BBQ La Chopera in Calatayud, Spain.

As I mentioned in my post about Termas Pallares Spa, this Eastern we went to spend some days to Alhama de Aragón.

The day we went to the Monasterio de Piedra, we went to eat to the BBQ la Chopera, in Calatayud. As far as the previous days we had seen the restaurants at that region were so crowdie and even in some places we weren´t able to go in, I made a reserve the previous day. At the phone the guy that attended me was so kind.

We had some troubles finding the place, because the I-phone works with google maps a s GPS and the address of this place was wrong located there, so we had to call several times to finally find the place.

Wondering, it was almost empty. It was our first time at this grill and we went due a recommendation found at 11870.com. The food was really good, that far the prices also wondered us. For example, I took this:

and it was no more than 7 Euros.

Irene, the lady that attended us, told us that she can remember better days with the place full every day. The problem was when the new road had open, their house stayed a bit apart and since then they don´t have the same quantity of public than before.

Due quality, prices and excellent attention, I do recommend the place to you! :D

The building of the old casino at the Spa Thermas Pallares.

According of what people of the staff told me, it was a time when people even lost fortunes at this casino. Now it´s not a casino anymore, its facilities are used for: meeting rooms, game room with pool tables and ping-pong, cafeteria with terrace.

I really liked this building a lot. When you are there is so easy to imagine the ladies with fancy dresses and the gentlemen in top hats.

The terrace really invites to stay there a bit enjoying the sun.

I just felt they could use this space a bit more. I think they could do more activities there… like a dancing space in one of its rooms. Even to have art exhibitions. I also think they could give especial attention to the views from there, in front of it is the parking area and a hotel, I do think they could arrange a bit better the garden no matter if it keeps on being the parking entrance and to give a bit of attention to the part of the hotel that you can watch from the casino, to makeup it a bit. :D

This is an emblematic building of the Spa and it even identifies it. Here some of my photos:

Thermal Lake, Spa Termas Pallares.

Let´s give a look to their web´s explanation:

“THERMAL LAKE, THE ONLY ONE IN EUROPE


The hotels are surrounded by 68,000 square metres of parks and gardens, with a hidden thermal lake, which is unique in Europe and whose waters flow constantly at 32ºC due to the multiple thermal exsurgences on the bed.


With an average depth of 1.50 m and two peaceful islands on the interior, it is the ideal place for swimming at any time of the year, whilst your body enjoys the virtues of its mineral-medicinal waters.


BENEFICIAL EFFECTS FOR HEALTH


The temperature of the water means that the lake can be enjoyed at any time of the year. The enormous flow volume that comes from its multiple springs means that the water in the lake is renewed entirely every 32 hours. Furthermore, the Thermal Lake is considered as another treatment due to the effects that the mineral-medicinal water produces on our bodies.”

If you see it carefully it doesn´t really explain much about the water properties or why is supposed to be unique in Europe. I searched a bit in internet and I haven´t found those reasons. Anyway, the place is precious. The day I went was cold and no matter it was already 10 am, no one was there, I was there till 11 and came just few people, but they stayed on the sun beds. I swam a bitt. I was really excited with the idea of meeting this place, so not to swim wasn´t an option for me. I didn´t last long, because the sensation of water temperature, it wasn´t really warm enough.

I think the best is going there when it´s not so hot neither so cold. In my case at least, due I can´t manage to swim on it when it´s cold and I think that water when it´s summer time, would be so hot then.

I f you want to enter to the lake without staying at the hotels, you can do, it costs 20 euros per day, but you are not allowed to eat inside the lake space.

I like the lake a lot! :D

Here my video:

Termas Pallares: the Spa.

They have a lot of spa services, with prices starting from 25 Euros and on. About spa circuits, besides the Aquatherma that I talked about in a previous post, they also offer the termaspa with: aroma shower, warm hydromassage pool, toning pool, humid thermal bath, dry or finnish bath, cauldron, crosscurrent pool. This costs 50 Euros and last an hour and 15 min.

Rosa tried a massage with a cream with pearls. I was waiting her advice to decide to take an herbal massage or something, but finally I haven´t done it.

Something I liked a lot was that they also have a free doctor service. Sil had to go because cough problems and she was so kind, warm and professional.

The pity is that the Price of the room just includes one access to the Aquatherma, I asked if it was possible to exchange it and to have a termaspa instead, no matter if I should pay the difference of the price, but it wasn´t possible.

It´s a bit complicated for me to tell you if I would or not recommend the Termas Pallares Spa. The whole area is nice and close to it is the Monasterio de Piedra (I´ll talk about this place in other post), that place is precious and worth view. So, if you are going to Monasterio de Piedra and you want to stay at the area for several days, then it´s nice to go to this spa as well. Better if you stay at Gran Hotel Cascada. But, to do it as we did, that actually our aim was to have some relaxing days in a beautiful place and to enjoy the spa, no, that´s not something I would do again there. The reason is very simple: for me it means to travel from Madrid, 3 hours going and 3 hours coming back in a car. The prices of this spa are ok, I´m not saying they have so expensive prices, but as far as I already have in Madrid great options with cheaper prices, I don´t feel like needing to go to Termas Pallares for enjoying a relaxing weekend. Also is that I really didn´t like the detail of having included just hour and a half of one of their spa circuits and to have to pay extra for the robe and sandals.

But yes, I would go again, just in a travel where my priority would be to visit the Monasterio de Piedra, to enjoy a bit the whole Calatayud area and maybe to spend a night at Gran Hotel Cascada or at least to go to the Gastroteca to eat and to stay a bit at the thermal lake.

So! I´m still searching that marvelous place, out of Madrid, with spa, for going to enjoy a fantastic relaxing weekend time to time! :)

Grand Hotel Cascada, Termas Pallares Spa.

As part of the tourist complex of the Termas Pallares Spa, they have a five stars boutique hotel that is marvelous!

From their own site:

“Surrounded by 68,000 square metres of parks and lush gardens, including a hidden private thermal lake, this new boutique hotel near the city of Zaragoza offers guests the perfect place to escape and relax.

The 25 spacious rooms are both stylish and innovative and equipped with every modern convenience. The onsite gourmet restaurant is a must as are the soothing treatments of the Termas Pallares Spa. This is truly a place in which to escape the worries of today.”

We went to meet this hotel due they had very interesting tasting announced in different places of the spa.


As far as the county state where the spa is located is huge and they had placed this hotel far away from the road, you find a lot of peace there. The lady of the reception desk was so kind and really concerned about our welfare.

We went inside the bar and I liked a lot the atmosphere. With very comfortable coaches, calm music. Miriel was the one attending us, very kind and nice. We took the sushi tasting and some beverages. The surprise was that the one presenting us the sushi tasting was the chef, Juan José Morales Sanmartín (you can watch this at the video, but is in Spanish).



One of the things you still don´t know about me is that I had the very good luck of having a very well culinary culture from my childhood. A big part of this comes from the culture mixes that are in my blood, but also due my family was always a big fan of the good food. Of course that´s something I had taught to Sil as well… so, when she was just 10 y/o she already said her favorite food was sushi! :D And it still is. So, Sil had tasted sushi in a lot and different places all over the world (ok, of the part of the world she knows, we haven´t been in Japan already). For Sil the sushi that we tasted at the Gastroteca was the second best one of the world! For me it was the best one, but here the point is that she went to a great Japanese restaurant in Dallas where for her they have the best sushi all over the world, I haven´t been there already.

We were that delighted with the sushi experience that we were invited to go to the Italian tasting of the next day. Honestly it was ok but definitely the sushi one was quite better. Again the whole staff was great with us.

That day I felt with confidence enough as for asking them to please show me a room of that hotel and to visit the restaurant, the Gastroteca. I was really impressive about the kindness of everybody; talking with some of them I mentioned that and one person told me that actually they all are very happy with their job and the place, most of the workers are people of the village, of course there are also people from outside, but for the ones that belong to the village, they liked the spa before even thinking about working there. I´m quite sure that when a staff loves their work and is happy with the treat received by their bosses, you notice it and unwittingly they transmit it to customers. The result of this just can be a positive for everybody… but! I´m afraid there are just few companies that take this into account!

Giving a look to the Gastroteca I had the good luck that Juan José was there and he spent some minutes with me explaining me the style of the place and we even talk about his professional experience. You can see part of this talk at the video, but again it´s just in Spanish.

Part of what makes this hotel a charming place is that it´s located in front of the thermal lake. The hotel also has some thermal facilities and a natural thermal waterfall, but most of the treatments and spa facilities are at the other hotels… but they have a car that takes the clients of this hotel to the other ones.

Yes, I liked a lot this hotel, the restaurant and the people that work there. I just have to say it´s expensive, but I do recommend it. :D

Termas Pallares Spa: the Aquatherma.

The Spa facilities are distributed among the buildings of the 2 hotels. The place is really big and one of the spaces they have is the Aquatherma, a place with jets, Jacuzzis… would be better if I copy the explanation from their web! :D

From the web of Termas Pallares:

“A large interior space where you can submerge into the thermal water and enjoy all its properties, with all types of leisure and relaxation installations: hydromassage chairs and beds, templarium, caldarium, frigidarium, flexible hoses, rain mist, waterfalls, heated loungers and flotation tanks.

Built over the old bath gallery of the Termas Hotel, original elements dating from 1863, such as the 7-ton marble baths and the authentic water outlets, have been rescued. Thus, the facility is been totally and continuously renovated.

Decorated entirely with marble mosaic and meticulously illuminated, the Aquatherma recalls the old Roman baths and it is, therefore, the perfect complement to the Spa's whole balneotherapeutic offer.”

This time I haven´t take pictures because it was complicated to be taking care of the camera.

For going to the spa area you should wear a bathing cap, sandals, robe and towels. If you don´t have your own stuff, you have to pay extra for using the hotel ones… even for the robe! That wondered me a lot due normal in hotels with spa is they to give you robe and sandals as part of what you are already paying due the room. Well, in this one you already know you have to take with you your own stuff, you can´t even take out of the room the towels.

In general people walk in robe at the facilities, for being at the two buildings is ok as far as there´s a gateway for going from one to the other, it´s a bit more complex when you want to go to the thermal lake (I´ll talk about it in another post) and it´s winter. Any way people go to the lake just in robe, but I wouldn´t! :D

The use of the Aquatherma is included at the price of the hotel, but in our case, going 2 nights, we had just one entrance in total. The Aquatherma has fixed times of use, you can stay there an hour and a half, and each group should enter and go out all together. The place is ok, just that when I went there were a lot of people, I can´t tell if that was due the dates.

I felt the lockers area a bit sloppy. In theory you can lock them with a key, but most of them didn´t have it so people just left their belongings there without closing the lockers. In my case, as far as the only one thing to left there was the robe, no problem, but we saw a man that had left the room key at the pocket of the robe.

When he went to pick up the robe, another guy had taken it out. The person in charge of the Aquatherma had to ask people to please check out if they had a key at their pocket… yes, I was glad about not taking with me the camera!

Do I would recommend the Aquatherma? Well, this time I prefer to evaluate the whole spa, but I´ll do it in my next post.

(To be continued.)

Temas Pallarés Spa. Introduction.

Rosa, one of the friends that shared with us the travel to Canaima, came to stay few days at home. Of course we went together to my favorite places in Madrid and surroundings (at least the ones we had enough time to go). Taking advantage of her stay and Easter, we went to the Balneario Termas Pallares that I had long wanted to meet.

The place is quite huge, they have:

Tree hotels:

- Hotel Termas 3 stars.
- Hotel Parque 3 stars and remodeled not long ago (but I don´t know exactly when)
- Gran Hotel Cascada, 5 stars hotel –boutique.

A thermal lake.
A park.
The Spa area is part of the 3 hotels.
Two restaurants:

- El Balneario.
- La Gastroteca del Balneario.

Two bars-cafeterias, one of them with summer terrace.
Games salon.
Small cinema.
Tennis and Paddle fields.
Small park for children.

With that many things to experience, even had being there just 2 nights, there´s a lot to tell! So it will take me several posts. As far as I´ll be a bit busy on the next days, I can´t promise to place them following one to the other, but anyway I´ll talk about all what we experienced at this place, including both: nice and not nice things.

(To be continued.)