View from room 2000

It’s all about the views at the Jumeirah Port Sóller on the northwest coast of Mallorca. The hotel is built into the hillside overlooking the curving bay,  protected by the Tramuntana mountains.

As soon as you walk in, you walk out again – straight across the lobby to the terrace to take in that view of the Mediterranean. If it’s warm enough – which it is most of the time – this is where you check in, while drinking a long glass of fresh orange juice,  made with the sweet fruit from the orchards in the Sóller valley. It’s a good start, I must say.

The hotel opened a year ago, in April 2012, having taken over a partially-built project that had foundered a few years ago. There is no way you would get permission to build right by the sea now, particularly since the Tramuntana area gained Unesco World Heritage status two years ago.

The complex stretches along the cliff for around half a mile and comprises 120 rooms, two outdoor pools, a couple of restaurants and four bars. There is a spa set over three levels, with a good gym and its own outdoor pool, although this one is for lolling in the warm bubbles rather than swimming – while gazing at that view of the Mediterranean and the mountains of course.

Room 2000

I stayed in room 2000, which is classed as deluxe, the mid category between superior (which is the most basic, so superior to what exactly I’m not sure) and junior suite. There are also two unsurprisingly spectacular and vast suites, the Observatory and the Lighthouse, which I didn’t get to see as they were both occupied. By whom, I wonder? This feels like a prime celeb-spotting place, but I didn’t spot any famous faces wandering about in their bathrobes.

Bathroom Jumeirah Port Soller

Anyway, room 2000 is big, with a huge, supercomfy bed, a sofa and a bathroom with a wetroom-style shower with overhead and handheld showerheads.  I didn’t have time to use the bath, although I was intrigued by the teabag you could dip in the water, along with a saucer of salt.  Toileteries are Penhaligon, with the all-important conditioner and body lotion as well as shampoo and gel.  After a week of staying in hotels with those useless tube things stuck on the wall, I was relieved to find a salon-standard hairdryer.  There is an illuminated magnifying mirror, which is always a godsend when trying to apply eyeliner in a rush. I usually find the bathrobes too heavy in luxe hotels, but this one was light towelling on the inside, cotton on the outside and really comfortable. No, I didn’t pinch it.

Back in the room, there is the obligatory enormous flatscreen telly, a Bosé docking station, a socket panel on the desk and ooh… a nespresso machine. Fab. Of course, we Brits would love to see a kettle too, but it’s a start. Internet is free throughout the hotel, with a good signal. Hooray! It would be nice if you only had to sign in once and were then connected for your entire stay, but it wasn’t too much of a faff. I would have liked to be told the connection procedure at check-in too.

On entering the room, you don’t have to put your keycard in a slot to turn the electricity on, which felt  very civilised, and there is an everything-off switch by the bed.

A bowl of oranges on the coffee table is a nod towards the location, not that you are likely to forget  where you are. Although you are very much in international hotel territory here, they do make a bit of an effort to use local produce, both in the restaurants and in the spa.

My only disappointment – and I realise this makes me look particularly vacuous – is that the magazine holder contained only one of those pointless corporate hotel titles and no pristine glossies;  especially as outside on the terrace there was not only a table and chairs but a rather decadent daybed, which was just crying out to be reclined upon with the latest issue of Vogue or Condé Nast Traveller or whatever.

citrus gazpacho at Jumeirah Port Soller

I had a great facial with Natura Bissé citrus products in the spa, followed by a citrus-themed lunch,  which included a fabulous gazpacho made with orange, lemon and grapefruit, the very tasty Sóller prawns and seabass with ginger and a citrus jelly. Every month the hotel does a package pairing treatments with food, which is a nice touch. Last month it was almonds, next month lavender.

It was a bit of a surprise in the sauna and steam area to see that a lot of people – men and women – were naked. Apparently this is against Jumeirah policy and there are signs requesting people to wear swimsuits, but I hadn’t noticed the signs and the staff didn’t say anything either.

I really liked the breakfast as there was not only a great selection of fresh fruit, but it was actually all ripe too, which is very unusual in my experience; I always seem to be sawing through rock-hard chunks of melon. Eggs, bacon and whatever else you fancy are cooked to order and the orange juice is freshly squeezed for you. Coffee  was made to order from the espresso machine the first morning, but I just got a jug on the table the second day, although I had asked for the same thing. I needed to stay a bit longer to get to the bottom of that one.

You could spend a very pleasant  week or so loafing about the hotel, at the adults-only infinity pool at the top of the complex or the family-friendly Talaia pool further down.  A cocktail on the terrace of the Sunset Bar is a pretty good way to watch the, um, sunset, and there is quite a list to work your way through, before you move onto the gin and tonics, that is.

Or you could just use it as an exploring base. The surrounding area is gorgeous, great for walking in the mountains – or cycling if you are insane – drinking coffee at pavement cafés in impossibly picturesque villages or discovering secret coves. And Palma (and the airport) is only around half an hour away too.

Rooms at the Jumeirah Port Sóller start at around €300, including breakfast, but often hover more around the  €450 mark. There are always  packages and early-booking offers available, if that’s any consolation.

I travelled to Mallorca with Vueling, which flies from Heathrow and Cardiff, as well as Spanish and European airports.

“We’ll be cooking traditional Welsh ingredients with a Spanish touch at the Hay Festival,”José Pizarro was saying as he poured me a glass of Ensamblaje PQ from the Ribera del Guadiana region in his native Extremadura. “With the help and support of the Spanish Tourist Office, we are going to set up a pop-up bar at the entrance to the festival, called Tapas España.

We were at his Bermondsey restaurant Pizarro, just down the road from José, the tapas bar that has been packed since the day it opened two years ago.

Pizarro spends a lot of time in Wales and can’t wait to put his spin on the local produce. “There are a lot of similarities between Wales and northern Spain, particularly Galicia and Asturias. I’ll definitely be cooking cockles and laverbread, two of the most well-known Welsh foods, but with Spanish flavourings.”

As I am from Swansea in South Wales, and have eaten both those things all my life, I’m really looking forward to tasting Pizarro’s versions  – laverbread is seaweed that we traditionally eat for breakfast with bacon. I’ve eaten a lot of cockles and seaweed in Galicia too, so I know this is going to be a good match – Pizarro’s cooking is going to be a great addition to Hay.

“I’m going to cook Welsh lamb of course, but using Spanish recipes, as lamb is very popular in Spain, and will do the same with the local sea bass. I’m going to take chorizo sausages and cook them in cider, like they do in Asturias, but I’ll be using Welsh cider,” he explained as we shared some ibérico pork meatballs, mackerel escabeche and chicken livers cooked in fino sherry.

The Hay Festival takes place this year from May 23^rd to June 2^nd, and as usual will feature writers and creative people of all persuasions from all over the world. The 2013 programme includes Carl Bernstein, Quentin Blake, Miranda Hart, Hans Blix, Caitlin Moran, Joan Bakewell, Will Self, Thomas Keneally and Philip Glass, so it promises to be as lively and stimulating as ever.

Hay already has Spanish connections as the festival is also held in Segovia in September every year. Local food is very much part of proceedings, and leading writers are invited to try their hand at cutting roast suckling pig, the big speciality of Segovia, with the side of an earthenware plate, which shows how tender the meat is.

“What I really want to bring to Hay is the Spanish feeling that we have created here in the restaurant and at the José bar. It’s the most difficult thing, to get that buzz. At José, we have 1,600 customers a week now. People just go there to enjoy themselves because it feels like being in Spain.”

I asked if people usually drink Rioja, or whether they are more adventurous. “Our customers are very keen to try wines from other regions, such as Rueda, Rias Baixas, Bierzo, Jumilla or Mallorca, and sherry is amazing popular too. Would you like a glass?”

A bottle of oloroso appeared. “At José, 15% or 20% of people drink sherry. And it’s not just older people either; it’s all ages. They try all different kinds. The staff are very knowledgeable, so they advise people how to match different sherries with the food. It is so versatile.”

The nutty, warming oloroso was just the thing for a cold March day in London. Let’s hope that at Hay, in late May, the sun will be out and everyone will be asking for a nice chilled glass of bone dry Fino or Manzanilla.

“A cold, spicy soup of squid and cucumber, with coriander and morcilla blood sausage. Give it a stir to mix all the ingredients together.”

I was in Ricard Camarena’s restaurant in Valencia, where the waiters not only serve the dishes but also give tips on how to set about them. A week after my visit, Camarena was awarded a Michelin star; I wasn’t surprised at all, as it was the most original and intriguing meal I’ve had for a long time.

I had got through at least half my soup before it dawned on me that I was eating something cold. Somehow the spices and flavours had tricked my senses, making my poor little brain think that the soup was hot.

When Camarena joined us for coffee later, I mentioned my confusion, and also said it had been my favourite part of the meal. I didn’t really mean that the other courses (and there were five, not counting the desserts) weren’t as delicious, but that the soup was the most interesting.

“The three flavours of squid, cucumber and coriander are clearly identifiable, both simultaneously and separately,” he explained. “The spiciness comes from a very unusual pepper from Brazil, called pimienta de Malagueta, which gives you a sensation of electricity in your mouth, rather than a feeling of heat, and it stimulates all your senses. It’s a long, complex process.”

Camarena said that it is the dish he likes the most, but it is the least popular with diners. That really surprised me, as I’d been so impressed by it.

“It’s not a conventional dish. It combines three flavours that people often don’t like. Lots of people don’t like coriander, some don’t like cucumber and others don’t like spicy flavours.” I said it would go down a storm in London, where people are generally more into spicy food than in Spain.

You would think that a new restaurant that gets a Michelin star soon after opening would be enough to keep anyone busy, but this is not Camarena’s only new venture. Next door he has opened Canalla Bistro, where the vibe is buzzier and the menu is a mix of Mediterranean, Asian and American dishes. We shared a zingy salad of courgette ribbons with rice noodles, parmesan and sesame, marinated amberjack chunks with satay sauce and a Katz-style pastrami sandwich. And a few other things; it’s the kind of place where the afternoon can easily slip by. They do a three-course lunch menu for €20 including a glass of wine or whatever, which is amazing value for the quality. In the main Ricard Camarena restaurant, there is a four-course menu for €65 and an eight-course extravaganza for €85. Mains are aroud €30.

Camarena has yet another bar in Valencia’s splendid central market, called Central Bar, where of course they make the most of the best produce on sale each day. Have some patatas bravas,  some grilled prawns, a cuttlefish sandwich… and a beer or two. It’s a great way to get into the swing if you’ve just arrived in Valencia.

In Madrid, meanwhile, you can try Camarena’s cuisine at the fashionable Ramses restaurant, where chef José Marín is in charge. That’s a newish thing too. With the current invasion of Spanish chefs in London – José Mari and Elena Arzak are opening Ametsa, Marcos Morán has opened Hispania and Quique Dacosta is reportedly looking for a suitable site – maybe Camarena will be next. Just an idea. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate.

The Artrip only opened in June 2012, but is ranked at number one on Tripadvisor. It’s in the Lavapiés area of Madrid, which isn’t hotelly at all; in fact, this is the only hotel there. It’s officially rated two star, but is really rather designery. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

I stayed in room 203, which is in the junior suite category. That just means it’s bigger than the standards, but the facilities are basically the same. All white, minimalist, clean lines and Ikea-style, it is easily four-star standard. The mattresses are top quality, and in fact are the same as in the Vincci hotel chain and the five-star Eme in Seville. There are duvets and good reading lamps too. There is an open wardrobe along one wall and a partially open-plan bathroom –  although there are sliding doors for privacy, and separate opaque doors to the toilet and shower, which has overhead and handheld showerheads.

203 has a bit of a loft-apartment vibe, although the building dates back to 1900. The lobby and breakfast room are used for exhibitions by local artists, and you can buy any artworks that catch your eye.  There are 17 rooms over five floors, with high ceilings on the first and second floors. I really liked the very cute small double with a pitched roof on the top floor, VM Ático, which would be great for single travellers.

The only thing I wasn’t so keen on about 203 was that there wasn’t much natural light, as it gives onto an interior courtyard, so next time I’ll ask for a room which gives onto the street. You don’t have to worry about noise here as it’s really well insulated.

You won’t be surprised by now to read that wifi is free and fast. Another thing I really liked was that you can help yourself to tea and coffee from a machine in the café on the ground floor whenever you fancy – and it’s good coffee too. Breakfast includes all the basics for a bargain €4.

What really makes the Artrip stand out, however, is the friendly service. Miguel, the owner, is around a lot of the time, and the reception staff are really welcoming and helpful. Just ask them for tips on what to do and where to eat locally.

Lavapiés is one of the oldest and most traditional neighbourhoods in Madrid, and nowadays is one of the most ethnically-diverse too. There are some great Indian restaurants, Moroccan tea rooms and loads of bars and pavement cafés. Just around the corner is La Casa Encendida,  a lively cultural venue where there is always a lot going on. The hotel is about 10 minutes walk from Atocha train station, where the airport bus stops, and Lavapiés metro station is a few minutes’ walk away.

I really liked the friendliness, the clean design and that there was no pretentious stuffiness or kowtowing.  If you stay at a lot of hotels, it’s a real breath of fresh air. Rates are really reasonable for the standard , starting at around €75, and 203 is usually €90-€110. There are discounts for early booking, staying more than two nights and booking direct through reception.

Hotel Artrip, Valencia 11, www.artriphotel.com, +34 91 539 3282, @HotelArtrip, www.facebook.com/ArtripHotel.

If you like the sound of the Lavapies neighbourhood, read more here.

Parador de Santiago de Compostela

After further talks with the unions, the Parador organisation has agreed to reduce redundancies to 350 from an initial 644, as reported today by hosteltur. There will be cuts to pay and conditions for all staff and 400 employees will have their hours reduced by 25%.

The board has backtracked on its plan to close several hotels permanently, apart from the Parador in Puerto Lumbreras in Murcia, which is currently closed and will not reopen. Others slated for closure, including Teruel, Manzanares and Ferrol, will remain open or close for short periods only.

Temporary closures have also been reduced.  Seven Paradors will now close for four months:  Ayamonte and Cazorla in Andalucía; Limpias in Cantabria; Puebla de Sanabria and Villafranca del Bierzo in Castilla León, and Vilalba and Verín in Galicia. Four hotels will close for three months: Bielsa in Aragón, Albacete in Castilla La Mancha; Cervera de Pisuerga in Castilla León and Tui in Galicia. A further nine will close for 40 days: Alcañiz in Aragón; Aiguablava, Artíes, Cardona, La Seu d’Urgell, Vic Sau and Vielha, all in Catalunya; Guadalupe in Extremadura and Monforte de Lemos in Galicia.

La Graciosa, Canary Islands

A report in Europa Press today said that there were 7,072 foreign tourists per kilometre along the coast in the Balearic Islands in 2011. Someone apparently calculated this by dividing the number of people registered at hotels by the length of the coastline. Something to do over this slow period I suppose.

It sounded quite a lot to me, but then I read that in Catalunya the figure rises to 19,696 per kilometre. Crikey. In the Valencia region it is 10,393 and in Andalucía 8,344. The Canary Islands come in at 6,436, just above the average in Spain of 6,365.

Rodas beach, Cies Islands, Galicia

Figures drop dramatically along the north coast of the country, which arguably has the best beaches – although of course these stats are only for foreign visitors, not Spaniards. Galicia only gets 457 per kilometre, followed by Asturias with 497 and Cantabria with 1,075.

50.1 million foreign tourists spent their holidays somewhere on the coast in mainland Spain, the Balearics and the Canaries in 2011, and 83.4% of them went to Catalunya, the Valencia region, Andalucía, the Balearics and the Canaries. Shame a few more don’t venture north.

Before coming to Seville in Andalucía earlier this week, I asked my friend Shawn Hennessy where she would recommend. Shawn has lived in Seville for almost 20 years and has earned a reputation as the Queen of Tapas owing to her highly-successful tapas tours  around the traditional and gourmet bars of her adopted city.

She got straight back to me:  “The Adriano is run by lovely people who really care about what they do, and is in a great location right in the centre.”  That was all I needed to know.

A friendly welcome is really important to me – and to most people presumably – and you certainly get that at the Adriano – from both Claudio, whose family own the hotel, and Manuel on reception. This is the kind of place where most of the staff have been there for years and it all feels like a big family. Although I arrived around 12.15pm, well before the 2pm check-in time, my room was ready so I didn’t have to leave my bags and come back later.

Room 309 is a superior room on a corner with windows on two sides, overlooking Calle Adriano with a view of the Baratillo church opposite. It’s hard to believe that the Adriano is officially only a two-star hotel – but then again, I’ve never been able to fathom the star ratings in Spain. Maybe it’s because it’s got a café on the ground floor, rather than a proper restaurant. Anyway, my room was more like four-star standard, because of the size, the quality of the bed, the flatscreen television and the large bathroom with a hairdryer and good vanilla-scented shampoo and gel. There’s free wifi with one password for all devices that you only have to enter once. Décor is classic, with no complicated light switches or shower controls.

Apart from the warmth of the staff, my favourite thing was the breakfast, which you have in the café on the ground floor or on the terrace outside on the pavement. There’s no buffet; instead you just choose from a menu of infinite permutations of toast, made with the soft mollete rolls that are typical of Antequera in Malaga province. I went for crushed tomato and olive oil every morning, along with fresh orange juice and a great café con leche made to order – no depressing jugs of  tepid grey-brown liquid here.

The Adriano occupies an elegant 18^th-century building in the Arenal area and is near the bullring, the Guadalquivir river, the cathedral, tapas bars and shops. Although dead central, Arenal has an authentic neighbourhood feel.There are 34 rooms, which are all different and undergoing constant improvement and updating.Doubles start from €60, €70 including breakfast.  My room, 309, which is a superior double, costs from €80, or €90 including breakfast. There’s a small gym, a large jacuzzi and a roof terrace with sunloungers, but I didn’t give that a whirl as it’s the end of November. Next time!

I stayed in a great apartment for a couple of nights in Valencia. 50flats is a building run by Valencia Flats, which has places to stay all over the city. In this case, the whole building is holiday apartments – in fact there are, um 50 flats – and it feels like a hotel, but with more space and freedom. The ground floor is a proper reception, staffed 24 hours, with computers, drinks’ machines and loads of information to help you make the most out of your stay. The receptionists were really welcoming and helpful too.

 I stayed in Ático 503, on the fifth floor. It has a good-size living room with a kitchen down one wall –  pretty well-equipped and with a dishwasher. Décor is white and neutrals, unfussy, with parquet floors and contemporary artworks.The big shock was when the blinds went up to reveal a vast terrace – with loungers, table and chairs – with a panoramic view across the city. You could have a great party out there.

There is a separate bedroom, which also gives onto the terrace, and a decent bathroom with rose and handheld showerheads. Wifi is free with a good signal, but you have to sign in with separate usernames and passwords for each device. It is a really comfortable place to work undisturbed, and of course an unlimited suppy of coffee and biscuits helps things along tremendously. And it was quiet, with very little street noise. You can hear people talking in the corridor, and doors opening and closing, but it’s not too intrusive.

Upstairs on the sixth floor, there’s an even bigger terrace for everyone to use, where people from the different apartments get chatting.  There’s also  a very handy laundry room  – well, cupboard – with a washing machine and dryer, which was an absolute godsend to me.

The 50flats building is on Calle Espinosa, which is about 10 minutes’ walk from the Norte train station, the central market and the shopping centre. It’s by Angel Guimera metro station and on a few bus routes too – although I ended up walking everywhere. All in all, I was really surprised by how smart and well-maintained it all was, as rates start from around €50 a night.  The áticos – or penthouses – cost from about €70. I’d particularly recommend 50flats if you haven’t stayed in a holiday apartment before. It’s a really professional, well-run set-up and you get all the back-up service you need.

One of the hotels I’ve stayed in this week is the Caro in Valencia. I was in room 15, one wall of which is a vestige of a 12^th-century tower that was part of the Moorish wall which surrounded Valencia.  There is even a discreet plaque explaining what it is.  But there isn’t anything remotely museumy about the room, which is vast, with the bed on a mezzanine level under a pitched ceiling with 19^th-century beams.

The bathroom is open plan – well, the bath and washbasins are part of the main space;  the loo has a door and the shower is only visible if you’re lying in the bath. Toiletries are by Bulgari – shampoo, shower gel and body lotion – with a nice citrussy scent, and there’s a salon-style hairdryer. Francesc Rifé, a renowned designer from Barcelona, has gone for neutral tones for just about everything,  with all the emphasis on the original features.

It’s a good room for working as there’s a desk and fast, free wifi with no password or faffing about to get online. The bed is really comfortable, and my only gripe is that the bedside lamps are too dim for reading. Apparently they are adjustable, but unfortunately I am too dim to work out how.The hotel occupies the elegant Palacio del Marqués de Caro, which was built in the 15^th century but had been substantially altered and extended over the following 500 years.

As soon as renovation work began to turn the building into the hotel,  all sorts of archaeological remains started to appear, including fragments of a Roman mosaic dating back to 2 BC – which is now on display on the floor of the lobby. There are bits of Roman pillars and other chunks of stone all over the hotel, as well as the vestiges of the Arab wall, fragments of Gothic arches and lots of decorative tiles.

There are 26 rooms, which are all different, a bar with a terrace and a good restaurant.  It’s right in the centre of the city, near the cathedral,  so you can walk to a lot of the sights and the shops. Rates start from around €130, and my room, called the Arab Tower, is around the €250 mark.

I was the only person at the Rezola Cement Museum in San Sebastián last Saturday morning. This wasn’t that surprising really; after all, San Sebastián is not exactly short of attractions. There’s all those Michelin-starred restaurants for a start, dozens of tempting pintxos bars, three splendid beaches and that elegant promenade to swan along. There are other museums too – although mercifully not too many – but the lure of the cement museum was too strong to resist. Maybe because I’ve never even heard of a cement museum anywhere else, let alone been to one.

So I got on a number 25 bus which, 10 minutes later, dropped me right outside the museum, just outside the centre of the city in the Añorga district. The exterior was unpromising, a bit tatty, vaguely reminiscent of a 1970s provincial polytechnic.  The decoration on the front that looked like motorway signs turned out to the work of local artist Ibon Mainar and had been installed two years ago – supposedly on a temporary basis – to commemorate the museum’s 10^th anniversary. It aims to create a connection between the seemingly contradictory concepts of camouflage and signage, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, it was time to go in –   free admission too.  I was soon learning how this part of the Basque Country was transformed by the  industrial revolution, which really got underway here  in the second half of the 19^th century.  Factories appeared in the valleys, along rivers, railway lines and roads, transforming the landscape and villages forever.

The cement industry emerged because of the rich seams of  limestone and marl – which is a mix of calcium carbonate, clay and other stuff, as I’m sure you are aware. I now know all about how cement is produced, but don’t panic, I’m not going to divulge this fascinating information -  I don’t want to spoil it for you as no doubt you’ll be hotfooting it there yourself before too long.

José María Rezola Gaztañaga (1822-1867) opened his first factory in a converted flour mill in Añorga in 1850. Taking advantage of the extraordinary quality of the limestone from a nearby quarry, the new industrial plant began making natural cement. The factory developed and expanded over the years and at the beginning of the 20th century they started producing artificial cement using the Portland model.

Having this massive great factory on the doorstep obviously changed things quite a bit for the local residents – known as Añorgatarras – whose lives up until then had revolved  around rural activities. As happened elsewhere in the Basque Country and  also in Catalunya, a colony grew up around the factory. As well as housing for the workers, there was a medical centre, a church, areas for games and cultural activities, a hairdresser’s and a barber’s. The museum stands on the site of the school. Over the years, Rezola sponsored fiestas, sporting events, film and theatre clubs, and a local magazine.

This was all happening during the same period as San Sebastián was developing as a swish seaside resort, after Isabella II started frequenting the town on the pretext of improving her skin complaints. The glamorous image was consolidated by Maria Christina, the widow of Alfonso XII and mother of Alfonso XIII,  who spent most summers there between 1887 and 1928.

From now on, whenever I’m wallowing in the belle époque vibe that still lingers so appealingly in the centre of San Sebastián , I’ll also be thinking of what was happening just a few miles away in Añorga.  Who would have thought cement could be so interesting? Oh. Just me then. Suit yourselves.

More on San Sebastian…

The tastiest tortilla in San Sebastian  Cooking in San Sebastian 36 Hours in San Sebastian