Imagine a palace of the end of the 17th century on a small mountain, a three-story building intact, but renovated. Two giant olive presses in a restaurant, and many furnishings for at least a hundred years. Unlike the collection of the artist David Stein, beautifully hanging between the blue curtains of blue at 20 feet in the upper corridor, there are several works by Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. The favorite of many is the warble of miners, the warhol of Jane Fonda.
We arrived here, one of the most colorful luxury hotels in Spain, and exhaled at first sight. From the village of Puigpunyent you look at the palace, its exterior is typical Majors terracotta clay, church bell, suspended above its roof. When you drive up, you see immaculate gardens with topiary and olive trees, one of which is believed to be 2,000 years old. (Actually there are 104 trees, but not all that is old, of course, and David Stein offers them for adoption - the lucky ones are invited to help trim, select and press in accordance with the requirements of the season.)
You enter the original room with toys for nineteenth-century children on the floor next to the computer for visiting cards for guests - although the entire property is wireless, good for laptop owners. All 24 rooms also feature Frette linens, Zen Zone toiletries, minibars and safes. The favorites are Royal Suite and 22, both of which have large private terraces looking at the treetops, and 21 for their four-story poster. We were actually in '41, fully reached by an external staircase and perfect for complete privacy, overlooking the bush to distant mountains.
Typical days here are passing so fast. Nobody gets up early, so breakfast will be around nine, on the terrace outside the restaurant, where a buffet between olive presses offers orange juice in the fields around, as well as island jams and delicious hot buns. Then came the pool or pools. At the top level there is a delightful pool of 30 yards, skillfully with one deep side and not a deep end, so that you can swim at serious lengths.
On the lower level, looking into the gardens, there are two small pools with built-in fountains. On both levels there are separate cabins for boars, green greens, as well as all the furniture from the round pool. A copper plate with the number of your room says which boar belongs to you (note the numbers from two to seven, the top level, electrical sockets and wireless). Concierge Pool Louis, a real comedian, first comes with fruit kebabs, and then with a fruit and vegetable cocktail.
Dinner, on the other terrace, can be decorated with cod and salad. After the necessary siesta, we took two hotel bikes - only the rear wheels - for a ride, which required due to the steep local landscape. We did not need a gym or a massage, as there was enough other swimming. Before dinner, people gather on one of the terraces or in one of the many cozy corners inside, and the bartender miraculously found you wherever you are. The dinner menu is hot on fish, and the local specialty, the baby sucking pig, served here as a square club wrapped in crispy crackle, with perfect jus around.
There are so many happy memories. I would not copy Oprah, but I have to admit that I wish for three sculptures by Ben Jakober. In the restaurant, the screen consists of a rack of 21 standing knives, each two meters in height, and next to it is a transparent box of 13 forks, a little smaller and laid under distorted corners. And when we left Son Net, I looked at the spoons of Jakober, sometimes six giant spoons, which were part of a two-meter-high working fountain in a decorative pond. This place is a lot of fun, old and new.
