Kulm Hotel Arosa Switzerland

Arosa is a great favorite of mine. A village in the Engadine, nestled in a remote Alpine valley at an altitude of 6,000 feet, reachable only by mountain railway or by a fairly harrowing, narrow and curvy mountain road, it provides an ideal setting for both summer and winter vacations. The summers provide opportunities for long hikes with superb vistas along the way or, if one is so minded, a number of climbs of varying levels of difficulty can be undertaken. There are the usual tennis courts and swimming pools and an active nightlife at the hotels. In winter there are fine ski slopes, two ice rinks, sledding paths and not too difficult walks on well cleared paths. The Kulm has the perfect location, right at the foot of the main ski slope. One can literally step out the front door, snap on one's skis and ski to the bottom of the lift. The hotel is a grand old lady, with its origins in the nineteenth century. It has been thoroughly modernized and given a new, unfortunately rather prosaic, facade. The public rooms are comfortable, the bedrooms vary in size from the average to the vast, depending on price. There is an elaborate spa with a sauna and an indoor pool. The hotel has no fewer than five restaurants. It's of course pricey. In summer the minimum daily rate for a double with breakfast is $300, in winter that goes up to $500. Consider that, with meals on top of that, this is probably what you'd expect to pay for a week long cruise on one of the luxury lines these days.

Hotel Storchen Zurich Switzerland

Having concluded four Spanish itineraries, I now propose a tour around the country in which the modern notion of vacationing first arose. (Cf. my book RUSH TO THE ALPS). The first thing to keep in mind is that the eighteenth century motto "Pas d'argent, point de Suisse" (No money, no Switzerland) applies today in spades. For a quarter of a century or so after the Second World War the Swiss National Bank, in order to promote Swiss exports and the tourist industry, kept the Swiss franc at an artificially low level of 4.35 to the dollar, a valuation which, unlike other currencies, never varried. The result was that, at the beginning of the period one could count on getting full pension (a room and three meals) in a five star resort hotel for a truly ludicrous eight dollars a day per person; even toward the end of it, this had only doubled. However when, in 1972, the SNB decided that America's indebtedness had reached a point at which the losses such a policy entailed could no longer be borne and it let the dollar float, it immediately floated straight down, to the point where the exchange rate is now close to parity. Hence Switzerland is right up there as one of the most expensive countries in the world for Americans to vacation in, so be prepared to reach deep into your pocket.

Zurich is the main gateway to Switzerland and most people fly into there. The Hotel Storchen, a four star establishment, boasts of having been in continuous operation for six hundred years and that is how many Swiss Francs a double with a river view will cost you for a night. You might be able to do somewhat better on Priceline, but don't count on it, in season the hotel is generally fully booked. That said, the location is hard to beat. The hotel is situated on a bank of the river Limat, on the New Town side. You are in the city center, everything is within easy reach, the banks, the department stores, the luxury goods shops for which the city is famous, any number of restaurants are all within walking distance. The theaters and the opera house are a short trolley ride away. (In Zurich everyone rides the trolley, it's best to get a day ticket to avoid being nickle and dimed to death). The hotel itself offers large, very nicely furnished rooms with very good sound insulation. The personnel is friendly and, as is the case in establishments of this class throughout the country, everyone speaks good English. This is a very pleasant place to stay, a perfect one if one is on an expense account.

Parador Gredos; Parador Siguenza Spain

Parador Gredos. In the first year of the 20th century King Alfonso built this as a hunting lodge in the midst of the Sierra de Gredos. When the decision was taken to build a series of state operated luxurt hotels for the Seville World's Fair, he donated it to the state and here, in 1928, the first parador opened its doors. Although it has been enlarged and brought up to date several times since then, a large hunting lodge is what it remains in spirit. The furnishings are on the unpretentious side, the walls are made of thick stone, the emphasis is emhatically on the out of doors. One comes here mainly to escape the heat of the Madrid summers for a week end. (The capital is roughly an hour-and-a-half away). On one occasion we left Barajas Airport on a sweltering, sultry late April day only to arrive in Gredos in a snow storm. There are pleasant walks, mountain bike paths and a tennis court. And, if one gets bored by all this rusticity, the medieval city of Avila is half an hour away.

Parador Siguenza. Perched, like so many of the paradors, on a hilltop, this was originally an Arab fortress, then, after it fell to the Christians in the twelfth century, a bishop's palace. It dominates the countryside, a vast and imposing stone structure. The decor is resolutely medieval, the rooms of good size, the bathrooms sumptuous. There is a sauna which, when I was there last, was unisex. The Romanesque cathedral at the foot of the hill has a fine twelfth century tympanon. A very good reason for staying here is the proximity to the Madrid airport. Except at the heighth of the morning rush hour this can be reached in under an hour. Unfortunately this means that the parador is a favorite of the Madrilenos for weddings, and you already know what this entails.

Parador Ronda; Parador Carmona Spain

Parador Ronda. The parador, formerly the town hall, occupies an eighteenth century building. Immediately in front there is a three hundred foot vertical drop, the Tajo canyon. The view is fantastic, particularly from the old stone bridge which traverses the canyon. This however is not suited to those suffering from a fear of heights. The interior is modern and spacious, there's an outdoor pool. Of particular interest in the town are several well preserved houses from the Moorish period. Movie buffs will be intersted to know that Orson Welles is interred nearby on a typical Andalucian finca (farm).

Parador Carmona. This was first a Roman hilltop fortress, then a Moorish castle and, in the fourteenth century,was converted into a residential palace by King Pedro the Cruel of Castille to house his favorite mistress. His sobriquet, incidentally, derrives not from the fact that he was any more bloodthirsty than was the norm for medieval monarchs, but rather from the circumstance that he made a serious effort to enforce the laws of the land, something that was greatly resented by the Spanish grandees who were accustomed to having things their own way. The parador, an imposing structure with magnificent views of the plain below, is hence something of an architectural mishmash. It's best features are the Moorish elements, done by the same craftsmen who constructed the Alhambra in Granada. The bedrooms are large and lavishly furnished, some in faux Moorish style. The inner courtyard is a thing of beauty. There's an outdoor pool. This is a great place to stay in order to visit nearby Seville if one wants to avoid the heat of the city in summer. It's barely a twenty minute drive and there's a regular bus service.

Parador Granada Spain

Parador Granada. First, the bad news. This is the most expensive parador of them all, except in the off season using a special promotion such as the Golden Days, the prices are astronomical and, at most times of the year you have to reserve at least six months in advance. All this despite the fact that although the accomodations are in every way up to parador standards, they're by no means super luxurious. (We did get lucky one year, our room wasn't ready when we arrived and rather than make us wait they upgraded us to a suite, which was lovely). What we have done in the past is to husband our Amigos points until we had enough to stay there for free. The good news is that the parador is situated inside the Alhambra grounds so that one can visit it at any time of day that one wishes. That may not sound like a very big deal, but it is. If one arrives from the outside, unless one's on a package tour, something we don't much like, one has to stand in very long lines for tickets, for as much as two hours and it may happen, especially in the summer, that by the time you get near the ticket window that day's allotment has been sold and you're out of luck. (If you're willing to make do with fairly basic accomodations the little Hotel America is also inside the grounds, but rooms there are even harder to get than those at the parador). Anyway, the Alhambra is truly one of the wonders of the world. If I could see only one place in Spain, this would be it. The Moors held out in this hilltop fortress against the advancing Christians until the end of the fifteenth century, so what you have here is Moorish architecture in its full ripeness. The emphasis is on decoration. The filigree carvings of the Nasrid palace attain the very heights of what effect can be achieved with non representational art forms. The Lion's Court, a gift of Granada's Jewish community as a token of thanks for being tolerated there, is one of the most charming small interior spaces that I've encountered.The vast gardens of the Generalife are a splendid example of Arab soil management in dry climates. The views of Granada lying far below are nothing short of stunning. As a bonus, there is a palace built within the grounds by Charles I so that one can compare the Moorish and the Baroque cheek by jowl. The entire complex simply blows one away. And, at the end of a long day of exploration, to enjoy a drink in the parador's shaded courtyard with a fountain splashing happily in the background is sheer heaven.

Parador Cazorla; Parador Jaen Spain

The Cazorla parador, a newbuild, has an isolated location in the middle of a nature reserve in Andalucia. It's reached by driving almost twenty miles along a winding mountain road. The decor is fairly simple, with a decidedly rustic accent. The rooms are spacious enough but hardly lavish. There's an outdoor pool but its not heated. The environs are heavily forested. The whole atmosphere is that of a hunting lodge in the mountains. Obviously, one comes here not for the creature comforts, although those are certainly more than adequate, but for the absolute quiet in which one is immersed the moment one enters into the surrounding woods. There are hiking paths in various directions, game abounds. Out for an evening stroll, we encountered a whole family of wild boars. This is an ideal spot if you need to recharge your batteries after a concentrated and arduous period of sightseeing.

Jaen is a different proposition entirely. The parador is a thirteenth century Arab fortress, built at a time when the Moors were being hard pressed by the Christian Reconquista and increasingly retreated into hilltop fortresses whence they imposed an indirect control over the irrigated lands below which were cultivated for the most part by Berber peasants. And this is certainly a hilltop. In order to reach the parador one drives, seemingly forever, upwards through the town. Whenever one thinks that surely one has arrived, there's another set of hairpin curves to surmount. The parador, once one has reached it, is a massive structure with a huge square tower built of massive stone blocks. Inside the decor is vaguely oriental, some of the public rooms echo parts of Granada's Alhambra and the overall feeling is one of tasteful opulence. The views of the surrounding mountains are stunning and there's an outdoor pool. The town has a splendidly decorated Baroque cathedral and the largest Moorish baths in Spain. Just to the north is the junction of the Guadalquivir and Guadarama rivers and it's worth one's while to make a little circle drive through the region in order to get a feeling for the immensity of Andalucia's olive plantations.

Parador Alarcon; Parador El Saler Spain

The Alarcon parador, which is situated just south of Cuenca, is truly amazing. This is as close to staying in an early medieval castle that you'll ever get. Originally an eighth century Arab fortress, it was enlarged in the thirteenth. It sits atop a crag, isolated and virtually unassailable. The room we occupied, apart from the modern conveniences, was just as it would have been in the middle ages. The walls were bare, massive stone blocks, in order to get to the single, smallish window you had to climb a flight of three stone steps. In spite of this the room was not in the least dark, the bright Castilian sun flooded in even through that small window. The public rooms as well tend toward military rigor and simplicity. There's a stunning 360 degree panorama from the terrace, far below the river Jucar winds its way through the fertile Castillian plain. The land, which had been fatally overgrazed by the immense sheep herds which the Spanish grandees kept in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in order to keep up with the demand for wool in the Netherlands has now been irigated and partially reforested. One feels very grand staying here. Unfortunately the splendor doesn't come cheap, Alarcon is among the most expensive of the paradors.

The El Saler parador is a complete change of pace from Alarcon. It's a newbuild, situated on the Mediterranean coast just south of Valencia. Many of the bedrooms have a view of the sea, there's a sandy beach backed by dunes on which one can take long, leisurly strolls, there's an outdoor pool and, best of all, an eighteen hole golf course, reputedly one of the best in Spain, with reduced greens fees for parador guests. All of this makes the parador a candidate for an extended stay in summer. The city of Valencia, the third largest in Spain, is just twenty minutes away bt car. It has the usual Gothic quarter, but even more interesting is the recently constructed City of Arts and Sciences. Many of the buildings were designed by Santiago Calatrava, in my mind the most gifted contemporary architect. (In this country the Milwaukee Art Museum was done by him). There is a fabulous Science Museum and a truly wonderful aquarium, with both indoor and outdoor exhibits of a vast spectrum of marine life. The Pottery Museum contains the most comprehensive exhibition of Spanish pottery, from Phoenecian times to the present, anywhere in the world.

Parador Chinchon;Parador Cuenca Spain

Today I shall begin a fourth Spanish itinerary, starting out in Madrid, heading east to the Mediterrranean, then south, making a big loop through Andalucia and north again back to Madrid. This is a trip for which you should allow yourself plenty of time; two weeks would be an absolute minimum and three would be preferable. While perhaps not by American standards, Spain is nevertheless a big country and there is a lot to see wherever one goes.

Parador of Chinchon. Chinchon is less than half an hour's drive on uncrowded secondary roads from Madrid's Barajas airport and for that reason reccomends itself for either a first or a last night's stay in Spain. The town is quite small but does have an imposing main square of irregular shape, surrounded by half timbered houses with typical glassed-in Castilian balconies from which the local young ladies could observe their swains strolling in the square below in the evenings. There are arcades and, as in Vic, the square doubles as a bull ring in the summer. The parador, a seventeenth century convent, is built in the Spanish Renaissance style. Belying the building's origins, the rooms are spacious but a word of caution -- parking is at a premium and there's no elevator, so this is not suitable for handicapped guests. There's an outdoor pool. I'd recommend a visit to the nearby town of Aranjuez with it's seventeenth century royal palace which has magnificent gardens in the French style. Of interest is the fact that the revolt against Napoleon's usurpation of the Crown of Spain, that turned into the Spanish War of Independence in which Wellington forged his reputation, began here in 1808.

Parador of Cuenca. The town is in the eastern part of La Mancha and various Don Quixote artifacts, almost without exception kitsch, can be purchased in its numerous souvenir shops. By far the most salient feature of the place is provided by the famous casas colgadas, the hanging houses, which cling to the sides of a cliff like so many hornet's nests. One's first reaction to them is that surely they must come tumbling down at any moment, but they don't. The parador, a sixteenth century convent, is situated below these so that one has a great view of them from one's room. In keeping with the building's origins, the prevailing atmosphere is one of a certain austerity, although, fortunately, no attempt was made to keep the bedrooms at their original sizes. The comedor has been reconstructed to resemble its original aspect in every particular, not omitting the niche from which a postulant used to read Holy Scripture to the nuns whilst they dined. There's an outdoor pool and a tennis court. The nearby Sierra da Cuenca provides an opportunity for exploring a genuinely wild and remote region; jeep tours can be booked at the parador.

Parador Cordoba; Parador Toledo Spain

The Cordoba parador is situated on a hilltop in northern Andalucia, well outside the city. Unless you have a GPS calibrated for Spain it's very hard to find as the signs pointing the way to it are, at best, confusing. Also, this means that you practically have to take a taxi to go to town and back as parking in the city center just does not exist. To make up for this the average summer temperature at the parador is some eight degrees cooler than in town. This is a newbuild, with spacious and airy interiors, large rooms and modern bathrooms. It sits in the middle of a large, well maintained garden and has an outdoor pool. Cordoba possesses one of the wonders of the world, the Mezquita, or great mosque. It is so huge that a Renaissance cathedral is nestled in its center yet the overall impression is one of serene grace and elegance. Also of great interest is the Juderia, the old Jewish quarter, where the synagogue and several houses which have been restored to the condition in which they were in the middle ages can be visited. Much is made of the fact that under Islamic rule there was a Convivencia in which the three religions, Muslims, Christians and Jews, lived together in harmony. Unfortunately, after Cordoba was reconquered by the Christians, both Jews and Muslims were expelled. A twenty minute drive away is Medina Azahara, the sumptuous summer residence of the caliphs whih has a well preserved early tenth century palace with splendid stone carvings.

The Toledo parador, not far from Madrid, also is a newbuild sitting on a hilltop overlooking the city. It too offers all the comforts, including an outdoor pool. But its most striking feature by far is the unbeatable view, particularly the one from the front, with the old part of the city spread out below across the river Tagus. If ever nature imitated art, this is it. What one has here is an exact copy of the famous View of Toledo that El Greco painted toward the end of the sixteenth century. Ask for a room at the front, it costs a little more but I found that I could sit for hours just taking in that view. In town, the vast early Gothic cathedral is imposing; of great interest as well are two restored synagogues, the Transito and Santa Maria la Blanca (they were transformed into churches after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492). The former is a fine examples of the fifteenth century Mudejar style, the latter is built in thirtteenth century Islamic Almohad style. The old fortress, the Alcazar is worth seeing also. It was converted into a palace by Charles I in the sixteenth century and it's in this guise that one sees it today, after a restoration following upon its virtual destruction when it underwent a protracted siege during the Spanish Civil War. (At one point the commander of the Franco forces in the Alcazar was called upon by the Republican besiegers, who were holding his eldest son hostage, to surrender lest they execute him. He refused and the boy was shot. You get to vote on what you would have done in the commander's place).

Parador Merida; Parador Zafra Spain

The parador, in southern Estremadura, is in an eighteenth century convent. Its origins are evident, the rooms, while not exactly monastic cells, are not precisely spacious, the decor, with tiles the most salient element, is anything but lavish. It's intimate, comfortable, but could not be called luxurious. There are, however, a beautifully proportioned courtyard and lovely gardens in the French style and an outdoor pool. The reason for staying in Merida, however is something else entirely. As Emerita Augusta it was the capital of Lusitania, the wealthiest Roman province in the Iberian peninsula. The Roman ruins are exceptional in their state of restoration, there is a theater, an amphitheater and a circus, altogether a complex unmatched anywhere outside the Italian peninsula. In addition, there's a magnificent Museum of Roman Arts, the finest in Spain.

Zafra is just north of the border between Estremadura and Andalucia. The parador, a fifteenth century Mudejar fortress, is the former residence of the Dukes of Feria. Hernan Cortes stayed there immediately before departing on his voyage to the new world. The atmosphere is one of quiet opulence in the midst of a spectacular turreted castle. Here too there's a lovely courtyard where one can enjoy a quiet aperitif. There is an outdoor pool. The surrounding countryside is an evocation of the vast empty spaces that were so typical of the region in the middle ages. Vascos de Balboa, the discoverer of the Pacific, was from nearby Jerez de los Caballeros. It's no great mystery why the majority of the conquistadores were natives of Estremadura, it's hard scrabble country that doesn't offer many opportunities for a gentleman to make a living. But driving through it can be an enchanting experience.

Parador Plasencia; Parador Guadalupe Spain

Both of these paradors are excellent places from which to explore Estremadura and neighboring Portugal. The Plasencia parador is a former Gothic convent built of massive stone blocks. Arriving by car is a unique experience, you drive right into an elevator and are transported three stories upward into a parking garage. The rooms are spacious, the bathrooms almost lavish, outside the rooms there is a gallery overlooking an inner courtyard on which there are tables and comfortable sofas, a great place to enjoy a before dinner drink or just to sit and read. There's an outdoor pool. The whole impression is that of a five star hotel, rather than the four its actually rated at. Unfortunately all this luxury doesn't come cheap, a room will probably cost you over two hundred dollars. The town makes a rather sleepy impressionbut the nearby provincial capital of Caceres is as bustling as you'd want.

Guadalupe is an important religious center where the famous black virgin is on display in the monastery. The village itself is charming, with old houses with tile roofs in the midst of an idyllic countryside. In the Spring you drive for miles along hillsides entirely covered by white blooms of jara, a bush related to the azalea. It rather gives the impression of a winter landscape. The parador which initially too faithfully recalled its origins as a pilgrim's hospital with rather cramped interior spaces has since been remodelled so that the rooms are now of ample size. Here too there's an outdoor pool. All this makes for a very pleasant overnight stay.

Parador Gredos ; Parador Jarandilla de la Vera Spain

This is the original parador, built in 1928 but refurbished several times since, in an isolated location the midst of the Sierra de Gredos, a little more than an hour's drive west of Madrid, half an hour southwest of Avila. This is a place to rest up from the heat of a Castillian summer, you're up in the mountains here, I've encountered snow in May. The parador experience itself is standard, the rooms comfortable, the food very palatable. As is the case in all paradors, if you don't want to have the huge buffet breakfasts or the big lunches or dinners, it's always possible to order a sandwich or just a croissant and coffee in the bar. There are numerous hiking trails nearby and the parador has tennis courts but no pool. If you're travelling with kids there's a special play area for little ones and a nearby game park called Safari Madrid.

Jarandilla is a sleepy little town still within sight of the Sierra de Gredos, across the line in the province of Estremadura, home to the great majority of the conquistadores who conquered and settled Spanish America. The parador is a Renaissance palace in which the Emperor Charles V (who also ruled in Spain as King Carlos I) stayed for a year after his abdication in 1556 while awaiting the completion of his country retreat in nearby Yuste. This is well worth a visit. Idylically situated in hilly, rural surroundings with a duck pond belows it, it is a unique combination of monastery and mini palace. The emperor in his last days sought religious solace but had no intention of living in monastic abstinance. The parador has a beautifully proportioned interior courtyard, an outdoor pool and a children's play area. Within easy driving distance is the little town of Talavera de la Reina, Spain's leading producer of hand made pottery. There are dozens of workshops offering the delicately painted Talavera ware.

Hotel Infanta Isabel Segovia Spain.

I shall now begin a third Spanish itinerary, starting in Madrid and moving over the southwest quadrant of the country. Segovia is a good starting point, the city is of great inherent interest and it's less than two hours from the capital. There is a parador in town, but it's a newbuild of no particular interest and it's in an outlying part of town and if one wants to walk to the center it's not only a long hike but one has to traverse a rather dubious neighborhood. The Infanta Isabel on the other hand has an unbeatable location, right on the Plaza Mayor, opposite the cathedral. It's a three star, with all the implications thereof. The public rooms are fairly grand, the rooms themselves spacious with old fashioned but decent furnishings. Some of them are a bit quirky, we had a water pipe running from floor to ceiling in the middle of ours. The bathrooms are also old fashioned but entirely adequate. You should be able to Priceline a room for around seventy dollars for the night. The Infanta Isabel is clearly not a destination per se, but rather an acceptable place to stay if you want to visit Segovia. A small caveat: The whole of the inner city is closed off to traffic, from whatever direction one arrives there will suddenly be a barrier. You have to drive right up to it and , push a button which will then connect you by phone to a central hotel bureau and state you have a reservation at the Infanta Isabel, at which point the barrier will rise. There is of course no parking on the main square, you have to avail yourserlf of the valet parking, about twelve dollars. There are innumerable restaurants nearby, I would advise choosing one of the several rotisserias that serve the marvelous roast lamb that the region is famous for. The cathedral is late Gothic and very imposing, the Alcazar is worth a visit, it having been restored and furnished with authentic sixteenth century pieces, but the jewel in the crown is the Roman aquaduct. This was constructed in the reign of Trajan in the first century to bring water to the town from a nearby river. It has double arches, is about a thousand yards long and is perfectly preserved. There is nothing quite like it in the whole world.

Parador Aiguablava Spain

The parador, a newbuild, is situated in Northeastern Catalonia on top of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. On one side there is a stunning view of sea and rocks, on the other a cove with a good sand beach which one reaches by a long flight of stone steps. However when I was there last the whole of the Costa Brava had been hit with a massive infestation of jellyfish which made swimming seem undesirable. There is also a large, heated outdoor pool and a gym. The medieval French city of Perpignan is half an hour's drive to the north, Catalan Girona the same distance to the west. The latter has an interesting hybrid cathedral, part Romanesque, part Gothic, which boasts the largest Gothic nave in the world. But the main attraction there is the diocesan museum in which one may see a splendid eighth century Beatus Apocalypse, a richly ornamented eleventh century casket that is one of the finest examples of Mozarabic art and, taking pride of place, the magnificent Tapestry of the Creation from the year 1100 that is fully as good as the more famous Bayeux Tapestry.

;Parador La Seu d'Urgel Spain

In the north of Catalonia, this is a smallish market town. The parador, although mostly new, does incorporate the cloister of a Renaissance convent. The principal public rooms have a glass roof which makes for curious light effects and, on warm days gives one the feeling of being inside a greenhouse. There's a large Romanesque cathedral next door, but the chief attraction is the Principality of Andorra, twenty minutes to the north. If you happen to be an over the line nut like me, you'll go there to visit the half dozen or so small, primitive Romanesque churches, constructed in the Lombard style, but most people are drawn to Andorra by the shopping. Andorra has no sales tax and consequently has been transformed into a gigantic discount mall. There is no manufactured article, be it jewelry, clothing, electronics or just about anything else one could name, that can't be bought there at a discount. But be advised that, at any hour of the day, this results in bumper to bumper traffic on the roads leading into the capital.

Parador Arties Spain

This parador, in northernmost Catalonia, was originally the home of Don Gaspar de Portola, the discoverer of California. Today it reminds one of a ski lodge, with fairly simple furnishings and rooms which, while perfectly adequate, tend not to be as large as the usual parador norm. The comedor offers good food, there are numerous restaurants in the town and i recall that when I was there they poured unusually generous measures in the bar. While I'd probably not chose to make the fairly long and arduous drive to Arties (from Spain, not from France, the Vielha tunnel goes directly to it from the north)for the sake of the Parador alone, there are some very good reasons for choosing to stay there. Foremost is the location: it's square in the middle of the Val d'Aran, a truly delightful Pyrenean valley with a vast network of hiking trails in the summer and skiing in the winter. It's a ways from the Back Bowls of Vail but quite acceptable for beginners and intermediates, and the cross country trails are challenging. There is an outdoor as well as an indoor pool. And then there are the little Romanesque churches of the Val. Half a dozen of them have their interior spaces entirely decorated with oversize Romanesque frescos in vivid, not to say barbaric, colors. To be sure nowadays these are reproductions, the originals were starting to feel the effects of time by the 1920's and were carefully peeled off and are on display in a specially built pavillion in Barcelona's Museo de Catalonia (an absolute must see). But the reproductions were so lovingly made, with such careful attention to the inherent character of the originals, that one gets a very good sense of what the interior of these churches must have looked and felt like in the 12th century. In the off season one can stay in the parador for roughly a hundred dollars a night.

Parador Vic-Sau Spain

The parador, a newbuild in Northeastern Catalonia, is a dozen or so miles outside of the town of Vic, in an isolated location overlooking an embalse (reservoir) in the middle of which the spire of a church rises up, reminding one of the village which was drowned to create the reservoir. These embalses, at least a hundred of which are spread over the length and breadth of Spain, brought the country back from the edge of economic ruin, both by enabling large areas of near fatally overgrazed land to be restored to agriculture or to be planted with olive trees. Most of them were built in the time of Franco. I am no admirer of dictators, whether on the right or on the left of the political spectrum, but what this demonstrates is that if one of them associates himself with a good idea he can mobilize resources and energy behind it to an amazing degree. The parador conveys an atmosphere of lightness and freshness, the rooms are spacious, the bathrooms elaborate, there is a great quiet that reigns. There is an outdoor swimming pool, and nearby Vic is well worth a visit. There are winding medieval streets, a beautifully proportioned plaza mayor with eighteenth century arcades (the reason the square itself is sanded rather than paved is that its used for bullfights during the town's fiera) and surprisingly sophisticated shops -- Catalonia is a rich province -- including one on the square that dispenses the most marvelous tasting ice cream. The diocesan museum in the cathedral has a very interesting display of medieval religious artifacts and jewels. We use the parador as a convenient stopover on our last night in Spain before departing from Barcelona either by air or by ship. It's a little over an hour's drive and, if you want to visit the big city without having to stay there, there's a very convenient train service. About $130 for the night, which is half of what a comparable hotel in Barcelona would cost.

Parador Cardona Spain

This Catalonian parador is located in what was once a medieval hilltop fortress, parts of which go back to the ninth century. There are great stone courtyards, stone and marble dominate the public spaces. The rooms are spacious, the atmosphere is one of quiet, understated luxury. The views in all directions stunning, although it must be said that the detritus from an now abandonned salt mine on an adjacent hill is less than picturesque. An eleventh century Romanesque church with superior carvings is attached to the main building. This is one of the pricier paradors, in the high season you must expect to pay over two hundred dollars for a night, although you can do a lot better in the off season. I've found this to be a good place to stay after a red eye from the States if you don't feel like staying in the big city, it's about an hour-and-a-half drive up from Barcelona, and I've found the parador staffs to be very accomodating about morning check ins if you feel in urgent need of a nap. A word of advice here: If you're not accustomed to driving in Spain you'll probably find the traffic in the cities sommewhat daunting until you adjust to it, so it's a good idea to arrive on a Sunday morning when the streets and highways are deserted. Whether you take the throughways ( the autopistas impose a relatively steep toll, the autovias are free -- in Spain, unlike, say, in Pennsylvania, when the cost of building a road has been amortized, the toll goes off) or opt for the scenic route will depend on how much time you have available. On the throughways you can generally average seventy miles per hour, on the provincial roads, particularly in the mountainous regions of the country, this can easily drop to thirty. Incidentally, with the great majority of the places I write about the presupposition is that you have rented a car. It would not only be expensive but highly wearisome and laborious to try to do these by train, bus and taxi.

Parador Olite Spain

Olite is a small market town in Navarre, just across the border from Rioja. The parador is located in one half of what used to be a palace of the Kings of Navarre, a dynasty of French origins, which is reflected in the building's architecture, it could easily be mistaken for a French chateau. The other half of the palace has been coverted into a museum displaying various rooms as they were in the middle ages. The inside of the parador has a distinctly medieval character, with suits of armor on display and stained glass windows and some of the rooms have faux (fortunately, I would not want to have to sleep on the real thing) medieval four poster beds. At some time in the fifteenth century a Prince of Viana (the title given to the heirs of the Kings of Navarre), in the course of a dynastic dispute, was imprisoned in what is now the parador and the room in which he was held is on display, furnished as it was then. The parador is both pleasant and quiet and the overnight stay of choice if one wishes to commute to Calahorra, I would not like to have to do the windy drive to the nearby parador of Sos late at night. But a word of caution, parking is a problem, there's no garage and no spaces immediately in front of the building, one has to leave one's car at some distance, outside the old town walls.

Parador Calahorra Spain

Calahorra is a bustling, prosperous town set in the middle of the Riojan wine country. The parador is a newbuild, with comfortable, spacious rooms, offers the standard parador amenities, but is otherwise unremarkable. It is host to a good many functions: a word of warning, if your stay there coincides with an evening wedding, the dreaded Spanish boda, you may as well reconcile yourself to a sleepless night. There will be a large band which will play at top volume, continuous dancing that all seems to concentrate on stomping and, above all, the cacaphony of several hundred voices all trying to make themselves heard over the din. All of this is likely to go on until after four in the morning. The best thing to to in a case like that is to capitulate, get dressed and go down to join in the fun. The Spanish are a hospitable people and will certainly welcome you. The food in the comedor (main dining room) is good but not exceptional. There is however a superb restaurant nearby, nestled in the old town, Las Quatros Esquinas, The Four Corners, which serves the best food that I've encountered in Spain. If you should be there in Spring I highly recommend the plate of white asparagus, followed by a rack of lamb. along with a bottle of red Marques de Caceres Crianza. A meal there is, at least for me, ample reason for staying in Calahorra. If one isn't averse to night driving, one can also stay at the parador in Olite (to be reviewed later), an easy twenty minute drive away.

Parador Santo Domingo de la Calzada

The first thing you see when you enter through the front portal of the cathedral in Santo Domingo is a loft with a huge, live rooster striding back and forth. There is a very pretty legend behind this. Sometime in the middle ages a group of pilgrims on the way to Santiago were staying in the pilgrim's hostel (now the parador) when one of them accused a companion of having stolen his purse. After having been convicted of the crime by a kangaroo court, by the draconian laws of the day, the culprit was condemned to be executed the next morning. That evening a group of his friends called upon the local magistrate to protest his innocence. They found this dignetary at his dinner. As he was listening to their argument the roast chicken on his plate suddenly jumped to the floor and began to crow. At this the judge ordered the man to be released immediately and to this day a chicken lives in the cathedral to commemorate the miracle.

As for the parador, it is all warm wood and Gothic arches, some of the rooms have grand four poster beds and the food in the dining room, as befits the parador's location in La Rioja, justly famous for having the best cuisine in the whole of Spain. A room costs around $130. Actually there is now a second parador, called Bernardo de Fresnedo, just outside the town walls. It's located in a former convent and is extremely quiet and some thirty dolllars cheaper. Either one is a good choice if you are there on business, which in the Rioja most often means the wine business as the province is the most famous wine producing region in the country.

Parador Sos del Rey Catolico Spain

The parador was once a summer residence of King Ferdinand of Aragon, the one who married Isabella to unite the crowns of Aragon and Castille. Together, they financed the voyages of Christopher Columbus and expelled both the Jews and the Moors from their dominions, a mixed bag at best. Sos is an archtypical Spanish hill town, with a difficult access, now greatly eased by modern roads, narrow, winding streets, and fantastic views to all the points of the compass. The rooms at the parador are spacious, some of them have balconies. In the summers this is an agreeable stopover to escape the heat of the plain, in the off season it's a great bargain, you can get a room there through Priceline for ninety dollars. For reasons unknown to me it seems to cater to bus tours, unlike most of the paradors, so that on one occasion we resided there in the company of some hundred Japanese tourists who, to be fair, were extremely well behaved and in no way detracted from the atmosphere of the place. It's about a twenty minute drive to Pamplona, best avoided during the celebrated running of the bulls in the Spring, unless you're young and really into that sort of thing, but otherwise a vibrant, charming Basque town which, in its main square, boasts a fin de siecle cafe which is straight out of a Franz Lehar operetta. Be sure to have lunch there.

Parador Bielsa Spain

Bielsa is in northernmost Aragon, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The only way out of the narrow valley in which the little resort town lies, other than the road on which one entered it, is the Bielsa tunnel that runs under the mountains for some miles and ends in France. The parador sits in an isolated location a dozen miles outside the town, by the side of a rushing stream, surrounded by the Monte Perdido Nature Reserve. The scenery all around is spectacular, craggy hillsides thick with pine forests in the foreground, the snow capped peaks of the Pyrenees in the distance. The parador is a newbuild, meant to convey the impression of an, albeit much enlarged, hunting lodge. The overall impression is one of an extremely well endowed rusticity. Perhaps in order to compensate for the lack of outdoor amenities (there are no tennis courts, nor is there a pool) and nearby urban distractions, whether architectural or more mundanely entertaining, the quality of the food in the dining room is exceptionally high. But what staying at the Bielsa parador is all about is the outdoors. One can fish for trout in the river and there are a dozen or so well marked hiking trails ranging from all day circuits into the high mountains to a comparatively benign hour's walk to the site of a truly charming waterfall. Even at little distance from the parador one is apt to come on a considerable variety of wildlife; I have crossed paths with hares, foxes, boar, chamois and, yes, a few snakes, and one most always can see eagles soaring overhead. There are reputedly bears, but unlike their counterparts in America's national parks, these have been hunted for so long that they stay well clear of humans. If one enjoys being in a relatively unspoiled natural environment during the day, while resting one's head in some measure of comfort at night, whilst being extremely well fed all the while, a stay here can provide one with much pleasure, and not at ruinous expense. The rooms in the off season (which is much to be preferred to the summers when the valley fills up with noisy day trippers, bussed in in great numbers) will set you back about a hundred dollars a night.

Hotel Villa de Alquezar, Alquezar Spain

Alquezar is one of the innumerable small hill towns (in this case, little more than a village) in Aragon -- in medieval times, when Muslims and Christians were engaged in everlasting combat. A town, if it were to survive, needed to be defensible and siting it on a hilltop contributed to that end. When I first discovered the place it was still relatively unknown and genuinely rustic. The hotel, a brand new construction, was built over a sheep fold, and sheep wandered the narrow, winding streets all day long. This has changed, the town has been gentrified, the sheep have been banished to outlying pastures, but the inherent beauty of the town remains. There are seductive vistas in all directions, charming miniscule squares and two very considerable Romanesque churches. The hotel has added on a number of upscale rooms, so that one can choose between a standard room, which is perfectly adequate with a nice bathroom, at roughly $60 for the night, or the larger, more luxurious, variety, at around $90. Nice breakfasts are included, with juices, various breads, jam and pastries, with unlimited quantities of good, strong coffee. That is the only meal served, but there are several acceptable restaurants in town. My favorite is the Refugio, an establishment catering to hikers and canoers , which serves hardy table d'hote fare and decent caraffe wines. The lively market town of Huesca with its imposing Romanesque cathedral is nearby, as is Jaca, where one can see the most important, by far, of the Aragonese Romanesque churches.

Hotel El Toll Collsuspina Spain

I propose at this point to write about a tour of the northeast quadrant of Spain, starting out in Barcelona. This is is vibrant, fascinating city, exhibiting all the energy, all the vitality that is so characteristic of Catalonia. Unfortunately, we've never found a hotel there that we truly liked. The five stars are prohibitively expensive, we've not come across something like the Westin Palace in Madrid which is, thanks to Priceline, still within the borders of the affordable, and the four stars are a mixed bag: the ones on the Ramblas, in the center, tend to be extremely noisy at night and the ones farther out, while nice enough, are just too far out. So I'll start my itinerary with a hotel about an hour's drive to the North of the city.

The Hotel Toll started out, of all things, as a truck stop. This turned out to be so successful that the owner, a genial Catalan entrepreneur, was able to sink his profits into building a motel-like structure containing two dozen large rooms with marble floors and immaculate bathrooms. The real joy of one's stay consists in observing the continuing activity of the erstwhile truck stop. At breakfast time the truckers come in, select chops and sausages from a sideboard, put their choices on a fire place grill, and then consume them, accompanied with two or three glasses of country wine while, at the top of their voices, commenting on the great events of the day. It's an engaging spectacle, even though it makes you wonder about the wisdom of taking to the roads. If the truckers have started imbibing at breakfast, how's their driving going to be after their lunch break? Anyway, one can drive down to the town of Vich, leave one's car in the railway station's parking lot. and take the train into Barcelona, about an hour's ride. Or one can explore the wonders of rural Catalonia, all within easy reach. Dinner at the hotel are, while perhaps not an Epicurean delight, nevertheless eminently satisfactory. Almost anything from the grill is tasty and there are some really astonishingly good local wines. Vich, about twenty minutes away by a winding but wide mountain road, is a delightful little town with a Romanesque cathedral that contains an eminently worthwhile museum and a surprising number of high end butchers, bakers and groceries, asa well as, in the outskirts, the most imposing hypermercado (super/supermarket) that I've encountererd in Spain. Particularly in mid summer, when the plain is stifling, Collsuspina, at 3,500 feet of altitude, is a wonderful place to stay.

Parador Avila Spain

Avila is one of the very few European cities which retains its medieval walls in their entirety (Carcassone in France being another). This makes for a splendidly impressive sight as one approaches from the valley below. The parador, originally a nobiliar palace, is located roughly half way up the hill, it's a longish, steep hike to the top where the sights -- the cathedral, the Romanesque churches, the colonnaded main square-- are. It's not advisable to try this in your car, there's a bewildering maze of one way streets, interspersed with construction detours and there is quite simply no place to park. The parador itself is nicely appointed although the interior has been so thoroughly modernized that there is little evidence of the ancient origins. It's a little over an hour's drive from Madrid, so that if does not chose to stay in the capital this is about the right distance if one arrives, sleep deprived, on an overnight flight from the States. There's an hourly train service to Madrid, so that one can choose to use Avila as a base for taking in the sights there if one wishes to return to the relative calm of a small town in the evening, and the parador, at about $120 for the night, costs a lot less than a comparable hotel in the capital would.

Nearby Cangis de Onis

Parador Zamora Spain

The parador, in the western part of Leon, is the former residence of the Counts of Alba y Aliste, a cadet branch of the great ducal family. It is a splendid Renaissance structure with an imposing interior courtyard, where one can drink an aperitif in the warm season, and beautifully proportioned hallways on the ground floor. Try to book a room at the front of the parte vieja (the old building) : these are immense, and are lavishly furnished with beautiful pieces including massive four poster beds. The food on offer in the dining room is good, but, apart from some regional dishes, some of which are definitely an acquired taste ( in particular, steer clear of the mijas, breadcrumbs soaked in a liter of liquid fat), tends to consist of standard grand hotel fare, which is too bad in a region justly famous for its grilled lamb and kid. The parador sits in the heart of the old part of town so that shopping and any number of restaurants, should you not wish to eat in, are within easy walking distance. Zamora boasts of twenty three Romanesque churches, including a massive cathedral, so if that happens to be your thing you will be well served. In addition a twenty minute drive gets you to the seventh century Visigothic church of San Pedro de la Nave, a veritable jewel. Parking is at a premium but there is a garage, free to amigos, but be forewarned that getting your car in, and, in particular, out, will be a real test of your driving skills. As generous as the Spanish are in other respects, when it comes to building garages they seem to be of the opinion that everyone drives a mini.

Parador Cangas de Onis Spain

This parador also is located in a one time Benedictine monastery and has a Romanesque chapel with extremely well preserved carvings attached to it. It is luxuriously fitted out and originally was one of only three paradors designated as five star (the others being Santiago and Leon), although this rating has recently, and more realistically, been reduced to four. It's located in Asturias, just outside of the mountain resort town of Cangas de Onis, alongside the river Sella, a famous salmon fishing stream in season. There is a walking path that follows the river and one can arrange to take jeep tours into the nearby Picos de Europa. It's about a twenty minute drive to the beaches of the Costa Verde and three-quarters-of-an-hour to the capital city of Oviedo with its cathedral that contains the famous Camera Santa where the most splendid church treasure in Spain is on display; and there are no fewer than three ninth century pre Romanesque churches just outside of town. If one drives east for an hour along the coast one comes upon the cave of Altamira with its prehistoric cave paintings which are truly one of the wonders of the world, although you'd be strongly advised to make advanced reservations on line as the number of visitors admitted each day is limited and the places tend to fill up quickly. Also within easy reach of the parador is the battlefield of Covadonga where Don Pelayo halted the northward progress of the Moors in 722. To commemorate this event the Kings of Asturias built a Romanesque church right into the interior of a cliff overlooking the battlefield, a most impressive sight. The parador itself is a most pleasant place to stay for a few days to take in all of this, although we found the choice of dinner entrees rather limited so that you might consider one of the many restaurants in nearby Cangas if you stay for more than one night. Roughly $130 for a night's stay.