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.