We spent our very first night in a Medieval Castle recently! Cool huh? At the Siguenza Parador: what an amazing place! It’s located northeast of Madrid and we were lucky enough to stay there en-route from the Algarve to England – it was the perfect stop-off point. I would highly recommend it if you’re thinking about driving back and want somewhere a little different to stay. We drove for 8 and a half hours but I would suggest you stop somewhere about four hours into the drive first, to avoid exhaustion!
When we arrived, we were immediately impressed by the sight of the castle in the distance – I couldn’t believe we were going to be staying somewhere so, well… cool! It was like something out of Harry Potter. The castle itself is absolutely stunning – both inside and out, as you can see by all these photos.
The Siguenza Parador is incredibly unique, but I must admit to being a little nervous about staying the night somewhere that old – I mean, it’s a medieval castle, surely it’s haunted? (That was my writer’s imagination kicking in). Luckily we experienced no such thing. In fact, we slept like babies in the fabulous four poster bed in our enormous room – occasionally awoken by the sound of the church bells ringing.
Before bed time though, we opted to try out the hotel’s cuisine and we were glad we did, it was delicious.
The ‘Autumn Menu’ was a set menu with plenty to choose from – I went for the roasted red peppers with duck ‘ham’ for starters (the starters were HUGE by the way), followed by trout with the most delicious jamon and then the yummiest biscuit cake with hot chocolate sauce topped with vanilla ice cream (thank goodness for my lactase pills!). Michael went for the smoked sardines with avocado followed by cod with aoili sauce, then a fresh fruit salad. Oh, I almost forgot to mention we were given some of the best chorizo I’ve ever tasted, on the house at the beginning of the meal. I washed it all down with a glass of white wine (Michael stuck to water as usual) and we paid about 70 euros for the lot. Not too bad for so much yummy food! Especially when it was served in such a beautiful room – in a castle! (Can you tell I’m still excited that we stayed in a castle?!)
Before bed time though, we opted to try out the hotel’s cuisine and we were glad we did, it was delicious.
The ‘Autumn Menu’ was a set menu with plenty to choose from – I went for the roasted red peppers with duck ‘ham’ for starters (the starters were HUGE by the way), followed by trout with the most delicious jamon and then the yummiest biscuit cake with hot chocolate sauce topped with vanilla ice cream (thank goodness for my lactase pills!). Michael went for the smoked sardines with avocado followed by cod with aoili sauce, then a fresh fruit salad. Oh, I almost forgot to mention we were given some of the best chorizo I’ve ever tasted, on the house at the beginning of the meal. I washed it all down with a glass of white wine (Michael stuck to water as usual) and we paid about 70 euros for the lot. Not too bad for so much yummy food! Especially when it was served in such a beautiful room – in a castle! (Can you tell I’m still excited that we stayed in a castle?!)
The breakfast at the Siguenza Parador was equally as good – there was so much food to choose from and it was really quite delicious, although the coffee the waitress brought me was way too strong for my liking. Hams, cheeses, fruit, croissants, bread, cakes, lots of individually boxed cereals and much more. It was fabulous! We were sad to leave such a wonderful place behind but hope, one day to return. And we will if we drive back to the Uk again.
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