Getaway to Anoia: From underground to outer space

If you’re interested in eating at a typical Spanish roast house, El Abuelo in Igualada is the place for you. The quality of their wood fire–grilled dishes and the raw materials that go into them has won them plenty of accolades, and the restaurant is also well known for its extensive variety of 'tortillas' (omelettes) – more than 40 types. Meat lovers will especially appreciate the roasted suckling pig, though its long cooking time means that it must be ordered in advance.

As its name suggests ('conill' means rabbit) this place serves excellent rabbit dishes, but that’s not all, and even seafood dishes have their place on the menu here, including cuttlefish meatballs with and prawns with cuttlefish ink. However, the dishes that have won awards are the cannelloni, pigs’ trotters with prunes and pine kernels, and the shoulder of rabbit. More than 100 years of history endorse the good work of this well-known restaurant in Capellades.

The restaurant at Hotel Robert is located at the foot of the mountain top village of La Pobla de Claramunt, which is crowned by a magnificent castle. It makes for a great outing so better fill up first with this restaurant’s exquisite stuffed onions or equally excellent duck with turnips. Top quality Catalan cuisine.

Following the completion of the building work on the dual carriageway between Barcelona and Lleida, this restaurant has lost the privilege of lying practically equidistant between the two cities and therefore being an almost obligatory port of call for drivers looking for breakfast, lunch or dinner. But it’s still worth coming here for its traditional and more daring dishes that are inspired by Mediterranean cuisine. Rooms are also available.

Tracing its origins back to 1949 and located in the industrial heritage Rec neighbourhood, the Igualada leather museum was first opened in the 1990s in the old 19th-century Cal Boyer cotton factory. It offers four circuits: 'Man and water', 'From the pit to the pumps', 'Leather in history' and 'The world of leather'. The other centre is set in the old 18th-century Cal Granotes tannery, where you can learn everything about the tanning process in the preindustrial era.

A popular destination for school trips and attracting more than 30,000 people every year, the Capellades Paper Mill Museum is also worth visiting for adults. Inaugurated in 1961 in one of the town’s seventh-century mills, the museum has a collection illustrating seven centuries of paper production and culture through visits and workshops. The mill still generates half of its income from the sale of paper made using traditional techniques.

Rather than amenities, castles are monuments, and this is one of 13 castles run by the History Museum of Catalonia. With more than 1,000 years of history, Claramunt Castle is one of the icons of the region, one of the most spectacular forts in the country and the main attraction of the region’s Border Castle Trail. Access is on foot, but the 25-minute walk to the top of the hill will be well-rewarded. The trail also includes the castles of Òdena, Tossa, Miralles and Vilademàger.