HEADY in HONG KONG

1 Oct

Fragrant stopover from Spain to Australia

IT’S ALWAYS so unkind. There you are, having just negotiated the increasingly stringent security measures − clumsily removing your shoes and belt as you simultaneously try to find that elusive plastic bag at the bottom of the rucksack (discovering that the bottle of Listerine is more than 100ml anyway and consequently destined for the rubbish bin), emptying your pockets, waiting for the laptop to crank up, and being submitted to a meticulous (a bit too meticulous, that one in London) touch search after a fraught journey from Málaga via Madrid − and you finally enter the 747 en route to Australia.

SOZZLED in SOMONTANO

1 Jul

Nature, art, robust cuisine – and fine wine

By THE SMOKED SALMON SOCIALIST

THE TONE of the rather daunting schedule which lay before us was set as soon as our group of journalists set foot outside El Prat airport in Barcelona. “Okay, first we need a pit stop for beer,” it was explained to the bus driver. “And in the meantime we’ll think about lunch.”

somontano 7

The crucial matter of beer was resolved at the first petrol station (one of the wonderful aspects of living in Spain, though Brussels’ PC guardians will no doubt soon also put an end to that), and half an hour later our bus pulled into the car park of the Hostal del Carme in Vilagrassa (Lleida) for a lunch fit for, well…hungry journalists. […]