Barcelona Children’s Festival

The Children’s Festival has been entertaining kids since 1963. This year is no exception, with the festival boasting more than one hundred and fifty different activities of all kinds at the Montjuïc exhibition venue.

One of the main features this year is sport, with a recreation of the Olympic Stadium and the presence of some of Barça‘s footballers. Some of the other attractions include go-karts, ponies, traditional games, video games, concerts, magic shows and a visit from some of the Sesame Street characters from Port Aventura.

Take part in this unforgettable experience; in the numerous sporting, recreational and educational activities being organized at the Children’s Festival, a fabulous fiesta where fun is guaranteed. The best way to teach values ​​such as creativity, solidarity, respect for diversity and the environment. It also promotes the sport and the Mediterranean food. Here you can participate in interactive science activities, recycling or responsible consumption, road safety circuits, workshops on how to care for pets, crafts and drawing competitions.

You can find more information at Festival Website.

Barcelona: Ice Rink at Plaça Catalunya

Until 8 January, you can get your skates on the ice rink at the Plaça de Catalunya , sponsored by the Barcelona Comerç Foundation.

Measuring 40 by 30 square metres, Barcelona is the biggest outdoor ice rink in Europe. And it has a special ice zone for children too.

The rink, which is crowned by a semi-transparent dome, boasts a cafeteria and changing rooms. Half-hour and one-hour skating sessions will cost 6 euros and 8 euros respectively.

Tickets can be purchased at a discount with tickets given away by shops in the Barcelona Comerç shopping districts.

It will take a maximum of between 350 and 400 people, depending on the number of children on the rink, plus a supervisor, and three to six assistant monitors.

The rink will be open from 10 am to 9 pm, Mondays to Thursdays and on Sundays; 10 am to 11 pm on Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays; 10 am to 8 pm on Christmas Eve; 11 am to 2 pm on Christmas Day, and 10 am to 8 pm on 31 December.

Traditional Christmas Fair on the Gran Via of Barcelona

As with every year, the fair stalls are setting up shop on the Gran Via, selling the toys and sugar “coal” the Three Kings of the Orient will be bringing every child in the city on 6 January.

The traditional Christmas fair has more than 300 stalls selling toys, records, CDs and sugar “coal“. There are also solidarity stalls for collecting new toys and ensuring no child goes without a present on such a special day. As is the tradition, the fair will be open on the night of 5 January.

 Three Kings Fair | End date: 05/01/2011
Gran Via Corts Catalanes, 580 between Rocafort & Muntaner | Eixample

World Snowboard Championships

Barcelona is a joint venue for the 2011 World Snowboard Championships, which are being held in La Molina. On 15 January the opening ceremony and first event, the Big Air, will take place here. It is one of six events people will be able to watch at the championships and consists of snowboarders showing off their skills while leaping between 2.5 and 3.5 metres in the air and completing several rotations.

Palau Sant Jordi will be the setting for Big Air, the first event in the La Molina World Snowboard Championships, on 15 January, 2011. The championships are taking place between 14 and 22 January, with 400 participants from 40 countries.

B-Hotel, located in Plaza Espanya and with direct access to Palau Sant Jordi by using the scalators system in Montjuïc, is offering interesting Winter Promotions. Also on the slopes of Montjuïc, Hotel Paral·lel and Hotel Barcelona Universal welcome guests who want to discover Barcelona and enjoy a winter by the Mediterranean Sea.

Barcelona awaits the Three Kings of the Orient Parade

The arrival of Their Royal Majesties, the Three Kings of the Orient will be arriving in Barcelona thomorrow Tuesday, 5th of January, with various street theatre groups and choreographers helping to create a great big moving spectacular that will pass through the city’s streets for nearly three hours.

With over 1.200 participants and almost one kilometre of floats, the Kings’ Parade will start off this year around 5 pm when the Kings arrive on the schooner Santa Eulàlia and the Mayor, Jordi Hereu, gives them the key to open all the doors of the city so they can leave presents for everyone who’s been well-behaved this year.

This is the biggest street show ever held in Barcelona so, as a novelty this year, each King wanted to include a street theatre company with its own choreography on his float, making this five-kilometre procession a veritable moving stage

What’s more, the 2010 Kings’ Parade will have six newly created floats, three brand new mobile elements and more pages collecting dummies because the youngest onlookers will have to hand over their dummies if they want sweets.

This year’s Three Kings’ Parade, which will be setting off from Avinguda del Marquès de l’Argentera, next to Ciutadella Park, at 6.30 pm, has opted more than ever for artistic creation in the city, with the participation of professional companies, scenographers and choreographers who will be recreating the native lands of the Three Kings during the parade.

It will be broadcast live on Barcelona Televisió and go on to Via Laietana (7 pm), then Plaça Urquinaona and Carrer Fontanella (7.20 pm), to reach Plaça de Catalunya and Carrer Pelai at around 7.30 pm.

It will then continue on along Plaça Universitat and Ronda de Sant Antoni (7.45 pm), Carrer de Sepúlveda (8.00 pm), Carrer de Vilamarí and Carrer de Lleida until it reaches Avinguda de Rius i Taulet, which is expected at around 9.00 pm.

Source: www.bcn.es

Cursa del Nassos (Nose Race)

Since 1999, when the Cursa dels Nassos – Saint Silvester of Barcelona – Ibercaja Gran Prix began, the number of runners participating in the race has grown significantly. Last year the race reached a spectacular record number of 8.500, which was the registration limit set out by the organization. Many men and women athletes have decided that they do not want to miss this chance to participate in the final race of the year, despite winter temperatures.

The “Cursa dels Nassos” (or Nose Race, as the name comes from the fact that the date coincides with the last day in the life of the Man of Many Noses, a popular character in Catalan folklore) has become one of the most important sporting and festive events in the city sports calendar.

This year’s Cursa dels Nassos race continues to arouse great interest, as can be seen by registration numbers. With only two weeks to go before the event there are more than 7.000 signed up, while last year at this time participation was just over 5.000.

For this reason, the organization has set out a maximum number of 9.000 participants for this edition. This is the only way to ensure the sporting quality of the race without forgetting the need for continual growth in terms of participation, which is one of the ways to consolidate the Cursa dels Nassos - Saint Silvester of Barcelona – Ibercaja Gran Prix as a highly popular athletic event, both in terms of competition and participation.

Merry Christmas!!

New Barcelona Christmas web page

You can now consult the Christmas web page and discover all the activities taking place in the city over the festivities. This web page will let you discover which route the Three Wise Men will be taking through the city on Twelfth Night, where the various venues and illuminated giant pasta shells are and how various popular figures will be celebrating Christmas.

This Christmas, the city is brighter than ever and even more packed with activities. To stop you missing out on any of them, the web page offers you a city map where you can find the main events going on, district by district.

In addition, the web page will let you download a Christmas street map highlighting the areas where the giant illuminated Christmas pasta shells have been installed and where street concerts and Christmas fairs are taking place.

How do some of the country’s most famous faces experience Christmas? The Christmas web page lets you see and hear Raquel Sans, who confirms she still beats the Christmas log, the Tió, to “poop” gifts, or read Ferran Adrià’s culinary suggestion for the Catalan Christmas stew Escudella i carn d’olla and the views of FC Barcelona player, Leo Messi, for whom Christmas is a time for getting together with the family.

The web page will also give you information on the various solidarity campaigns that are being launched for Christmas, on children’s activities like the Children’s Fair and on classic Christmas sports events like the Nose Race, the first swim of the new year and the Christmas walk.

Christmas in Barcelona with U232 Hotel

Christmas time is here. Come to Barcelona and do your Christmas Shopping, enjoying the advantages that the Barcelona Shopping Line card offers in the most amazing shops featuring the latest trends in the Barri Gotic, along Diagonal Avenue, close to the modernist buildings, in el Raval or in La Roca Village Outlet Shopping. Combine your Christmas gifts with museums, architecture, art, design and fun.

Get an special and exclusive attention in all Barcelona shops with your Barcelona Shopping Line card.

The pack includes:

• Accommodation in a standard room for 1-2 people.
• Welcome drink in the U232 Bar.
• Free entrances for the Casino de Barcelona.
• Barcelona Shopping Line card.

Book now your package or visit U232 Hotel website to find out more about us.

Frozen Rates at Hotel Soho Barcelona

Hotel Soho Barcelona announces that the weather forecast for December and January is -20º.

Save 20% on all reservations staying a minimum of 4 nights.

Rates will be dropping down to discount levels never seen before in the city, so take advantage of this offer for your Christmas shopping or to enjoy our incredible January sales.

Book now your stay at Hotel Soho Barcelona. But don’t worry, despite our frozen rates, Barcelona’s mild winter temperatures will be waiting for you!

Hotel Soho Barcelona exclusive design leaves a distinctive mark on Barcelona’s hotel landscape with its cosmopolitan, minimalist, and imminently urbane character. The Gothic neighborhood and the Cathedral are just some of Barcelona’s most emblematic places well within walking distance from the hotel. Guests can also easily walk to the Picasso Museum, the MACBA, and the CCCB, as well as other tourist hot-spots, including the La Boqueria Market, the Liceu Theatre, the Palau de la Música, Plaza Catalunya and Paseo de Gracia.

Check availability and rates !!

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