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.
No comments:
Post a Comment