that we have a special offer for lastminute accommodation bookings in the rural hotel Sa Rota on Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. 

We invite our guests to enjoy a delicious homemade dinner for free in our country hotel during their stay.  We are located in Lloret de Vistalegre, surrounded by 28 hectares of fig trees, almond, carob and fruit trees and a forest of holm oaks and pine trees. The peaceful country setting assures a pleasant stay. 

The daily rate for accommodation in an apartment for two people with living room, kitchen and a private terrace overlooking the valley and free breakfast included is 68 Euro per person plus 7% VAT. 

For more information check he following lodging page: http://www.spaindreams.com/eng/info/ho_rota.htm 

This offer is subject to stays of at least 5 nights and 2 people during the month of June 2008.