Visit date: April 29, 2016, overnight around 7:00 p.m.
The first parador of the trip
Paradors are Spain’s state-run hotels, and they can be found all over Spain. There are 91 in total.
Except for a few paradors, most of them are old castles or mansions of the lords of the city that have been converted into hotels, and they are often located in prime locations in the center of the city, making them very convenient for sightseeing. Even if they are far from the center of the city, for example in Toledo, they may have a wonderful location with a panoramic view of the city. Parking is also available in most cases.
And the most attractive thing about this parador is that it is surprisingly cheap compared to so-called luxury hotels, although it is not cheap at all. If you book in advance on the internet, I think it’s around 150 euros per room for a normal room.
なお、パラドールの予約はもちろ公式サイトからでも可能ですし、Booking.comといったポータルサイトからも可能です。
Another thing you should not forget is the restaurants, each of which has its own local cuisine, so you should definitely have dinner at one of them.
By the way, I have used paradors in the past in “Ronda”, “Granada” and “Toledo”. Although I have never used them, I saw Paradors in “Leon” and “Santiago de Compostela” when I was touring the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. It seems that there are paradors in many of the major cities on the pilgrimage route. It seems that there are also paradors in “Cuenca” and “Teruel” among the cities we stopped in this time.
Parador de Lerma
After all, when you travel to a region of Spain, you want to stay in one of these paradors at least once. This time, I booked two paradors in advance, and stayed at the third one at the very end. The first Parador was located in the town of Lerma.
The place is located about 40 km south of the city of Burgos. By car, it is about 30 minutes away by highway.
Burgos is a major city on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, and its cathedral is a world heritage site, making it a world-class tourist city. So I was looking for a parador in this city, but unfortunately, there is no parador in Burgos. Unfortunately, there is no parador in Burgos, but I found a nice parador in Lerma, which is not far from Burgos, so I chose this place.
This parador in Lerma was a former castle of the lord of this city, and it was converted into an accommodation.
By the way, the town of Lerma itself is like a small provincial town. However, there was a very splendid church in the village, because it is a town with a big lord’s mansion. The churches in the provinces of Spain are all splendid.
Local Wines
Well, Spain is famous as a wine producing country, and grapes mainly from Temprariño are cultivated in this area, and good quality wine is produced. This parador in Lerma is one of the producers, and you can enjoy the wine in the restaurant and bar in the parador.
Of course we had this wine at the restaurant. We liked it so much because of its rich and hearty taste that we decided to buy it as a souvenir.
Enjoy local cuisine at the restaurant
Spanish regional cuisine, especially in Castile, is famous for grilled veal (Chuleton), suckling pig (Cochinillo Asado) and lamb (Cordero Asado). All of them are also commonly eaten in France, but the Spanish way of cooking is more bold or wild, and here I ordered lamb (Cordero Asado).
By the way, I thought the menu in Spanish was better than the one in English because you can understand the exact names of dishes and ingredients. English is oversimplified and sometimes there are spelling mistakes.
For a summary of the food in Spain, you can also refer to this previous post I wrote.
Stay at other Paradors in a row and get great deals!
そして翌日、チェックアウトをするときに「今夜もまた別のパラドールに泊まりますか？」と聞かれました。偶然にも翌日も別のパラドール（サンティリャーナ・デル・マル）に泊まる予定でしたので「はい」と答えたら、なんと*レストランの割引券*の割引券をいただきました。これを次のパラドールに提示すると、レストランでの価格が15%OFFになるそうです。素晴らしい！
また、別の知り合いから後日聞いたのですが、このパラドールから別のパラドールの予約手配もしてもらえるのだそうです。近場のおすすめも教えてくれるとか。こういったネットワーク素敵ですね。スペイン地方旅行ではぜひとも活用したいところです。（続く）
