Mas de la Costa Hotel
On Bill Russell's recommendation, we booked in here - and it was a very good recommendation. Set deep in the countryside 4kms from Valderrobles, and down a 2 km dirt road, we came to this restored farmhouse. The owners are a banker and a medical specialist. They bought this as a ruin 10 years ago, and, not without difficulties, converted the ruin into a very swish hotel with 15 rooms
It is clear that literally millions of bankers bonuses have gone into this project. I cannot see that it can be profitable unless no money has been borrowed (or a cheap mortgage offset against something else). The interior has a lot of their art, and the grounds have a private astronomical observatory
They are running the place themselves, in that there is no manager, and the local staff are workers rather than managers. They appear to close for 3 months over the winter and return to Luxembourg.
It is an incredibly peaceful and beautiful place to sit and just admire the countryside.
We had the full meal the first night, but it was too large for both of us, so the other two nights settled for a salad and tapas. Breakfast was a bit odd, in that it was meant to be taken with all guests round one big table in the kitchen - we opted for eating by ourselves on the terrace
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Venta d'Aubert
The first day we got them to book us a tasting at a local winery - Venta d'Aubert. I learnt that "venta" were a bit like caravanserai on the Silk Road, - inns spaced out every 30 kms or so. Each had a big cypress tree growing outside to guide travelers to it (and if they offered accommodation there were two cypresses). The vineyard was owned by absent Swiss proprietors, who had clearly invested a lot of money here.
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On the recommendation of the Belgian man doing the wine tasting, we then drove round in a big circle taking in a number of pretty local villages
Horta de Sant Joan - Horta de Sant Joan is the birthplace of Manuel Pallares, friend and companion of Pablo Picasso. Picasso spent some time in Horta during his youth (1897–98) with his friend Manuel. He is quoted as having said, "Everything I know I learned in Horta". Picasso later returned to develop his Proto-Cubism style of painting (1909). During both visits he made a lot of paintings and drawings. There is currently a Centro Picasso in the village, but its hours of opening are somewhat catholic, and are limited to the weekends, so we never did get to see their exhibits. .
Calaceite and La Fresneda
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Morella
Morella features in most lists of the most beautiful towns in Spain. It is known for the iconic Castillo de Morella that towers above the city atop a massive rock. The castle houses a former prison, the governor's palace and a parade ground. Gothic architecture and medieval city walls are other highlights of both the castle and town. It was quite a hike up to the top of the fortification. First was the museum in the old monastery church, then up a quite steep winding path to the castle, then up 100 steps to reach the final fort right at the top of the hill.
Such was the impregnability of the castle, that it was garrisoned right up to Franco times
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Cardinal Ram Restaurant - Morella
We were attracted to take lunch here as the terrace looked so appealing, That view from afar was the only nice thing about our lunch. Although there were a lot of serving staff, they avoided coming to the terrace unless they were delivering food. They never stayed around to see if the poor customer actually needed anything The food was decidedly iffy. Our main courses were what I would describe as "cut price". The salmon mouse like offering was just edible, the meat pie-like offering was not. And the worst bit was the "strawberry cheesecake" which was completely inedible. It was an ersatz strawberry flavour out of a bottle, beefed up with a pink colour out of a bottle, and tasted as bad as it looked. When we told the waiter who cleared it away, he just shrugged This was a tourist sting in a high volume tourist village. My advice to people going to the village is to avoid eating here. It is seldom my misfortune to have to endure a restaurant as bad as this.