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.

http://www.vimeo.com/8117624

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 !!

Giant Christmas pasta shells will light up Barcelona

No Father Christmases, sledges or stockings hanging from the chimney. This Christmas season, the city’s lights and decorations will be making more reference than ever before to its own traditions, reflecting Barcelona’s Christmas myths and customs.

Which is why the Galet de Nadal or ‘Christmas Pasta Shell’ will be this year’s most iconic Christmas feature, with 26 city locations chosen to display and light up two-metre-high reproductions of this typical Christmas pasta.

Galets were located at Ciutat Vella: Virreina, Rambla  (final monument Colon), Rambla Raval, Portal de l’Àngel, Plaça Pau Vila); Eixample : Aragó (mercat Concepció), Rambla Catalunya / Provença; Rambla Catalunya (Gran Via), Plaça Goya, Avda. Gaudi  - Provença; Sant Montjuïc: Paral•lel / Plaça Ocellets, Passeig Zona Franca / Plaça La Marina de Sants (mercat); Les Corts: Plaça M. Cristina / Avinguda Diagonal; Avinguda Pedralbes / Bisbe Català;  Sarrià – Sant Gervasi: Plaça Kennedy, Dr. Fleming (Ronda Mitre); Gràcia: Plaça Joanic /Pi Maragall, Plaça Lesseps (banda muntanya); Horta Guinardó: Plaça Nen de la Rutlla (Av. Mare de Deu de Montserrat), Jardins Pedro Muñoz Seca / Pg. Vall d’Hebron; Nou Barris:  Ronda de Dalt / Via Júlia, Rio Janeiro / Pg. Valldaura; Sant Andreu : Plaça del Congrés (Felip II), Plaça Ferran Reyes (Meridiana); Sant Martí: Rambla Poble Nou / Pujades, Meridiana / Aragó

It is about getting back to the idea we have of our own Christmas, while boosting cultural activities in every district. In line with the return to Barcelona traditions, the theme of the lights in Gràcia’s commercial centre will be Christmas trades and it will be Christmas food on the Ronda Sant Pau, Urgell and Gran Via.

In addition, this year will see the streets of 21 commercial centres provided with warmer and more sustainable lighting, with double the number of LEDS, and streets which have never been lit up before will be decorated with lights to give a boost to Christmas shopping.

Source: www.bcn.es  |  NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Barnasants: the songwriters and folk music that sounds this winter in Barcelona

Sixty concertes, twenty performances and twelve international artists. The XIV edition of Barnasants, the Song Festival of Barcelona offers a complete and diverse program, that mixes both emerging creators with consolidated artists.

From January 15th to march 22nd, concerts and performances will be held at Cotxeres de Sants, Luz de Gas, Harlem Jazz Club and Palau de la Música.

The festival has the aim to promote the songwriters and folk music in Catalunya, as well as to become a sharing experience between artists and musicians from all over the world.

More inf@ www.barnasants.com

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Children & Youth Festival 2008

Let your imagination take wings and get ready for an explosion of colour and fun at the Festival de la Infancia (Children & Youth Festival). You can enjoy a huge range of musical performances, workshops, handicrafts and sports activities for all the family at what will be one of the most exiting editions ever.

Visit the Children & Youth Festival between 27 December 2008 and 4 January 2009 and you’ll be the star of the show. Let your creativity and imagination run riot; learn how to look after for the environment and be more altruistic.

You’ll find hundreds of recreational, sporting, musical and educational ideas.

More Inf@: www.festivalinfancia.com

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Visit the nativity scene in Plaça Sant Jaume.

The nativity scene in Plaça Sant Jaume is for all to enjoy. The different scenes combine tradition and modernity.

There is the star to guide the shepherds to the birth in Bethlehem. In the main scene, there are the traditional characters - the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the Three Wise Men, and the child Jesus - alongside the animals and rather exotic vegetation with cactus and palm trees.

More inf@: www.bcn.es

NN Hotels www.nnhotels.com

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