Parador Phenomenon

Several months ago I read an item in Letters about a reader who waxed ecstatic about a certain parador she visited in Spain. The letter was so convincing that we made it a point to stay--five days--at the parador in Nerja on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. She said of all their stopovers, this was the highlight. Gross me out! The food was terrible. Both breakfast and dinner were sad, bad and unappetizing. The waitresses and maitre d’ never smiled, almost as if they felt guilty for what they were offering in the way of victuals and hospitality.

But this unsmiling demeanor was not limited to Nerja. It seemed to prevail throughout all of Spain. Have any of your other readers experienced this phenomenon?

We had previously visited England and Scotland. We had been warned not to expect much good cooking. Wrong! Some of the meals there were great and far superior to those in Spain, France or Italy. Why do you encourage tourism to those countries?

S.J. WATKINS

Mission Viejo