Coffee Cup Stain

The Sufi Saints are worshipped and celebrated in the city of Punjab.  Many festivals and fairs are held throughout the city each year, and artistic and religious culture of this Indian city is based on these different saints.  These celebrations offer different glimpses into the multi-faceted culture of the people, through the devotional or religious fairs, to the commercial and industrial.  The religion of the region is Muslim.  Sacred days such as Shab-e-Brat and Muharram are celebrated by many throughout the communities, and pay homage and tribute to the various saints.  These are mainly devotional fairs, with days and nights spent in prayer and performing the ceremonial rituals of the religion.

When a fair is held at one of the shrines, this is usually a day in history in which the particular saint died.  These are very celebratory occasions where the people dance and play music.  The music of these fairs is something that every tourist staying in Punjab hotels should experience.  The music is the traditional folk music of the culture, and is uplifting and spirit enhancing.  One of the largest of these fairs is in honor of the Sufi poet, Syed Waris Shah, one of the most loved poets of the city of Punjab.

The commercial and trade shows are completely different.  Each year there is a festival of sports, competitions and exhibits.  This is the National Horse and Cattle Show is the largest of these kinds of fairs in the country.  The animals compete, sports are played, and the there are many companies selling the various products for livestock and agricultural industries.  The roots are very strong in these region of India, to farming and the rural way of life, and this is celebrated fully during this time.  There are also many craft and art festivals as with many cultures throughout the country, the arts have played a large role in the traditions of the people of India.  This is a great time for those wanting to purchase the colorful material, the incredible sculptures, or the leather and jewelery work of the artisans of Punjab.

There is every reason to believe that a stay in any of our five-star Madrid hotels will help facilitate the rejuvenation of the mind and body, and maybe even the spirit.  Spirits are certainly high here, with a rich array of amenities designed to make your accommodation experience one of international excellence.  The highest standards in the industry govern our hotels, to insure that your need for top-class service and luxury are always accounted for.  With world-class chefs offering scrumptious dishes with international and local flair, extremely well-informed concierges, and a sense of style that is uniquely Madrid, there are so many reasons to begin your Spanish holiday here.  For the business traveler, we have extremely contemporary technologies to help you stay well-connected.  For everyone, there is the beauty of one of Spain’s greatest cities right outside your window.

Spain has an excellent reputation for being at the cutting edge of contemporary art, and Madrid has an exquisite history.  The Blanquerna Centre Cultural merges both of these, to create an exciting center for art.  Blanquerna takes its name from the central character of one of the works by medieval writer Ramon Llul.  Ramon Llul was a fascinating person in his own rite, who formulated a mathematical theory merging science, religion, and art, and spent many of his years, with an unfortunate end, as a passionate evangelist.  The Center was named for this Majorcan figure because of his contributions to Catalan culture, and the focus here at the center is Catalan art.

The Blanquerna Centre itself is a combination of exhibition space and a bookstore.  The exhibition space is a splendidly modern and modest open-air room where works of various disciplines can be shown, although the focus is on visual art.  Here, there are fantastic gallery shows featuring some of the most contemporary works of visual art in Spain.  The bookstore has over 12,000 books in Catalan, and translations from Catalan into Castellano, that speak about Catalan art in history and in contemporary times, geography, and cooking.  The Centre also hosts events focused on Catalan culture in Madrid, such as readings of translations of classical and contemporary works of theatre and poetry.  One of the aims of the Centre is to open up this work to a larger audience, so that there can be intercultural exchanges in the form of dialogue between languages.

For travelers looking for the perfect 5-star Barcelona hotels, ours have it all.  With design, service, and hospitality that meet or exceed the industry standards, our hotels are here to make your stay in Barcelona an unforgettable experience.  With incredible cuisine prepared by our world-class chefs, and amazing amenities available to you 24 hours a day, you’ll agree that nothing has been overlooked here.  Our knowledgeable concierge can help to guide you toward events, sights, and sounds that are specific to your interests.

Barcelona has long been one of the truly great world cities.  A powerhouse in finance and entertainment, it is also on the water, and has a long history of trade with other parts of the world.  This means that both goods and ideas flow in and out of the city, and it integrates the things it likes, so that it is constantly evolving, and constantly in flux.  The art scene here tends to fluctuate between experiment and tradition, and youth culture has always fallen toward experiments.  One rather fearless experimenter who gets the attention of the locals is Spanish musician Jaume Muntsant.  Born outside of Barcelona in 1980, this navigator of electronica always has an astounding number of projects going on at any given time.

One of his fascinating projects is a weblog, Oir para creer, which is an eclectic audio log of new developments in the electronica world at large, and with an emphasis on the local.  His myspace page, under his dj name hermético, is a great way to introduce yourself to his sounds.  There is a tendency toward the dark side here, he readily admits, betraying his death metal background.  In 2004, with his friends Sr. Click and daTo, he started a net label, inoQuo, which is an excellent resource for electronic and ambient music lovers to listen to some of the most innovative and evocative music in the world today.  Some have their fingers on the pulse, and some make the pulse, and some do a bit of both.  Sr. Muntsant is obviously both, pushing limits and opening doors in Barcelona’s international scene.