As you all know, I don’t get to travel much, and certainly not nearly enough as I’d like to. But the other day I got to take a “day trip” to a beautiful hotel (with the longest name ever – try tweeting that several times a day!). The hotel Las Casas del Rey de Baeza is part of a chain called Hospes Hotels, but they are a very exclusive chain of luxury hotels, most (all?) of which are restored palaces. I have to say that it was interesting to see – and experience – how the other half lives…

My 24-hour getaway was lovely and it was very nice that they allowed me to bring a friend with me – Nog, of course. We got there around 5pm and, after getting settled in the room (mostly me taking tons of photos and both of us going WOW) we retired to one of the lounge areas just off a lovely plant-filled patio to read our books and enjoy some cava. Heaven.

After a couple of hours we went back up to the room, changed for dinner and went to try out the Senzone restaurant. They had us booked for a couple of tasting menus but we never like eating the same thing, so I convinced the waiter to bring us a selection of this and that to share. It was all very good but there was something about the place that made it feel “hotel-y” in a way the hotel itself didn’t. But oh well. Back up to the room and I took a luxurious bath in the massive circular tub while Nog curled up with his book. By this time we were both pretty zonked so it was lights and and I have to say the bed was amazingly comfortable. We were supposed to have been given a room with twin beds, but in retrospect we had also been upgraded from a standard double room to a superior one, so what the heck. Nog and I are used to bunking together when we go to Málaga, so that was no problem.

Next morning we went down for brekky, not quite sure how things worked, and were told we could either have the buffet breakfast or order off the menu. So we decided to got for it and tucked into the buffet as well as ordering some very nice bacon & eggs. After all that we were so stuffed that all we could do was head for the fireplace lounge with big fat leather sofas and read some more.

Suddenly it was check-out time but we really didn’t feel ready to leave, and that wasn’t a problem. We were told just to leave our packed overnight bags in the room and later we could ask for them at reception, which gave us some extra time to go upstairs and enjoy the rooftop for awhile, as you can see.

I took so many photos that I really didn’t know what to do with them all, so here are a couple of collages, of the hotel and our room, and of the food. And I’m writing this on the fly as I have had about a million things to do since getting back yesterday and now have to rush off to my first class with Agustín (and then the hospital for get my chemo port flushed out) … anyhow, just wanted to share this. It really was a wonderful getaway and many thanks to Hospes Hotels.