Win a Luxury Short Break in Spain, with the Hostal De La Gavina

The winner and guest will stay for three nights, B&B, at the Hostal de la Gavina on the Costa Brava. Opened in the 1930s, the hotel has long been a bastion of old-world Spanish elegance; interiors feature Murano glass lamps, Sèvres vases and Bargueño desks from the 17th century. Former guests include Jack Nicholson, Elizabeth Taylor and the Spanish royal family.

Set in verdant gardens, the hotel has 74 rooms and suites, three restaurants, a seawater pool and the Spa by Valmont, with treatment rooms that overlook the Bay of St Pol. The tranquil tip of the Punta d’en Pau peninsula is near by. For details see https://www.lagavina.com/.

As well as one dinner for two (excluding wine) and two spa treatments, the prize includes return economy-class flights between London and Barcelona and a hire car courtesy of Kirker Holidays — call 020 7593 2288 or see https://www.kirkerholidays.com/ for more on its luxury short breaks, music holidays and cultural tours. The prize must be taken in the periods April 18-June 15 or September 12-October 30, 2022, subject to availability.

The prize is open to UK residents only, and at least one member of the travelling party must be over 18 years of age.

Where Was I?

We were standing by the Alps. “Did you know that Franz Klammer once skied here?” Friend asked. I didn’t, but it made sense, given what had opened on the slope next to us in the late 1980s. Pity it had long since closed. Briefer still was the life of the Vietnamese city that had stood near by. But that was understandable too — it had been caught up in a terrible war.

What made less sense — to me at least — was Friend’s insistence we head two miles west-southwest to an unconventional crossing, opened in 2012. Surely we should see three enormous feats of engineering a mile south instead. I was hoping to try another sport there that has brought the Brits lots more success than ski racing. Even if we couldn’t, the long perspectives would make it a lovely spot for a picnic lunch.

Reluctantly Friend agreed, but only if he could see a piece of infrastructure at the eastern end of this vast, repurposed facility — named after a second sportsman with several more Olympic golds to his name than Klammer. But when we got there he took exception to the intermittent noise from a fourth, more modern feat of engineering on the southern edge of the facility.

He was at least relieved that we couldn’t try the sport now practised here. So we watched others train instead. “Good job they didn’t let us on one of those things,” he noted sourly between mouthfuls of Cox’s orange pippin. “We’d have looked a right pair.”

“Come off it,” I countered. “We’d have been awesome!”

— Sean Newsom