Manchester is one of the most highly industrialised cities in the United Kingdom, but also one of the most culturally alive. Particularly in terms of music – this is the cradle of punk, and of the groups that were spawned thereafter, notably Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Oasis, young bands eager to forge a better future, far removed from the industrial assembly lines. The fact is that this musical tradition also generated an extensive network of record shops, scattered across the city centre, stores which are still very much alive and kicking.

The good thing about Manchester is that, being a comparatively small city, roughly the size of Barcelona, it doesn’t take long to get from one end of it to the other. So, if you’re thinking of going there, while you’re visiting the stores we recommend in search of that record you are missing from a collection, or simply just browsing and getting your fingers grubby, you will also have time to wander through the area where the legendary disco, The Haçienda, was located, as well as the Museum – of Science and Industry, of course. So, let’s get started with those five temples of vinyl:

Empire Exchange

Rather than a store, this is more of a basement warehouse where you can wander about and breathe in dust, in search of that record by The Beatles or The Rolling Stones you need to round off your collection. Empire Exchange is acclaimed for having one of the most comprehensive selections of seven singles in England. Indeed, they stock records released from 1930 onwards. This temple of rare vinyls is located in the city centre, specifically, on Newton Street.

Piccadilly Records

Situated in the heart of Manchester, on such a venerable precinct as Oldham Street, you will feel like just another Mancunian when you stroll along it. Piccadilly Records specialises in rare albums which are hard to come by, but also in new releases of independent pop and rock and reissues of classics. Incidentally, the store is very near Piccadilly Gardens, one of the city’s loveliest green areas. It is ideally placed for visiting afterwards and having an impromptu picnic.

Clampdown Records

A small but charming shop which packs a punch, and its vintage appearance endows it with a special status. Here you will find an exquisite selection of used vinyls (especially punk and new wave) and, if you’re game for getting your fingers dirty, you can pick up some gems at a great price. Clampdown Records is on Paton Street, next door to Manchester’s old town. The area has a generous sprinkling of restaurants where you can grab a weekend brunch.

Vinyl Resting Place

Like Clampdown Records, this is also a small store which has maximised available space to a tee. It is on the third floor of Afflecks Palace, right in the centre of Manchester and near both Piccadilly Records and Empire Exchange. So, all you need is a good pair of trainers with air pockets to wander about and fit in. Vinyl Resting Place stocks a good collection of used vinyls, which range from reasonably-priced records to rare releases which will cost you an arm and a leg if you bite the bait. You’ve been warned!

Soundwaves Here We Come

This is the ideal spot for winding up your tour, as the store is also located in Afflecks Palace, just one floor down from Vinyl Resting Place – you just have to slide down the stairs to get there. The list of used vinyls at Soundwaves Here We Come encompasses virtually all styles. What’s more, if you’re lucky, you may catch some group playing live, as the store owners organise regular concerts to promote the city’s upcoming bands. Who knows – you may even be fortunate enough to cross paths withThe Stone Roses!

Put on your walking shoes and experience the magic of record hunting – check out our flights here.

Text by Xavi Sánchez for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Images by Marc Wathleu

At certain times in the 20th century, Prague took on a leading role as one of the major design production centres in Europe. During the Art Nouveau period, it was among the leaders, together with Vienna, Brussels and Barcelona. Now, the Prague design scene is again emerging on an international level. We went there to take a look at what’s been happening of late.

On our arrival in the capital of the Czech Republic, we decided that the best way of discovering the trends in Czech design over the last few years was to visit The Museum of Decorative Arts, a beacon for enthusiasts of the arts and applied design. However, we found that the museum was closed for renovations and will only re-open to the public in 2017. Instead of feeling disappointed, we took the setback as a more stimulating challenge and set about unearthing less well-known places associated with the past and present of Czech design. Just opposite the Museum stands the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, whose students are destined to influence the future course of design, architecture, fashion, jewellery, graphic arts and the fine arts. Apart from presenting the work of its students and graduates, some of the Academy exhibitions are contextualised in terms of references from the past and present.

From Cubism to the Influence of the Brussels School

There are still many sites from that period on display. The Czech Republic – or Czechoslovakia, as it was then known – was a hub of multi-cultural design during the two World Wars. Even prior to World War I, the Czech Cubist movement played a vital role and creators such as Josef Gočár, Pavel Janák and Vlastislav Hofman designed unique works of architecture, furniture and ceramics. The furniture which Jindřich Halabala began to design for the United Arts and Crafts Manufacturing Plant between the wars influenced several generations. For further details of the key players in the design field during the interwar period, there is a publication entitled “Czech 100 Design Icons”. But, we also recommend having a look at the stores Modernista and Kubista, where you will find a wide variety of replicas from that period.

Czech design also came to the fore in the 1950s and 1960s, making itself felt on the international scene, particularly at the Brussels World Fair of 1958, while eight years later its consolidation earned widespread recognition in the film, Czechoslovak New Wave.It was not, however, until democracy was restored in 1989 that the following resurgence of Czech design occurred.

New Age of Splendour – Studios and Shops

Events unfolded apace after the return of democracy to the country. Thus, in the nineties, design flourished in the Czech Republic. A host of stores, designers and architectural and design studios emerged, notably Olgoj Chorchoj, Studio Najbrt and Maxim Velčovský, which continue to play a decisive role. At the same time, the design world continues to be augmented by young, upcoming talent provided by the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, which organises the Great Design Prizes competition each year.

On the contrary, fashion designers have been late in catching the wave. While in the nineties and the early years of this century they were practically nowhere to be seen, nowadays there are some stores of note. These are Timur et Grupo, Sister Conspiracy, Hana Havelková, Klára Nademlýnská, Denisa Nová and Liběna Rochová, to name but a few.

Design Markets

The 17th international Designblok exhibition, with “Freedom” as the theme, will take place in October this year. The event is aimed at both the professional sector and the public at large and will be given over to design from a broad perspective, ranging from fashion to furniture design, to jewellery, home accessories, product design, lighting, etc. Also to be featured there are installations of a character halfway between design and the plastic arts.

While Designblok holds its presentations in upmarket establishments, the Dyzajn market focuses on the sale of original creations. Here, the leitmotif is the open-air format. But, if you’d like to see it, you’ll have to wait until next year, as it is held on the first two days of August. This year’s location was Střelecký Ostrov. Lastly, the next DesignSUPERMARKET is scheduled for this December and will be hosted in Kafka’s House. These three events provide an opportunity to see the exhibitions and also to make design purchases.

Prague design is waiting to be discovered. Check out our flights here.

Text by ISABELYLUIS Comunicación

Images by Wendy, Kubista, Academia de las Artes, Arquitectura y Diseño de Praga, Museo de Artes Decorativas de Praga

Berlin is synonymous with art. You don’t need to go much further to bump into someone who, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has journeyed to the capital of Germany in search of an opportunity. With almost 450 galleries, 20,000 artists and over 3,000 exhibitions yearly, Berlin is experiencing an art boom. It heads the European art scene by a mile.

Gossip has it that over the last 20 years a new art gallery has been opened every week. Faced with that trend, no wonder that, over the last 12 years, Berlin’s galleries have joined forces to launch the Berlin Gallery Weekend (from 29 April to 1 May 2016) – the first of its kind – subsequently replicated in Paris, Vienna and Barcelona. We visited the city to see it for ourselves and spent three days packed with inaugurations, talks, parties and social events at special times to showcase the latest productions. This, just when spring is descending on the city and its streets start casting their gaze outwards.

Zero budget: admission to the galleries and other areas is free-of-charge.

Recommendation: hire a bicycle – distances become shorter when negotiated on two wheels. The city is big and the galleries string out from east to west, although centred mainly on Berlin Mitte, Kreuzberg and Potsdamer Straße. We began our tour – map in hand!

Berlin’s Epicentre – Auguststraße in Mitte

Auguststraße is lined with trendy restaurants and art galleries. This is the historic centre of Berlin; hence its name – Mitte, meaning middle. There we came across the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, a former margarine factory repurposed as an emerging art lab for mapping the latest trends. Right next door, the collector, Thomas Olbricht, presents his private collection, me Collectors Room, an area of 1,300m² with exhibits ranging from works by Cindy Sherman to exotic objects worthy of a curio cabinet. Long-standing venues, including the widely acclaimed Eigen + Art, blend in with the newcomers, like Kicken Berlin and neugerriemschneider, and the elegant building of Sprüth Magers on Oranienburger Straße, bringing a breath of fresh air to the local scene.

One of the latest venues to burst in on the scene, which features the epitome of a fusion between art and gastronomy, is the Jüdische Mädchenschule (Jewish Girls’ School). Housed in this building – which reopened in 2012 after falling into disuse – is theMichael Fuchs Galerieand a number of restaurants which form a nexus between the past and present. Among these isThe Kosher Class Room,which offers traditional Sabbath dishes on the menu, andMogg Deli,the best place for indulging in a good pastrami sandwich.

Before leaving the centre and heading for Kreuzberg, we made a compulsory stop at Clärchens Ballhaus. Opened in 1913, this dance hall is a veritable Berlinese legend which survived two World Wars and numerous Nazi clampdowns. Young and old, tourists, locals, good and bad dancers – there is something infectious about Clärchens which makes you feel at home there!

Around Checkpoint Charlie

Near the Berlin Wall’s most famous checkpoint and also the Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum) and halfway between Kreuzberg and Mitte, lies the Galerienhaus. This former Lufthansa headquarters which became a centre for political asylum-seekers in the nineties, houses 11 contemporary art galleries on its various levels. If you chance to go there, be sure to see the Gallerie Nordenhake, the Gallerie ŻAK | BRANICKA and the historic Konrad Fischer Gallery. Although initially founded in Düsseldorf, like so many other galleries in the Rhinelands, it ended up moving to the capital.

A few minutes away in the Mitte direction lies one of the trendiest venues in the area, the VeneKlasen/Werner Gallery, founded by the New Yorker, Michael Werner, who brought a piece of the Chelsea scene to Berlin, making it more spacious, more professional and… more expensive.

Before leaving Kreuzberg, we visited the Church of St Agnes which now houses the König Galerie. Built in the Brutalist style, it was acquired by Johann König and opened to the public as an art gallery in 2015. Here, in what appears to be the end of the white cube, a good itinerary is guaranteed.

Potsdamer Straße – A Trendy Art Boom

We came to Schöneberg, on the old west side, where for many years galleries and creative projects have been mushrooming, taking up every available square metre. The fact is it seems to be a surefire win-win formula – the venues are mutually beneficial in that their accretion and synched opening and inauguration times draw ever more visitors. Among the galleries you simply cannot pass up are the Supportico Lopez and Esther Schipper. However, if time is at a premium and you need to make a choice, head straight for the Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. The Italian artist opened her gallery in 2008 in the former apartment where the actor and singer Hans Albers lived from 1946 to 1948. The premises have been preserved virtually intact. The walls are lined with wood panelling and secret recesses, which act as a backdrop.

Art galleries housed on a fifth floor without a lift in reclaimed buildings; exhibitions which can only be reached by crossing two patios and three doors… the list goes on and on. If you’re planning to visit the city within the prescribed timeframe, check out the full programme and our daily flights to Berlin. Happy Gallery Weekend!

Text by Núria Gurina for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Photos by Marco Funke, Genial23, Axel Schneider, Wolfgang Staudt

The Eternal City is also a city of celluloid. From Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn’s Vespa ride, to Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni’s dip in the Fontana di Trevi, Rome has been the backdrop of some of the most iconic sequences in cinema history. We embark on a celluloid tour of the capital of Italy while recalling the best movies that featured Rome as one of their protagonists.

To Rome With Love (Woody Allen, 2012)

Woody Allen stands out as one of the filmmakers who has most successfully captured the essence of New York. However, in recent years, the indispensable American director went on a pilgrimage that led him to film in London, Barcelona, Paris and Rome. One of the most outstanding movies from his European tour, To Rome With Love, revolves around Monti, a district of Rome which shook off its unsavoury past and became one of the liveliest areas in the city. The film also captures the beauty of other spots, notably the Via dei Neofiti, the Piazza della Madonna dei Monti and the popular Bottega del Caffè.

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948)

A masterpiece of Italian Neorealism, a style which in the first half of the 20th century yielded some of the milestones in cinema history through its stark portrayal of mundane, everyday life. Lamberto Maggiorani, an unemployed construction worker and untrained newcomer to acting, breathes life into the character of Antonio Ricci, who has his bicycle stolen during his first day’s work posting advertising bills. While chasing the thief, Lamberto runs through the popular quarters of Trastevere and Porta Portese.

La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)

One of Federico Fellini’s heights of creativity and one of the most accurate cinema depictions of Rome’s character – particularly as it was in the 1950s, with its post-war mixture of glamour and humdrum genre life. Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a gossip magazine journalist who follows the great film star Sylvia wherever she goes (especially on her night outings), the role played by a mesmerising Anita Ekberg. Although such landmarks as the Piazza del Popolo, Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini feature in La Dolce Vita, the movie will always be remembered for the scene at the Fontana di Trevi.

The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)

Awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is the 21st century’s La Dolce Vita. Enveloped in a fascinating surrealistic aura, seldom has Rome glittered so exuberantly on celluloid. You simple cannot help falling for Rome as seen through the gaze of Sorrentino as it settles on the Piazza Navona, Baths of Caracalla, Villa Medici, Palazzo Colonna, the Colosseum, Gianicolo, the Tempietto di Bramante and the Orange Garden.

Night On Earth (Jim Jarmusch, 1991)

Roberto Benigni plays an eccentric cabbie, the main star of the Rome vignette of Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth.This is a collection of five vignettes with stories set in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Helsinki and Rome. In the episode set against the backdrop of the Eternal City, Benigni picks up a priest in the early hours and drives him through some of the best known settings in the city, notably the Colosseum, while making a hilarious confession of his sex life.

Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945)

Another essential film of mid-20th-century Italian Neorealism. Inspired by the true story of the priest, Giuseppe Morosini, who was tortured and murdered by the Nazis for having helped the partisans. Filmed in the district of Prenestina the same year World War II ended, Rome, Open City lays bare the physical and moral wounds left by the conflict on the streets of the Eternal City and in the spirit of its people. And, amid so much suffering, a masterful Anna Magnani.

Dear Diary (Nanni Moretti, 1993)

With Dear Diary, this Trans Alpine Woody Allen executed one of his most widely acclaimed films. A semi-autobiographical comedy in the guise of a documentary, it recalls the director’s experiences in three chapters – On My Vespa, Islands and Doctors.In the first of these, Moretti rides his scooter through Rome’s everyday settings in August, providing a different take on the Italian capital. One unforgettable moment shows Moretti dancing with his running Vespa.

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953)

However, the prize for iconic scooter tours of Rome goes to Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. It marks a sublime moment in the history of cinema, particularly the scene on the Spanish Steps or the sequence shot at the Bocca della Verità. The winner of three Oscars, this movie marked Rome’s ascendency as a city of cinema.

Book your Vueling to Rome here and let yourself be bewitched by this celluloid city.

Text by Oriol Rodríguez for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS