A Warm Welcome to Barcelona from the Team at Barcelona Apartments and Flats.

Bienvenido a Barcelona! Welkom in Barcalona! Bienvenue a Barcelona! Benvenuit a Barcellona!

With a history that ranges from Wilfred the Hairy, a Roman walled city, Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia, to the modern city that retains its charm and appeal with beautiful beaches, cafes, restaurants, shopping and sightseeing possibilities and modern architecture to compliment the old.  All this in beautiful sunshine.  Barcelona is the ideal place for a short break, city break, as a base for exploring Catalunya and even for a family holiday. And our flats and apartments in Barcelona are the perfect base. In fact, people come to Barcelona from all over the world, both as tourists and to live, helping to build the unique atmosphere (and explaining why there is so much designer shopping in Barcelona).

Click here to read about:               

• Barcelona - the City
• Shopping in Barcelona
• Barcelona Restaurants
• Barcelona Region
• Barcelona Weather
• Barcelona Public Transport
• Barcelona Museums 
• Barcelona Beaches
• Barcelona Flats - The out takes
• Barcelona FC Camp Nou  etc
• Barcelona Weddings - Wedding Planner for Barcelona, Pals and Sitges
• A brief history of Catalunya -  by journalist and author Simon Harris
• An introduction to Catalunya - also by Simon Harris
• Spanish Recipes
• Things to do in Barcelona Over 180 great activity ideas in the Barcelona area
• Christmas in Barcelona 
• La Mercé Festival
  

Did you know?

• The biggest attraction is the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s unfinished masterpiece.  
• Camp Nou, Barcelona FC´s stadium, is in the top 5 visitor attractions in Barcelona.   
• There are 72 cheap flights to Barcelona from the UK a day, filled with commuters as well as tourists.  
• There are over 10,000 taxis in Barcelona.  
• The number of holiday apartments in Barcelona rentals is still increasing and it is believed that there are over 6000 tourist holiday apartments and flats.  
• Passeig Del Borne was used for jousting which explains the shape of the street. 

More and more people are opting for the greater flexibility of holiday apartment rentals over hotels.  With the massive choice of food for all budgets in Barcelona, people with an apartment  or flat rental don’t have to worry about cooking while they are enjoying their short break in Barcelona. There are numerous hotels in Barcelona and the one we are waiting for is the new Barcelona Sail, a copy of the sail hotel in Dubai. You can see it under sonstruction if you head down to the port area.

You get a 2 for the price of 1 holiday in Barcelona;  the city drifts lazily down to the beach meaning you get both the relaxing atmosphere of the coast and the excitement of the city. As Barcelona is built on a gentle slope it is even easy to walk from the city to the beach and back. Barcelona Flats holidays flats and apartments are perfect for both the beach and Barcelona city with the majority being in the old city, half way between the beach and the city centre.

Woody Allen has been seen walking around Barcelona during the filming of his new film with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz, provisionally named the Spanish Project.  (updated 28th Septemeber 2007 - "Midnight in Barcelona Spain" looks like being the new title). The baseball cap he wears should have been enough to identify him but in fact it gave him the anonymity he wanted to wander the streets and squares on his own looking like any other tourist.  The film is due for release 19th September 2008.

Barcelona is set to become the most used place for commuting from London, according to a UK study by Future Trends, ahead of Tallinn in Estonia and northern France.  Most people work remotely for part of the week in the glorious sunshine, watching Ronaldinho playing unbelievable football (and perhaps even having a drink with him in the local bar), working out their next presentation whilst sat on the beach, taking a little cava and tapas, enjoying the fiestas with the remarkable firework displays etc etc….   OK we are biased.  We at Barcelona Flats think it is much better here than Tallinn or northern France.

The new AVE Train service from Madrid, via Barcelona to Paris is going right under the Sagarda Familia.  The AVE Barcelona to Madrid link is already up and running and proving very popular. A statement of confidence in the engineers building the tunnels is that it is being built under the whole of Barcelona, including the city's most famous landmark and biggest tourist attraction, the Sagrada Familia.

El Prat and Girona airports are doubling in size.  El Prat airport has a glistening new terminal, T1.  Barcelona Flats understands that there are now 30 million visitors a year to Barcelona.  At the Queen's birthday celebration the British Ambasador (from Madrid) informed us there were 6.7 Million British tourists and visitors a year.  Many were coming on short breaks to Barcelona, but in our experience at Barcelona Flats, many of these people are people who have come once, enjoyed it so much that they have come back again.  We know of one couple, with the great excuse of having a brother here in Barcelona, who have visited seven times alone this year.  Just the sort of people Barcelona Flats like!!

Did you know that the statue of Christopher Columbus, at the bottom of the Rambla, was designed to show Columbus pointing to America. When the statue was being built it was realised that if he pointed towards America from his position at the bottom of the Rambla, he would be pointing not only towards America but also Madrid.  Due to the animosity between the Castellans and the Catalans the column was turned so that Columbus points out to sea.  Did you also know that you have this view of Christopher Columbus by walking out your Barcelona Flats apartment or flat just one street and this is your view?

Barcelona consists of two parts.  The old part, including the Roman walled city called Barcino, is a hickledy pickeldy patchwork of interlocking streets.  A good street map is essential, on a short break in Barcelona you will never find your way around without one. This district is known as the Barri Gotic and includes the Picasso Museum, The Dali Museum, the Cathedral, the Chocolate factory and El Borne and many of the holiday apartments and flats to rent in Barcelona.  The other part is a piece of complete  town planning called the Eixample.  When Barcelona was allowed to expand by Madrid they devised a grand city plan based upon a grid.  It is user friendly having Tibidabo on a hill behind Barcelona as a great reference point wherever you are in the Eixample.  Streets are known as up the hill ( although it is only a gentle slope) or across the hill. When arranging to meet Catalans and those of us who live here will arrange to meet "mountain side or sea side" of a crossroads. 

Magnificent Architecture is everywhere in Barcelona but there is a feature throughout the Eixample which is most unusual.  All the crossing points between two streets have their corners chamfered or cut off.  This makes for open and light streets and an interesting feature of the city.  Look at the Google Map of Barcelona.  From this shot you will be able to see both the old town and the Eixample and even the old port.  You can see the difference in town planning between the Barri Gotic and the Eixample.  If you zoom in you can see Plaça Catalunya, Paseo de Gracia, and even the cut off corners of the Eixample.  Remember to come back to www.barcelonaflats.co.uk to rent a holiday flat in Barcelona or a holiday apartment.

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