The Hotel that got Away: Moli del Mig

I am on my honeymoon right now which is why my posts have been a bit more sporadic, but thought I would write a quick post about a spectacular hotel that got away….

I love the hunt for hotels when prepping for a vacation or travel as I consider hotels to be an important component of my stay.  While I do not spend every waking hour in the building, I appreciate a well designed, well thought out space with excellent customer service, unique design touches and a solid breakfast.  Over the past week and a half, I have stayed in some pretty spectacular properties all over the spectrum ranging from mountain lodge, vineyard, castle, city hotel and rustic house.  However, while flipping through some old issues of Conde Nast Traveler, I found out about a hotel that was no more than 10 minutes away from where I am currently staying that I am disappointed I didn’t find earlier!

Moli Del Mig is a boutique hotel located in Torroella de Montgri, (Girona) Spain and was converted from a mill into a hotel in 2006.  Since it was a conversion, half of the hotel is located in the old mill that has been restored, and the other half is located in the newly built section.  The interior has a rustic, yet modern feel with a lot of exposed brick, unfinished wood beams, large glass windows looking out over the property, steel and concrete.  It is not overly dressed up with furniture or art, just simple statement pieces of furniture sporadically placed here and there.  The hotel itself is located in a rather remote feeling area.  It is located just outside the town of Torroella de Montgri in the middle of a farm area with bamboo,  corn fields and apple trees in the adjacent properties.

Moli Del Mig also has a spa and a phenomenal restaurant that my husband and I dined at for lunch.  Since it is moving into off season, we were the only ones in the restaurant for lunch today, but what a lunch it was.  I will blog about the meal in the next two weeks when I have better access to technology but I will say that the tuna I had will go down as some of the best tuna I have ever had.  In the mean time…. I would have loved to stay at this property had I known about it before when I was making my travel plans.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Radio

Like any other passionate traveler, I have a long list of cities to cross off my wish list. One of the cities I was most looking forward to visiting while living in Europe is Copenhagen.  My husband and I planned a birthday weekend get-away in October and I am thrilled.

Since I have never been to any Scandinavian country, I can’t tell you exactly what I am attracted to, but from everything I have read and seen, Copenhagen to me represents the best of design, nature and food all rolled into one.

I am most looking forward to visiting this restaurant: Radio

The restaurant owns two acres of land where they grow vegetables for the restaurant.  The interior is modern but still reflects the natural simplicity that is associated with Scandinavian design.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Bistro Franz

If you have been to the Czech Republic as a tourist, Brno, the second largest city in the country, is most likely a city you have never visited.  Perhaps you recognize the name as a city you passed on route to Vienna or Mikulov (the Moravian wine region in the south), but not as a city you spent time in and visited.

I don’t know why Brno is passed over time and time again, but if more spots like Bistro Franz open up, which serves seasonal dishes made with local and organic  ingredients from local suppliers, it may give tourists and design-conscious-Prager-foodies a reason to get in the car and drive the hour and a half to visit.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

I for one, now have this spot on my radar.  I will follow up when I go visit and taste test in person. Did I mention this place serves brunch on the weekends including porridge, scrambled organic eggs, and pancakes?

Antimultivitamin for Red Pif

Design worlds are colliding!  One of my favourite artists/illustrators in Prague, Antimultivitamin, whose work I saw at last year’s at Design Supermarket, designed the logo for a wine bar I love in the city called Red Pif.  If you haven’t been, Red Pif is the wine bar in Prague 1 that has massive window shutters that look like wine bottles (you can see in the illustration below what I am referring to).  The restaurant and bar has a beautiful interior and an impressive looking wall-of-wine.

Photo Source: Antimultivitamin

This year, Design Supermarket returns to Prague December 5th-9th.  I can’t wait to see what new, local designers I discover this time round.

Somewhere in Provence

I am somewhere in Provence today hopefully visiting this “quaint” place: Comptoir Loranger

Photo Sources: 1, 2-3