Spain's culture capitals, Madrid and Barcelona, are bursting with striking art museums, hip design hotels and trendy new restaurants serving the country's innovative cuisine. New air and train service makes the two cities easier to reach than ever before. American Airlines will launch new daily nonstop service from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Madrid in May, and Air Europa will inaugurate daily service from New York to Madrid in June. New this year is the ELIPSOS Trenhotel, a virtual hotel on wheels that offers overnight service from Paris to Madrid and Paris to Barcelona. In addition, new high-speed train service on the AVE makes it easier and faster for visitors to travel around Spain. 

Barcelona
The city continues to be a great draw for American tourists, this year welcoming millions of cruise passengers as well as thousands of first-timers who enjoyed the beautiful scenery in the film Vicky Christina Barcelona. Some 54 new hotels are set to open in the next two years.

Barcelona International Airport Expansion - The new South Terminal designed by Ricard Bofill is expected to open during the first half of 2009, which will raise the airport's capacity to 55 million passengers a year.  Meanwhile, a new annex to Terminal C is housing Vueling Airline and Lagun Air. (Within the year, however, Vueling, the One World Alliance and Star Alliance - including Iberia - will move into the South Terminal.)

Port of Barcelona - The city consolidated its position as Europe's top cruise port, welcoming a record 2,069,651 passengers and 887 cruise ship calls in 2008. Passengers increased 17 percent over 2007 and calls rose eight percent. Barcelona continues to upgrade its port infrastructure, having invested $19.7 million in Terminal A, which opened in June with a capacity for 4,000 passengers.

Rock and Roll Museum - A new rock museum will open in 2009 with permanent exhibits featuring the Beatles and Rolling Stones.  Covering the history of rock, exhibits will also include Jim Morrison's poems, Bruce Springsteen's manuscripts and the wedding dress Madonna wore on her "Like a Virgin" tour. The unusual site of the museum is Las Arenas, a converted bullring.

Palau de la Musica - Barcelona's striking modernist concert hall is celebrating its 100th anniversary with special concerts continuing through March, 2009.

Other Museums - The city has announced plans for a Society Museum, which will unite three existing museums: The Archeological Museum of Catalonia, The Ethnology Museum and The Museum of Catalan History. In addition, a new Natural History Museum is planned to unite the Museums of Zoology and Geology, as well as the botanical gardens and marine zoo.

Art Exhibits - From February 19 to May 3, 2009, a special show of murals by Joaquin Sorolla will be on loan to the National Museum of Catalan Art from the Hispanic Society of America. The Picasso Museum will present "Living Things: Figures/Still Life" through March 1 and the first anthology exhibition in Spain of the painter, Kees Van Dongan, will be shown from June to September.

Restaurants - Spain's culinary scene has exploded and nowhere is that more evident than in Catalonia, which boasts 40 Michelin-starred restaurants. A new trend in Barcelona itself is "bistronomia," which combines bistro and gastronomy. Some 15 "bistronomics," which offer three-course meals for about $30, have now opened in the city.

Camp Nou Stadium - Europe's largest stadium is celebrating its 50th birthday with a $350 million redesign by Norman Foster. Inspired by the trencadis style of Gaudi, the architect plans to cover the exterior with a mosaic of multi-colored tiles that will change color and be used for light displays at night.

Madrid
Three of Madrid's most important cultural institutions have doubled in size in the past five years, a culinary explosion continues unabated, and several restaurants, run by the country's top chefs, have opened in city museums. Madrid has also seen a boom in boutique hotels offering cutting-edge design and the latest technological amenities. Just this month, the 480-room Eurostars Madrid Tower opened in one of the four sky scrapers in the city’s new growing business hub, the Cuatro Torres area.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia - Spain's modern art museum is planning modification and restoration of the building's interior and exterior (during which the museum will remain open) and is making a heavy investment in new art. The museum will develop a series of happenings, poetry readings and dance performances to take place on its recently-opened sixth floor terraces (which are free to the public from 10 AM to 9 PM). A major retrospective of the renowned Julio Gonzalez, one of the re-inventors of sculpture in the 20th century, runs from March 11 to June 1.  Other upcoming shows include: American cult artist, Paul Thek, from February 6 to April 20; a retrospective of Catalan conceptual artist, Eulalia Valldosera, February 4 to April 20; American conceptual sculptor, Paul Sietsema, March 25 to May 25;  contemporary sculptor, Juan Munoz, April 22 to August 31; and Fischli & Weiss's multimedia installations, May 1 to July 6.  After seeing these shows, hungry art lovers can enjoy lunch at the museum's restaurant, presided over by Sergi Arola, one of Madrid's most inventive chefs.

CaixaForum Madrid - The latest addition to Madrid's cultural scene, the $96 million CaixaForum opened in March. Thanks to a stunning makeover by Herzog and de Meuron, this former 1899 electrical power station is now a new venue for art exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, workshops and conferences. A vertical garden by Patrick Blanc covers one side of the facade. Running through February 15, "The School of Yi: 30 Years of Abstract Chinese Art" will showcase 80 paintings, sculptures and installations by 40 artists. “Risk Zones,” presenting works from the Foundation’s contemporary collection opens February 11 to May 3.

Museo del Prado - The recent debut of the Prado's $208 million expansion marked the final renovation of Madrid's major museums. Through April 12, "Among Gods and Men: Classical Sculpture from the Albertinum in Dresden and the Museo del Prado" will present – for the first time outside Germany – 46 classical sculptures from the Dresden museum. Starting in February, the museum will host two concurrent exhibitions: "Francis Bacon," February 3 to April 19, and "Sleeping Beauty: Victorian Painting from the Ponce Art Museum," February 17 to May 10. In May, a special show of murals by Sorolla will move from Barcelona to the Prado.

Τhyssen-Bornemisza Museum - Now doubled in size, the museum includes some 700 masterpieces from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Opening February 10, "The Shadow" will present an overview of the depiction of shadows in art from the Renaissance to the present. A major exhibition, "Matisse: 1917-1942," will run from June 9 to September 20.

International Convention Centre - The city's third convention center will add much-needed capacity when it opens at the end of 2010. Set in a 15-acre urban park, the center's facade will glow from thousands of small energy-saving lights. The main auditorium will accommodate 3,500 and can be extended to hold 5,000. Each year, 4,000 conventions and meetings are staged in Madrid, drawing 700,000 participants.