Our new Winners!

Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations!

Sean McGrattan

We are very happy to inform you that you have been the lucky winner of our NN Experiences raffle! Your experience was published on August 12, 2009 for your review about the B-Hotel, read here!You have won a complimentary two-night stay (including breakfast) at our wonderful property, Hotel Barcelona Universal. Check terms & conditions of your prize!

Best regards from Barcelona, and thank you again for your contribution to our blog!

Attention! Don’t forget to follow us these days because coming soon, we will publish our new prize!

Next BAM 2009 Festival

The 17th BAM, which takes place between 23 and 26 September, will be offering over sixty concerts spread around various venues, like Plaça Reial, Parc del Fòrum and the new stage on Rambla del Raval. With little over a month remaining before the start of BAM, the festival line-up continues to grow as more artists confirm they will be taking part.

Just a few weeks ago we learnt the Swedish band The Hives, Catalan pop phenomenon Manel, The Vision & The Dancers, creators of the song of the summer, Billie, and home-grown folk group El Petit de Cal Eril will be setting foot on one of the BAM 2009 stages.

Now there are more confirmations. Musicians from around the world have a notable role in the festival programme, which this year includes Cui Jian, pioneer of rock&roll in China, DJ Shantel, who will be bringing his Balkan rhythms, and Terry Lynn, a Jamaican who is redefining reggae.

Like every year there will be a good representation from the Catalan and Spanish scenes, with the presence of Barcelona band Inspira, Pájaro Sunrise from Leon, with their lively pop, and post-punk band CatPeople.

The American indie scene is sending two big names to BAM: The Duke & The King, the band of Simone Felice from The Felice Brothers, and Dirty Projectors, one of the revelations of the year.

Completing the bill we have Estanislau Verdet, The Pepper Pots, Calima, La Kinky Beat and Rock de Souk, who will be presenting Nour, Speed Caravan and Rabah Donquishoot.

BAM Festival (myspace)  |  NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Parc de la Ciutadella & Yoga studio.

Yoga is an oriental discipline that is thousands of years old and gradually spreading to Western culture. A product of Hinduism, it seeks to connect the unconscious and conscious mind, while uniting mind and body.

It works on the physical body but also on the endocrine glands and internal organs with the aim of keeping the body healthy, achieving physical as well as mental and spiritual health, and personal realisation.

Yoga mixes sport, meditation and relaxation and, apart from generating energy and vitality, it also helps to reduce stress.

Taking advantage of the good weather, Parc de la Ciutadella is turning itself into an improvised yoga studio, where you can learn to relax to the singing of the birds while you recharge your batteries.

Amelie Strecker and Raphaella Rose are two teachers who teach various techniques and yoga exercises every Tuesday and Thursday in August, starting at 11am.

A yoga class involves a succession of exercises combining postures, movements, and breathing and sight control. Each exercise is followed by a short relaxation that serves to introduce the next.

Links:

• Web de Amelie Strecker
• Web de Raphaella Rose

Apart from the morning classes, you can also go to Parc de la Ciutadella on Wednesdays at 7pm for an evening class charged with energy and strength.

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

42nd International Sitges Film Festival

From 1st to 12th October, film lovers in general and fans of the fantasy and horror genre in particular, have an unmissable date in Sitges, with the arrival of the 42nd International Fantasy Film Festival of Catalonia.

Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is the #1 fantasy film festival in the world and represents, at the same time, the cultural expression with the most media impact in Catalonia. With a solid experience, the Sitges Festival is a stimulating universe of encounters, exhibitions, presentations and screenings of fantasy films from all over the world.

Born in 1968 as the 1st International Week of Fantasy and Horror Movies, today the Festival is an essential rendezvous for movie lovers and audiences eager to come into contact with new tendencies and technologies applied to film and the audiovisual world.
Sitges’ status as the number one fantasy film festival in the world allows it to receive visits from top-level movie stars, directors and producers like Quentin Tarantino, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Paul Verhoeven, George A. Romero, Viggo Mortensen, Rutger Hauer,  John Landis, Joe Dante, Dino de Laurentii, Takashi Miike, Wim Wenders, Tony Curtis, David Cronenberg, Vanessa Redgrave, Brad Dourif, John Woo, Park Chan-Wook, Paul Naschy, Jon Voight, Sam Raimi, Robert Englund, Roger Corman, Santiago Segura, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, Guillermo del Toro, Álex de la Iglesia, among others from the long list of people who, year after year, are a media attraction.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Alien is the star of this year’s edition, and the festival will once again be showcasing the best this genre has to offer.

A festival where Horror is the protagonist

The festival will open with a screening of the eagerly-awaited sequel [REC]2, which ties in with the first film by relating the events which take place just fifteen minutes after the last images of that film.

The Official Fantasy Section will include many other outstanding titles from this genre, such as Thirst, by Park Chan-wook about vampires, Yatterman, an adaptation of the comic of the same name, and Crows II, which highlights youth violence, both by Takashi Miike.

You will also get a chance to see the film which won an award at Cannes for best director, Kinatay, by Brillante Mendoza, a journey to hell, a hyper-realist horror, and Moon by Duncan Jones, recent winner of the Award for Best Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Home-grown cinema will also play an important role in the festival, with films such as Orphan, by Jaume Collet-Serra, and Ingrid, by Eduard Cortés. And from Europe, Monica Belluci and Sophie Marceau come face to face in Ne te retourne pas.

In addition to the usual sections of the festival, this year sees the introduction of 3D cinema, with titles such as The Final Destination and Toy Story 3D.

The 80′s make a come back

For nostalgics, Sitges 09 will be taking a look back at some of the best films of this genre from the 1980s, including the North American production, previously unreleased in Spain, The Shining, and Nightmare on Elm St.

Another retrospective will be the Other Fantasy Films, with productions that vindicate the atypical genre, produced by Catalan and Spanish film makers who have regularly turned to it, such as Vicente Aranda, with Las Crueles.

Clive Barker, author of horror novels, will be one of those celebrated at the festival, which will screen two films based on his works: Dread and Book of Blood.

Brigadoon, one of the festival’s classics, will also pay tribute to Alien, with the screening of films inspired by this film in the After Alien section.

And once again, as we saw last year, the living dead will take to the streets of Sitges with a new edition of the Zombie Walk, Saturday 10 October, and a tribute to Zombie 2, which debuted at Sitges 30 years ago.

More inf@: Sitges Film Festival

Grazie BHotel Barcellona

bellissimo e confortevole hotel!! siamo stati 5 giorni al B Hotel con due bambini ed è stato un piacevolissimo soggiorno: camere silenziose, confortevoli e pulite, un’ottimo servizio per il bar e la colazione, una piscina magnifica per rilassarsi e rinfrescarsi dopo i tour per barcellona ed infine una posizione unica per comodità negli spostamenti.

Grazie BHotel e a presto.

Recensione scritta da paolo, August 2009.

website: www.b-hotel.com

Festa Major in Sants (city festival).

 During seven days, the neighbourhood will swell with loads of activities for the whole family. A dozen streets in all will be decorated, taking part in the traditional street-decoration competition, while there will be concerts on every day, parades, ‘correfocs’ or running fireworks, eating fests, workshops and gamesworkshops for young and old and plenty of music are just some of the ingredients you’ll find filling Sants’ streets with life until 29 August.

There’ll also be the ‘correfoc’ or running fireworks, the Diada Castellera and the Festa Major concert performed by the Barcelona Municipal Band. Also taking place will be the traditional International Chess Open, a cycling race and a Sardana festival, in addition to musical performances going on throughout the neighbourhood’s streets and squares.

More info: www.bcn.es

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Dalí sketch for the Marx Brothers on exhibit

Salvador Dalí and the Marx Brothers were planning to do a film together. It would be titled ”Surreal Women” and the argument focused on two women: a high-class snob and a woman daydreaming in the ethereal world of the genius of the Empordà. One of the drawings that Dalí made for the film can be seen from 20 August at Púbol Castle, and later will move to the Dalí Museum in Figueres.

“Surrealist Piano” is a drawing with charcoal and pastel to Salvador Dalí painted in 1937. The work was made during a trip to the United States. There, the artist met the Marx Brothers and decided to collaborate together in a film. This picture is a testimony that proves the link to the artist with Marx.

The picture is displayed from Thursday at the workshop of the artist, in Púbol. When the summer season finishes, it will be moved to the Museum in Figueres. The work adds to the over 300 pieces of Dalí Foundation has acquired since 1991.

More inf@: Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí

Barcino: Barcelona seen 2000 years ago

While remains of ancient Neolithic peoples from over 4000 years ago have been found in Barcelona, the first viable signs of settlement date back to the 7th century B.C. when ancient tribes settled on the slopes of Montjuïc.

The foundation of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to Hercules 400 years before the building of Rome thus the name Βαρκινών; . The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family, in the 3rd century BC.

About 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centred on the “Mons Taber”, a little hill near the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans, it was a colony named Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. The city expanded and was fortified during the reign of the Roman Empire, when the provincial capital was Tarraco (nowadays Tarragona).

Some important Roman ruins are still visible in Barcelona: remaining fragments of the Roman city wall are incorporated into the Cathedral, the necropolis near Las Ramblas, the ruins incorporated to the Barcelona History Museum in Plaza del Rei or the columns of the Temple of Augustus.

Barcelona enhanced by Hotel Europark

We stayed in Barcelona for 7 days at the Europark and our holiday was absolutely enhanced by staying at the Hotel Europark.

It is a very modern, clean and friendly hotel with very stylish rooms. We booked the Superior rooms but they were of a much higher standard than the 3* the Hotel carries. Location is excellent, it is 10 mins walk from the main shopping area and 15 mins walk from La Ramblas, but itself is in a nice quiet location.

Breakfast was also excellent and set us up for a good days sightseeing in the City. Our rooms had good air con, safe at no cost and reasonably priced Mini-bar.
All in all I would highly recommend.

Experience sent by Chris Kenyon, Aug 09.

From New Zealand to Hotel Jazz Barcelona

My husband and I heard about Hotel Jazz from a travel column in our newspaper in New Zealand.
It was a great location and the room,facilities, pool and staff were really wonderful. It was excellent value for money and we would always recommend it to anyone travelling to the fantastic city of Barcelona!
We would certainly stay there again.

Experience added by Wendy Cooper, Aug 09.

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