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.
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