Dear Clients and Site Users:

A general strike has been announced in all of Spain for March 29, 2012.

We have put together this article to provide information about the strike and potential inconveniences that may affect anyone visiting Barcelona during this time.

Arrivals and departures

Those arriving in or departing from Barcelona on the day of the strike will be affected the most. We would recommend changing your arrival or departure date, but understand that this is not always possible.

Transport will be affected by the strike. Minimum services will be provided, but expect considerable delays when going to the airport or train stations.

Public transport minimum services: after intense negotiations, the public transport union and the government agreed on the following minimum services: metro, bus and trains will only operate at 33% during peak hours (from 6:30am to 9:30am and from 5pm to 9pm). The rest of the day public transport will not be available, with the exception of several bus lines.

Last minute about Aerobus (shuttle service from the city centre to the airport) minimum services: The bus will operate the following way: The night of March 28th, after 12am service will be suspended, the last run from the airport will be at 11:25pm. the last one from Plaza Catalunya to the airport will run at 11:30pm.

On March 29th, there will be 5 trips from Plaza Catalunya to the Airport, between 5:30am and 7:15an, thus connections with early flights can't be guaranteed. From 7:15am and on, 50% of buses will be operating.

Air transportation, minimum services will cover 10% of flights within Spain, 20% of flights connecting main European capitals, 40% of international flights and 50% of flights between the Spanish mainland and the islands.

Updated: 27/03/2012 4:30pm CET

Demonstration

A protest has been announced for March 29 at 6pm. The demonstration is scheduled to start at Avinguda Diagonal and head down Passeig de Gracia all the way to Plaça Catalunya. The march is expected to take several hours.

This will affect automotive and pedestrian traffic to and from the area along and around the demonstration route, starting approximately one hour before the protest is scheduled to start.

Please keep this in mind if you are passing through this area during the hours in question, have your accommodation here or are planning on visiting one of the tourist attractions located in the area.

Public Transport

Getting around town is probably easiest on foot in light of the demonstration mentioned above.

Public transport is expected to be severely affected. If you are planning a day trip outside of Barcelona, we recommend renting a car the day before (March 28). We do not recommend using public transport the day of the strike unless absolutely necessary due to the likelihood of delays and the great number of people trying to use these services.

BCNinternet Offices and Contact

The BCNinternet offices will remain closed the day of the strike. Unfortunately, we will not be able to organise transportation alternatives. Should you have any questions, we recommend you get in touch with the person responsible for your accommodation. You can find this information on the reservation confirmation that was sent to your email account, including the relevant contact and emergency telephone numbers.

We will update this page as new information becomes available so please check in with us again.

Keeping up with events in a city as vibrant as Barcelona is no small task, and writing about every single thing happening in town for our blog is pretty much impossible. But giving you up-to-date information on what's going on in Barcelona is one of our missions so we're always looking for ways to improve our blog, communicate better and add new, interesting and useful features.

Our latest addition is a new events calendar, easily accessible from our side menu, where you'll find a broad variety of events, from trade fairs and music festivals to sports and public holidays! Of course we'll continue writing up selected cultural events, entertainment and more on our blog, but the calendar feature allows us to keep you posted on a lot of other things happening in the city. Here you'll find a list of events with dates, basic info and links to the event's website. If you're planning a trip to Barcelona, the calendar is also a handy tool for getting a quick overview of what's going on during your stay. We hope you find this new feature helpful, and we promise to keep adding exciting events as we find out about them. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions with us!

You can start dreaming about your next vacation just about anywhere: while hanging out with friends or sipping your morning coffee or watching TV and suddenly seeing images of the city you've always wanted to visit.

What about making that dream happen right then and there? Okay, teleportation is a stretch, but what about getting started on planning your fantastic weekend and settling a few details? Wouldn't that be nice? Well, all you need is a mobile phone.

During the last couple of years, mobile phones have been evolving lightning fast. Of course, accessing the web from a mobile phone has been possible for several years, but the possibilities and interactivity that new web applications offer are far more advanced.

Thanks to the technology of the new generation of "smartphones" like the Android or iPhone, we can plan and enjoy our trip to the maximum. Here's a few things we can do:

• Check slope conditions before taking off on a weekend skiing trip.
• Check the weather in the city we're about to visit.
• Tell our friends where we are, take some photos and post them on Facebook.
• Figure out where we are and how to get to the restaurant we're looking for by using our mobile phone's GPS.

One morning a member of our staff arrived at one of our apartments to clean. The guest opened the door, a solidly built man dressed in a robe, and she could barely hear him over the opera playing in the background.

"I'm practising!" he shouted over the music, "I have a performance tonight!"

She asked him if he wanted her to come back later. He said no, please come in. Did the music bother her? She told him it was alright, she didn't mind. She knew what it was like.

"Do you sing?" he asked curiously.

She told him that she sang cumbias with a Colombian band. The opera singer was fascinated. He turned off the music and asked her if she would sing. She was embarrassed and a little nervous. She was used to singing in front of an audience, but this was different and awkward. But he insisted.

"If you sing, I'll sing something too," he offered.

She gave in and sang him one of her favourite songs. He was impressed. Keeping his promise, he treated her to one of the pieces he'd been rehearsing that morning. He enjoyed their cumbia-opera exchange so much that he invited her to come and see his show. Later that week she and a friend got dressed to the nines and headed to the Liceu Theatre to see him perform.

I guess it's true what they say about music bridging cultures and bringing people together. And that goes for other art forms too. Barcelona is a magnet for creative people, from Woody Allen to aspiring filmmakers, Cirque de Soleil to underground acrobats, platinum recording artists to budding musicians and every kind of artist in between. Even our staff includes some bona fide creative talents. And those of us lacking an artistic gift are still keen appreciators of the arts. Which is why we love having talented, creative people as our guests. Besides opera singers, we've hosted flamenco artists, dance companies, theatre groups, movie stars, film productions, the entire hair and make-up department for a mega stage extravaganza. We rented one of our villas to a Scandinavian reality show, a Nordic version of Big Brother, and put up 40 crew members in a nearby accommodation. Holiday apartments are a popular choice amongst the show business crowd. A hotel room - no matter how big or luxurious - can get pretty claustrophobic and lonely after a few weeks. If you're going to spend two months or longer in a city, you want a slice of home, a spot you can come back to at the end of the day and call your own. I imagine that it gives you the feeling of actually living in the city. You can cook a meal if you want to. Invite people over for a drink, hang out. You can decorate. You have your private space. Your anonymity. But with the advantage of having an unobtrusive team at hand to help you out with anything you might need and make sure you're comfortable and your apartment stays nice and clean.

And given the vast talent pool of our guests and staff, who knows what kind of spontaneous bursts of creativity could happen!

Barcelona is a very photogenic town, and we love taking pictures of our city. We're very curious about how others see Barcelona, what aspects of its urban landscape, cultural life, architecture, landmarks and people catch the eye of our visitors. So, since we love photos and Barcelona and enjoy sharing experiences with others, we've decided to hold a photo contest! We want to discover how you see Barcelona!

The rules of our contest are very straightforward:

1. The photo must be an original image (no downloads from stock photo sites or scanned postcards!) and submitted by the person who took it.

2. The photo must be of Barcelona.

3. The photo should be visually interesting, unusual in subject matter or different and surprising in some distinctive way. Nothing obscene, offensive or pornographic, please!

4. The submitted photo file should a have a minimum resolution of 2 megapixels.

5. Upon submitting a photo, you agree to let us publish the image on our blog, Facebook, Flickr and/or Twitter pages. We will provide full credit upon publishing your photo (please provide details on how you'd like to be credited, i.e. name & hometown, nickname & country, etc.).

And of course there are prizes (otherwise it wouldn't be much of a contest!):

Upon submitting a photo, you agree to accept our decision as to whether your image meets our aforementioned criteria. Simply by submitting a photo that meets our criteria, you will receive a 5% discount on your next holiday apartment reservation with BCNinternet! You may also transfer the discount to a family member or friend of your choosing.

The grand prize of our photo contest is a Wine and Cava Tour for 2 people! This lovely half-day tour will take you to three wineries in the Penedés, one of Spain's leading wine-producing regions. The visit includes a guided tour and tasting at Jean Leon Winery, a guided tour and combined tasting (wine and cheese) at Bodegas Torres, and a guided tour, cava (Catalan sparkling wine) tasting and brunch at Cavas Freixenet. Click here for more information.

The deadline for submitting your photos is October 15th, 2011.

Please send your photos to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We're excited about seeing your take on Barcelona!