Where kindness captivates | Paradores territory

—Have you never been to Albacete?

Guide Francisco Tébar rubs his hands. Everything will be new for the visitor, including the treatment, the tourist is a friend. Go ahead, say the inhabitants of Albacete, it’s always a yes, without giving it any importance, the doors are open, everything is easy. An employee of the Cuchillería museum improvises a guided tour. A salesman from a store located in the modernist passage of Lodares, the star resource, one would say in a Faculty of Tourism, comes out to say hello upon hearing Tébar’s noisy explanation: it is a commercial and residential gallery. An employee of the Provincial Deputation allows us to photograph the imperial-style staircase of the provincial palace of Albacete (1880), although it is a space without public access. The receptionist at the inn, a villa in La Manche on the outskirts, lights the fireplace to create a home at dusk. A waiter offers, without anyone asking, a bottle of water for the trip. It was the first time in Albacete, the guide was right, but others will come and others will come.

Inside the hostel

A fifth of La Manche

The green central patio of the parador, a property with wide corridors on the outskirts of Albacete. Its location makes it an ideal place to spend the night or stop to eat at its restaurant or cafeteria. Opened in 1970, it attracts business customers and leisure visitors. It hosts all types of events in its rooms and in this large outdoor space with a capacity of 700 participants.

An inn from this era

Two guests walk through one of the parador’s characteristic corridors, with terracotta floors, wooden beams and windows overlooking the patio. The hotel is open twelve months and has 48 employees. Javier Álvarez, the director, says that clients consider Albacete as a place of passage, but once they get to know it, they renew or extend their stay.

Authentic Castile-La Mancha cuisine

The homemade Manchego cheese ice cream, in the photo, is served surrounded by a caramelized almond tuile. The cuisine is regional, with dishes such as atascaburras (potato and cod), ratatouille, migas, ajo de matazón (liver pâté with pine nuts) or gazpachos manchegos, a game stew served with cake. The cafeteria offers a full menu, many customers choose it to eat.

The fire catches

A living room with fireplace and television is one of the common areas favored by guests. There are those who come to read, chat or work remotely. The manager says there are customers who are so loyal that they bring their families to introduce them to the inn workers. They are welcoming more and more international visitors, including groups of Asians who have organized itineraries through different hostels.

noble area

The parador cafeteria extends to the terrace, which communicates with a summer swimming pool. The bar has a wooden wine rack. The light in the space is subdued, encouraging conversation. The giant television broadcasts Champions League matches during the week at low volume. The menu offers many dishes served in the restaurant: ratatouille Manchego, migas… In the selection of sandwiches, the pepito beef fillet stands out.

Ancient

Following

From the central patio (La Mancha) of the parador, you can see the fighters of the Llanos air base in the sky. Some German NATO pilots came for a month’s training. They stay at the inn. They arrive at breakfast already dressed in the green jumpsuit, with the patches attached with Velcro, with the flag on their arm; They have breakfast for everyone, scrambled eggs and miguelitos from La Roda. The air base is very popular in the region, says Javier Álvarez, the director of the parador: it generates wealth, it generates identity, it was inaugurated in 1927, the connection with the hotel is excellent.

During the week, there are many business customers (the industrial zone of Campollano is the largest in Castile-La Mancha, 12 kilometers away), some loyal customers of the paradors expose themselves to the surprise of the place and fall exhausted. “There are those who repeat or extend their stay when they discover the region,” explains Álvarez. They walk around Albacete, read in the room with a fireplace, ask the waiter to watch the Champions League on television in the cafeteria, order a Manchego cheese ice cream (homemade), which is served surrounded by an almond-shaped and caramelized tile. “These customers visit everything we offer them. We are a tourist office,” boasts the director. In the role of host, Álvarez uses the spoon to make a cut in the vitelline membrane of the yolk of the free-range egg; The little orange liquid overflows, the ratatouille will no longer be the same, the tomato (neither very sweet nor very sour) and the pepper and the onion and the zucchini become greasy, the little bit of egg white cracks, be sure to prick everything at the same time.

Tébar has worked as a tourist guide for 28 years. Since then, he has been determined to ensure that Albacete stops being a city of passage and becomes “a city to stop in”. The journey from the parador to the center takes 10 minutes via the highway. It is parked (easy) and the car no longer moves. Below the Tourist Office is an air shelter dating from the Civil War. We visit it. The Lodares Passage (1925) is explored and contemplated. The Cutlery Museum lasts a leisurely half hour. The cathedral, for its part, has a neo-Gothic facade from the 20th century. “Wait five or six hours and you will see how the city fills with people,” explains Tébar. And yes, they take to the streets even if it’s cold, the terraces work, Albacete is famous one week a year for its fair and twelve months for its atmosphere of bars, restaurants, shops… They say they invented the late

“The quality-price ratio of its gastronomy is very good,” says Álvarez. “The people are very welcoming, and believe me, it’s not a cliché, it really is. The visitor feels very good from the first moment”, insists the director of the hostel, who has lived in eight autonomous communities. It’s not a city, but it’s a very good size, it allows you to meet a lot of people, he explains.

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The city, the largest in Castile-La Mancha (174,137 inhabitants), barely retains any significant buildings from the 20th century. It is said without any malice that the old town of Albacete is 15 kilometers away, in Chinchilla de Montearagón, says the guide; no one cares, they go the same way pack, Even Albacete ended up belonging to Chinchilla, until only 650 years ago, when it began its journey as an independent city. The castle of this town of 4,565 stands out, as do the whitewashed, pointed chimneys of the dozen or so cave dwellings that form a cluster at one end of Chinchilla. Tébar regrets that they have lost the bohemian air of the 80s, when poetry recitals and other cultural activities were organized in their surroundings with the arrival of good weather. They are now summer homes, but with less of a sense of community.

“The farm is a witness to the landscape of Albacete”

Next to the air base is Dehesa de los Llanos, a 10,000 hectare farm dedicated to agriculture and livestock. Two golden eagles fly into a ditch – it seems incredible, such a big bird appears out of nowhere –, a rabbit jumps over the main dirt road, two red partridges run on a plow, chasing each other. There are irrigated crops, arid lands, scrublands, pastures, plains, many plains. “The farm is a witness to the landscape of Albacete,” summarizes Ángel Espacia, head of administration, 50 years in the pay of Dehesa de los Llanos. Walking around the place, Espacia remembers that in the 17th century a congregation of Franciscan monks was established there. It also hosted a fair in 1710, a free zone decreed by Philip V. It has a chapel and a tower which guided pilgrims. The hostel workers had already warned him the day before, everyone being very attentive to the visits: “You will love it, it’s a special place.”

As Espacia returns to the office, César Malabia, the general manager, gets in the car to start a small safari (without weapons) around the farm, a Castilian-Manchego safari with the native red partridge as a large protected species: its hunting has been paralyzed for four years so that its population can recover. The landscape may be familiar, but that doesn’t take away from its beauty. The nuts were removed from the walnut trees. The garlic plant produces its first shoots, a green carpet in perfect condition, as the classic football fan would say. The deer keep the oaks at bay, at head height. Yes, it’s broccoli, confirms Malabia, agronomist. This is how we arrive at the cheese factory, nearby, the shepherd has taken the sheep out, they deliver 1.5 liters of milk per day.

Paqui Cruz, the master cheesemaker, divides a Gran Reserva cheese in two, winner of the 2012 World Cheese Awards, the best in the world that year. Only two Spanish cheeses have won it since the creation of the most recognized international award in 1988. All cheese must be stored in the refrigerator, do not leave it on the counter, it shortens, the fat goes rancid, explains Cruz. You have to remove it a moment before, yes. Between 20 and 23 degrees we eat it with crust and everything, it’s natural. Slowly, it stings a little, it’s buttery, it lasts a long time in the mouth, you salivate, you have to turn it over like candy, from one cheek to the other, a little triangle goes a long way. At the exit, the car crosses a 19th century wall which encloses part of the property. People in the area were responsible for earning a daily wage during times of famine, Malabia recalls.

— It was an express visit, it takes at least three or four hours. You have to go back.