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.
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