This month sees the start of the Christmas campaign around the city, with the city lights due to be turned on on the 28th November. With retail world-wide expecting a decent Christmas, it's important to draw in the crowds with a decent illumination display this year - something that many complained about last year. High on the Barcelona residents' naughty list, was the lack of lights on major avenues such as Paseig de Gracia and Diagonal, and the incredible price of 214,000 Euros for 4 solar/bicing-powered "Christmas Trees" that looked straight out of a "todo a cien" shop.
Well, it looks like the mayor's office has sat up and taken notice. So as well as the aforementioned Passeig de Gracia/Diagonal commerce splashing out on 90,000 Euros to line the streets with close to 300 lamps, we'll have some festive inventions dotted around the city, too! The above image is one of those inventions and, yes, it is a huge piece of pasta, not a sea shell.
Catalan Traditional Christmas lunch is a thoroughly delicious broth-type soup called Escudella de Galets - the Galets being the pasta. It's a great soup with a load of ingredients (although I must admit will never convert me from my traditional Turkey Roast and Stuffing!). I think they look really cool, and can't wait to get out and see the creations. Apparently there are other such sculptures such as turkeys, chickens, bottles of cava and roscones (traditional biscuits) which will be distributed around the city, and hopefully get everyone in the mood to spend their Christmas cash. And according to this article citing a survey from Deliotte, the average family will be spending around 735 Euros on the festivities this year, which although is a 19% decrease in last year, I think sounds a lot?! Or am I totally out of touch?! Feel free to leave comments and let me know!
Thinking of coming to Barcelona this festive season? Try these apartments for rent in Barcelona, for an alternative to a hotel. And for a quick look at the best sights, see this Barcelona Guide.
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2 comments:
I think the start date is not correct because it is now the 30th of november and we still didn't see any christmaslights on...:(
You're right! I had that information from a usually reliable source (La Vanguardia Newspaper), but you're right, there's no lights on near me either!!?
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