De Stijl,one of the major avant-garde movements of the 20th century, is celebrating its anniversary. No less than a hundred years have passed since Theo van Doesburg published the first issue of the magazine, De Stijl,after which this unique movement would eventually be named. Conceptualising art as all-embracing, dominated by geometry and the use of primary colours, the artists Piet Mondrian, Bart van der Leck, Gerrit Rietveld, Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Vilmos Huszár, Cornelis van Eesteren, Antony Kok and Theo van Doesburg were instrumental in changing the course of the visual arts. As the cradle of this art style, Holland is gearing up to celebrate this event on a grand scale, with exhibitions, special itineraries, reviews and tributes to contemporary artists.

First Stop – The Hague
A first, essential stopover for this celebration is The Hague, just over a half-an-hour’s train ride from Amsterdam. There you can visit the Gemeentemuseum, which has the world’s largest collection of Mondrian’s works, boasting over 300 exhibits. To mark the centenary of De Stijl, they have organised Mondrian to Dutch Design. 100 years of De Stijl, an annual cycle comprising three exhibitions revolving around the figure of Mondrian and the De Stijl movement.

While you’re in The Hague, be sure to visit the City Hall, designed by architect Richard Meier, the walls of which are used as a huge canvas for displaying Mondrian’s popular grids, filled in with the most emblematic colours of the De Stijl – yellow, blue and red.

Celebrating De Stijl Architecture in Utrecht
Utrecht houses one of the leading icons of the De Stijl movement, the Rietveld Schröder House. Regarded as Rietveld’s crowning achievement and built in 1924, its design adheres to the movement’s tenets, dominated by planes and lines to form flexible spaces. This was highly innovative at the time and the house also features a generous dose of primary colours in its decoration. It is currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is part of Utrecht’s Centraal Museum collection. Incidentally, the latter is hosting an exhibition, lasting until 11 June, entitled Rietveld’s Masterpiece; Long live De Stijl! dedicated to Rietveld’s career, as well as his links to other artists in the movement such as Bart van der Leck, Theo van Doesburg and Willem van Leusden.

Leiden and Drachten – Spotlighting Theo van Doesburg, the Founder of De Stijl
Another two stopovers on our centenary route of the De Stijl are Leiden and Drachten. Leiden was where Theo van Doesburg published his first issue of the magazine, De Stijl, leading to the birth of the new movement. Here, from 2 June to 27 September, you can visit the exhibition, Open-Air Museum de Lakenhal, featuring a prototype of “Maison d’Artiste”, the work of Theo van Doesburg and Cor van Eesteren.

In Drachten, one of the houses in the so-called Parrot District, designed by Theo van Doesburg, will be open to the public during the second half of 2017.

Mondrian’s Legacy
In addition to visiting The Hague, where, as mentioned earlier, one of the largest collections of the artist is on display, those wishing to find out more about one of the leading figures of the De Stijl movement should also see Mondrian’s house of birth, located in Amersfoort, as well as head for Winterswijk, where Mondrian lived from the age of 8 to 20, which also features what is known as the Villa Mondrian.

Book your Vueling to Amsterdam and join in the celebration of the centenary of the De Stijl.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

La Cervesera Artesana
The name (meaning “Craft Beer House”) may seem rather obvious, but they wear it proudly as this beer house was one of the first brewpubs in town to sport the “craft” label. Through glass panes you can see how they make seven types of Iberian beer, the brand adopted by the first microbrewery in Barcelona, dating from 1993. Their drinks are served on the premises and range from a stout to an acclaimed spicy beer. They went to Facebook to ask their customers which new variety they should bring out and the winning suggestion was a chilli beer. They’re working on it. They offer many others, too. The brewery, in the lower part of Gràcia, always has an upbeat atmosphere.

Homo Sibaris
Guillem Laporta is one of the beer activists with the most pedigree in Barcelona and his beer house, Homo Sibaris, is proof of the knowledge he has acquired. It is also one of the city’s most inviting beer cellars. Located in the picturesque Plaza Osca in the Sants district, its battery of handpumps has recently been augmented to fourteen. The brews that emerge from their spouts are made by Guillem himself (he has just crafted a bitter which is going to be the talk of the town!), in addition to other hard-to-find craft beers from around the world. Take a seat at one of their tables, or on the terrace, browse through the menu you will be handed, ask the staff and let them guide you. They always get it right.

Biercab
When Manuel Baltasar was deciding what type of beer house to open with his friends, he realised that good company was an essential element. Good company in the project – his partners include a beer distributor, a craft brewery in Navarre (Naparbier) and a master brewer from Belgium, Sven Bosch. And good company at the tables in his brewpub, located in the middle of the Eixample district. The tapas menu at BierCab is designed to pair well with their beers.Chef Ronald García prepares the dishes, notably ceviche de corvina (sea bass lemon-and-garlic marinade) with tiger’s milk, and sea bass sashimi with yellow ají sauce. Even non-beer drinkers ought to taste them, although stepping into BierCab without trying a single beer would be riotous. They have over 600 varieties, many of them Catalan, bearing in mind that these climes are now gripped with beer fever. “The best thing here is that everyone can find their own beer style”, Manuel promises.

Blacklab & Kitchen
Jing Cheng and Matt Bader met while studying architecture in Chicago and, after graduating, settled in Barcelona. A few years later, they turned their passion into a profession, setting up a brewhouse in the Palau de Mar, in the Barceloneta. Everything there is reminiscent of what they loved about the USA – the natural beers that Matt makes, the kitchen – they serve up hamburgers, sandwiches and soups, but tend to recommend the chicken wings and pulled pork buns – and even the gigs held on Saturday evening. Customers eat and drink among tanks where the house beers are fermented. They come in a thousand different styles and always feature some new creation.

Abirradero
Craft brewers inevitably treat their profession as a vocation, and they emerge relatively late in life at that. The triumvirate at Abirradero, in Poble-sec, bear this out, as it is made up of Nereo Garbi, a former publisher, Daniel Fermún, an IT technician, and Ivò Castells, a telecoms graduate. Half of the beers they list are their own creation, some in rather bizarre styles. With the assistance of journalist Sergi Bayó, they have even adapted the periodic table of elements to beer, to help newcomers discover the infinite diversity of this world. Accompanied by tapas designed to pair well with the beverage, a dinner at Abirradero will reveal the endless culinary possibilities of beer.

Book your Vueling to Barcelona and gear up to savour the finest craft beers in town.

Text by Josep Sucarrats of Gastronomistas

In this part of France two cities hog most of the visitors – Strasbourg, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities in France, and Colmar, capital of the wine-producing region. However, the little known jewel in the newly created region of the Great East is Mulhouse, once an independent republic, located where three counties meet – France, Germany and Switzerland. Possibly on account of that privileged position, Mulhouse is now one of France’s most active cities in terms of creativity and culture, also partly driven by its importance in the 19th century as a textile centre, which has endowed the city with an interesting industrial heritage.

Mulhouse is the City of Art and History, the first city in the Alsace to be awarded this distinction. One of its major reference points is the Place de la Réunion, the heart of its historic centre, where the easily recognisable standout feature is the pink-coloured old Town Hall. Another landmark in the square is the Protestant Church of Saint-Étienne, with a campanile affording stunning views of the city. Permission is required to go up it.

Mulhouse was one of the first major centres of the textile industry in France. This is attested in the Museum of Printed Textiles, which each year hosts a thematic exhibition linked to some well-known designer. Likewise, the Wesserling Park - Textile Ecomuseum which offers dramatized tours and fashion shows. Other major draws include the examples of industrial architecture (reconditioned former brickwork factories), and the street art and contemporary art to be had in the city centre.

Another venue worth visiting is the Cité de l’Automobile (featuring the Schlumpf Collection), situated just five minutes from downtown Mulhouse. Considered one of the leading automobile museums in the world, it showcases over 400 vehicles, prominent among which is a large collection of Bugattis. The Automobile City, divided into five distinct areas, is a truly interactive museum. Interesting audiovisuals about the automobile industry are screened, while a number of simulators enable visitors to experience what it feels like to drive a racing car.

On the outskirts of Mulhouse, the town of Ungersheim is home to the Alsace Ecomuseum, the largest of its kind in France. Here you can learn about the traditional divisions of the Alsace, what their schools used to be like and what the leading trades were. The most important craftsmen were blacksmiths, cartwrights and potters. It is also amazing to see how they used to cook in earlier times, and how they distilled local spirits. Additionally, you can taste some authentic, traditional dishes like celery gelatine, potatoes with nettles and basil sorbet.

Lastly, if you want to try Alsatian cuisine, we recommend you head for a winstub, the equivalent of a pub in the Alsace – the Restaurant Le Cellier is an ideal example. There you can taste such local specialities as fleischschnakas, an exquisite dish of noodle dough stuffed with meat, flammkuchen or tarte flambée, thinly rolled out bread dough with a topping of raw onion, bacon and single cream, and sauerkraut, accompanied by delicious Alsace wines. And, the best place to go for a drink at night is Le Gambrinus where the atmosphere is welcoming and the craft beer is excellent (bière du Bollwerk).

Mulhouse lends itself to a weekend tour. The EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, shared by France, Germany and Switzerland, is just 30 minutes away from the city centre. More information on the flights here.

Text by Tusdestinos.net

The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, to be held this year from 21 to 31 May, has its origins in the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, some 50 kilometres from Cardiff. An annual event, it brings together writers, musicians, film-makers and other leading lights of the art world. The main goal of the festival is to open up channels of dialogue between the various cultural fields, an idea which has been exported to other countries and has prompted similar events in England, Spain, Colombia, Kenya, India, Mexico, the Lebanon and Hungary. Featuring over 900 activities spread over a ten-day period, its participants include some of the world’s finest intellectual talent.

Not Only Letters

The festival does not live by letters alone. It also hosts conferences and workshops on painting, social activism, medicine, sport and architecture. Notable, too, is the music scheduled for this year, offering live performances by London’s King Charles, a winner of the International Songwriting Competition, the Glasgow group Texas, whose twenty-five-year career is marked by the release of their disc, “Texas 25”, and the Touareg musical ensemble, Tinariwen, among many others.

A Festival For Children and Families

Hay Fever is the name by which the children’s version of the festival is known. Noteworthy scheduled activities include story-telling, illustration workshops tutored by the world’s leading story illustrators, puppet theatre and children’s concerts. Check out the varied programme for all ageshere.Hay-on-Wye is located in the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is the ideal starting point for viewing its stunning natural beauty and participating in open-air activities, like embarking on a panoramic cruise down the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canalor hiring a canoe to paddle along it with the whole family.

Hay-on-Wye – the Town of Books

Hay-on-Wye, the original, authentic town of books, has a charm all its own, as evinced in its houses and cottages. The town is packed with delightful bookshops, their shelves crammed with second-hand books. But, how did it actually become a magnet for book-lovers? It all started when Richard Booth, a bibliophile and Oxford graduate, turned up one day in this small town on the border between Wales and England with the firm intention to establish it as a world literary landmark. He purchased the fire station and castle and set up second-hand bookshops on the premises. The idea caught on quickly and other bookshops joined in, turning the town into a tourist destination for book enthusiasts. Hay-on-Wye, with a population of under 2,000 inhabitants, is currently estimated to house up to a million books.

Richard Booth still has his two bookshops in Hay-on-Wye. The largest of them, Richard Booth’s Bookshop, at 44 Lion Street, is a charming timber store including a cinema and cafe. The other one, Hay Castle Bookshop, is located in Hay Castle. One of its towers houses the large bookshop run by Booth’s wife, and there are umpteen metres of shelves crammed with books in the garden, too. Here, there are no shop assistants – you choose the book you want and put your money into the so-calledhonesty boxes.

Are you rearing to go? Check out our prices here!

Text: Scanner FM

Images: Stephen Cleary | Hannah Swithinbank