Parador Ciudad Rodrigo; Parador Benavente. Parador Puebla de Sanabria Spain

Ciudad Rodrigo is located close to the Portuguese border, west of Salamanca. It is yet another Spanish hilltop town which features a cathedral that is part late Romanesque, part Gothic. The parador is a fifteenth century fortress with a massive block tower that dominates the landscape stretching out below it. The interior is impressively medieval, the rooms are large and well furnished. I must in candor say that this was the one parador dining experience that I found really disappointing, the food was simply badly prepared; but this was some years ago and the chef may well have been replaced. The surrounding plain is mostly grasslands interspersed with groves of oak trees under which herds of fighting bulls shelter from the sun. Interestingly, these massive beasts, so fierce in the bull ring, are quite placid when in a herd, although I still wouldn't recommend trying to pet them if they come up to the fence.

Benavente is located halfway between Zamora and Leon. The town has a fine Romanesque church as well as a transitional one with two extremely good Romanesque portals and a beautiful thirteenth century Annunciation. The parador, overlooking a finely proportioned square, is located in a fifteenth century Renaissance palace built of red brick. The public rooms have great coffered ceilings. Some bedrooms have splendid views of the surrounding countryside. There is an outdoor pool.

Puebla de Sanabria is a convenient place for an overnight stopover if one is driving from Zamora to Santiago de Compostela. It's a mountain village close to the Portuguese border with a fifteenth century castle built by the Counts of Benavente and a late Romanesque church. The parador, a newbuild, is a little distance away with a very fine view of the ensemble. An eminently worthwhile excursion is to the nearby lake of Sanabria, the largest glacial lake in Spain, overlooking which there's a very good Romanesque church. The last time I was there the local curate had come up with an ingenious solution to the problem of keeping the churchyard grass mowed: there was a donkey tethered in it, happily grazing.