Cardona

One very fun thing to do in Spain is to visit the national system of luxury hotels called "paradores" (their website is here).  In most cases, a parador is a historic building that has been modernized into a very nice hotel.  You can stay in castles and convents and monasteries etc.  Having a castle fetish, this is just the ticket for me.  On each of our last two trips to Spain, we have splurged for a special night in a fancy parador.  A couple of years ago, we stayed in a former monastery on the Camino de Santiago in León.  This past year, we spent a night in a castle in Cardona, about 60 miles from Barcelona.

The interior of the castle:

More of the interior of the castle:

A guard outpost for the castle that hangs out over the valley:

In our sample of two paradores, we have learned that all paradores are likely to have some Alice in Wonderland Furniture:

The paradores are also famous for their restaurants,where they feature gourmet takes on the local cuisine.  This was our appetizer.  It was sausage on the left with almonds dipped in anchovy cream.  That's right!  I said anchovy cream.  And they were tasty!

Lisa had a tuna salad on heirloom tomatoes.

I had duck cannelloni.

I also had migas, which is toasted bread crumbs, a local specialty.  In this case, they were topped with a fried egg with various accourtrements on the side.  There was melon, sausage, tomato, sauteed veggies, etc.  The most interesting side was the hunks of pork fat in the upper left of the plate.  I ate them too.  It was good.

For dessert, we had an almond pastry with a glass of sherry.  Sadly, I cannot recall the variety of sherry.

Also, a pistachio tart and sherbet.

The interior of the restaurant:

A simple Spanish breakfast:

Here is the main plaza in downtown Cardona.  We missed the yearly fiesta by a day.  Each year, they set up bleachers in the plaza and have bullfights right in the square.

Here we are sitting on the temporary bleachers in the plaza.

Here is a poster for the bullfights that we missed in Cardona.  I'm not all that interested in seeing a bullfight, but if I were to see one, it might be more interesting, in a way, to see it in a place like Cardona rather than at massive bullfighting stadium.  Interestingly enough, despite this festival, the Catalan people of northeast Spain are currently in the midst of possibly banning bullfighting in that part of the country.

The other really interesting site in Cardona is the local "Mountain of Salt."  It is very literally an entire mountain made of salt, which has been mined since antiquity.  We were lucky to tour the interior of the salt mines.

Here is a particularly fetching salt miner.

The interior of the salt mines.

The interior of the salt mines.