Valencia: the end of the trip

Sunday, 25 November (continued)
We walked on up into some of the squares and wandered around, as you do, milling about with the crowds and absorbing the laid-back Sunday atmosphere on what was, frankly, a fucking glorious late-November day.

Ultimately our goal today would be to get to the Oceanografíc, a massive aquarium complex within the City of Arts & Sciences, but there was more uncharted ground to cover in the main city beforehand.

This first video is a portrait of the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, a most incredible building in the heart of Valencia. Look out for Red swiftly removing her hands from the facade when told "Non tocar!" by the guard. An hour later, he was gone. If we had so desired we could have touched it to our heart's content.



And here's the last one... for now... The snack we stopped for at the beginning was orxata (aka horchata) for me, a local artisanal cold drink, and hot chocolate -- no, the thickest, chocolatiest hot chocolate in Christendom... literally melted chocolate, I think -- for Red. We each had our own dunking things, too. I finished every last bit of my deliciousness; Red, not so much.

Then dancing people in the square, in "traditional" dress -- so that's where they were going, those folks I mentioned in my previous post! And then, what's that? Shiiiit, ruins of the old city... underwater! How damn cool is that?!



3:45pm-ish
After a lot more walking, we stopped for lunch at the most delicious steakhouse. The front-of-house woman was Italian, so she was able to tell us what was good and stuff! Really great food, even though neither of us was convinced we really wanted a steak, but it was about 3:45pm by now, and all the restaurants in Valencia close no later than 4pm, and many seemed not even to open on a Sunday. We had to take our food where we could find it!

Next up, we grabbed a cab to the Oceanografíc. At some point in the not-too-distant future I will go through that material, too, and post some clips of dolphins and penguins and seals, oh my. There's also some footage of the city by night that's quite cute. But for now, with the festive season right upon us and other things to move on to, it's hasta luego, Valencia. It was a fun ride!

Intermission over: Back to Valencia

Saturday, 24 November (still...)
So after our huge walk down to the port, we had to wait for the America's Cup store to open. And when it did, unfortunately we were unable to buy what Red had wanted for her mother. So while the walk had been for nowt, it had still been a fun one! We looked out for a cab and headed back to the hotel room.

At the time Red was looking at possible hotels, she had read that this one had, in some rooms, only a window separating the bedroom from the bathroom. This sounded like great fun, perv that I am, so we really hoped we got one of those. And we did! It was cool and wacky!

We chilled and nursed our blistered feet before heading our for some food. My tattooist Xam is from around Valencia, and so I had asked him if he could recommend any good restaurants. He had given me a couple of names, one of which is apparently frequented by Spanish stars and royalty. We had to give it a go. So we headed out into the night. We wanted to explore some of the busy streets by night before eating, and we also had to stop in at an Internet cafe to check in online for our return flight.

Once we decided it was time to eat, we got a taxi. It took us all the way back to the port area, but only when we got there did we discover that the restaurant was closed for the season. Fortunately, just a few doors away was the other restaurant that had been recommended.

We sat and ordered food, wine, and water. We were ravenous. We'd not eaten since a small bite at 1pm, and it was now about 9pm if memory serves. The chances are that it was probably later because the restaurant had quite a few people in it, and people eat late in Spain. (When we were in Seville, we found this great steak restaurant. We went there at gone 9pm one night and were the only people there. It started getting busier as we were about to leave. Can you imagine eating a steak at 11pm?! Amazing...)

We ordered paella -- what else, since Valencia is the home of the dish? I must say, I enjoyed mine. Red was a little less convinced. We have an ongoing beef about paella since her birthday in Seville. I won't go into it, save to say that perhaps I made a mistake that we both ended up paying for. Sorry, pet. Kisses!

After dinner, we looked for a cab and headed back to the hotel, I think. We were shattered, and I was probably a bit tipsy, so my memory is unclear now!

---------------------

Sunday, 25 November
Next day we breakfasted fairly early so we could get out and pound the streets some more. We both love getting away from our desks, of course, and we love both beach and city breaks. But when we do city breaks, fuck do we do 'em! I mean, we walk our motherfucking feet off. You've got to, though, right? It might be the only time you go to a particular city, so you need to have no regrets about missing anything.

We headed into the old town area and walked the squares and looked at fountains and stuff. Just walking fairly directionless, letting the city be our guide. Well, letting the city and the guide book be our guides. And the map.

We found some crazy dogs playing in the streets. And then some men and women in "traditional" Spanish dress. By traditional, I mean, old-school, dancey, traditional, cos at the end of the day, traditional dress for everyone these days is jeans, T-shirts, jumpers, of course.

Then we stumbled upon a street where everyone was congregating. It was mayhem. Old and young, male and female. What was going on? we wondered. You know what it was...? Trading cards. Everyone was going crazy buying and swapping football cards. Incredible...

Here's the video of this leg of our journey.

Weekend diary, part 4

Saturday, 24 November (It just keeps on giving, right?)
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we bumped into some more lost tourists on our way from the City of Arts & Sciences... Well, we teamed up with the four of them to find our mutual end destination: the port.

We doubled back on ourselves and, rather than walking all the way back to the Ciutat, we chucked a right, down what looked like a semi-residential area. We walked to the end, which was only a couple hundred metres, and found ourselves at the river. Instinct (with a face all screwed up like George's in Elaine's clasp) told us to go right, along a trail of dirt and bare grass, heading towards the railway bridge that spanned the river. We could see from our map that this was the right general direction. But this was most definitely not the right tourist way.

Then we saw a man stepping down off the railway bridge. "Well, he must've crossed it," we say to ourselves, "so it must lead somewhere." We continue. As the man approached us obvious tourists, one of our number still wheeling her suitcase over the great mounds of dirt, he appeared to have a wry smile on his face...

We got to the bridge and realized it was a pretty crappy affair, certainly not likely to be the major river crossing we were hoping for. Still, it was wide enough for us to walk down without fear for our lives, so we did.

The interesting part was when we got to the other end. Y'see... there was no exit point. The bridge ended, and our way was blocked by a fence. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we were fenced in like half a dozen wild animals. Caged in our prime. Well, there was nothing else for it, of course, but to climb...

After our climbing adventure we continued to walk. We passed the place where refrigerators go to die and we threw a right at the next road junction. At this point our merry group splintered. Suitcase Lady, it turns out, was not with the rest of them, and she trucked on alone. Red is a fast walker, so she trotted on ahead while I chased after her coat-tails, and the other three held back to check their own maps rather than be dragged into the Great Unknown by us crazed Ingle types.

But we were right, and as quick as a very very slow flash or quite a quick tortoiose we were at the port. Well, it probably took the best part of another 45 minutes, past various abandoned cars, and more fences where building work was going on, until finally, FINALLY we got to the port, where a guy was offering boat tours around part of the America's Cup course. We declined. By this time, it was about 3:50pm, we'd been awake for about 11 hours, and we wanted to get into the America's Cup shop and buy something for the mother-in-law and get back to the hotel room that we still hadn't even seen...!

Here's the video of these stages of our misadventures:

Weekend diary, part 3

Saturday, 24 November (continued, still)

Not so much to read this time around, but a couple of videos to watch.

The first is yet more walking. We did a lot of that, did I mention? This time through the lovely Turia Park.

The second video is from the jaw-dropping City of Arts & Sciences, just wandering around leisurely.

I love the sounds on both of these video clips, just stuff and sometimes chit chat and sometimes industrial clanging or children shouting. But sometimes just an incredible silence that is almost unfathomable in the middle of a huge city. Wonderful.

Thanks for watching. And have a great weekend.

Weekend diary, part 2

Saturday, 24 November (continued)
So to get to the big, long park, we first had to walk down a big, wide street. But this big, wide street was super-groovy, cos it had a big, wide walkway running down the middle of it -- kind of like a mini-park in its own right. People were out walking their dogs, couples were canoodling by their cars, and the occasional tramp was sitting on a bench with his shopping cart of worldly possessions next to him.

We walked past a cool tree, which looked like it was straight out of Pan's Labyrinth, too. Here's some video of this bit of the walk, including the tree and a sneak peek at the big park below us at the end of the clip.



So then we climbed down some steps into the park, and it was coooooool, like I said yesterday. And we walked and walked. We wanted to walk to the City of Arts & Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava. We didn't realize how far it was. It looked quite near on the map!

But eventually we spotted a bit of the famous architecture, rising up from the horizon, and this spurred us on. We had flown in over the complex, and it looked amazing from the air. We simply had to go there. We walked and walked some more.

Finally we hit a fence. We could see where we wanted to be on the other side, but there was no direct route. So we followed the fence around, hoping it would eventually lead us to an entrance of sorts. And it did. But this was our first real sense of how much building work is still ongoing in Valencia. It is Spain's third-largest city, and yet it is still relatively undiscovered (save for the America's Cup being held there earlier this year). As a result of this newfound interest in the city, it seems there is a push to make it as tourist friendly as possible as quickly as possible.

Once outside the Ciutat, we sat a while and took some photos, then walked around the complex a little, down as far as the Oceanogràfic, which is an enooooormous aquarium type thing. We wanted to see how much it cost to get in and what the opening hours were for the Sunday, which we did.

But we had walked a long way from the hotel, and we knew we had to get back eventually. First, though, Red was keen to make our way to the Shop of the America's Cup, down in the port, in the hopes of buying a little something for her mum. So, off we set, following our trusty map. We came out from the Oceanogràfic and chucked a left. It looked a bit ... undeveloped ... but that's all good. We walked past some tourists on a corner who looked lost. But we had our map and we rounded the corner, only to find there was nowhere to go.

We doubled back and asked the tourists if they were looking for the port, too. They were. The six of us were now on a combined mission...

Weekend diary

Saturday, 24 November
I would say the alarm woke us at 4am, but in truth neither the wife nor I had had much sleep. This all goes back to the problem we are having with Cat as a result of a problem with the neighbours' cat. Say no more. By the time we have risen, showered, dressed, breakfasted etc, it is 5am and we are officially running late. We get in the car and drive to the airport. Fuck, it's cold! I mean, really cold. Even after driving for 40 minutes, more than halfway to the airport, with the heating running, we are still both freezing. Brrrrrrrr. Of course, we get to the airport in time, not great time, but in time. Blah blah blah plane, blah blah take off, blah blah land.

After a two-and-a-half-hour flight, we land at Valencia airport at 11am local time, give or take a few minutes and take a cab from the airport to our hotel, the fairly recently opened Vincci Hotel on Calle de la Paz. En route, the very chatty and friendly cabbie explained how the local Valencian language, in many ways, is rather more similar to Italian than it is to Spanish. Cool. On arrival at the hotel, at about 11:45, we discover (as suspected) that we cannot check in until after 2pm. We leave most of our bags and stuff and set off for a bite to eat.

We are ravenous, but we know from our Seville experience in January that Spaniards keep crazy time as regards eating. We eventually find a little tapas bar on, Plaza del Ayuntamiento, one of the main squares. The guy there tells us that they only serve seafood tapas. Although that's fine for us, I can't help suspecting, by the way he seems to say it, that many tourists don't like seafood. But then this is a port town, so seafood ought to be expected, no? We ordered a half-portion each of prawns and squid rings, with a pair of beers to wash it all down. The first few mouthfuls were great, but after a while it became a bit much. Deep-fried fish and beer on empty stomachs = not ideal. Oh well. We ate what we could and moved on.

We decided to head towards the park area via some other bits of the city, such as the Estació del Nord and some other stuff. Here's some video of the estació, which is Spanish for "station".



The park is so cool. Right through the entire length of the city, where once there was a river, there is now parkland. Some city planners thought it was a good idea back in the day, and so they diverted the flow of the river and created a wonderful public space. And all the bridges that spanned the waterway now span the park. It's so cool! Kids and dogs and buskers and tourists all just hanging out, cycling, walking, roller-blading, whatever, enjoying what was a glorious late-November afternoon.

We walked and walked and walked. And we got hot. The sun was beating down, and although we had lightened our load on arrival, my leather jacket was soon too much. At one point both the missus and I had stripped down to T-shirts, along with many others out and about. The 24th of November, and I'm in a T-shirt. Now that's what I call a rockin' good time!

More stuff later.

Did you miss me?

I suspect you didn't even notice I was gone, but on Saturday morning, Wife and I left for Spain -- Valencia, to be precise -- and now we're back. It was a short long weekend just to see a new city, and it was kind of our Christmas present to each other (well, that and a little stocking filler or two).

A lovely and completely unrelaxing relaxing time was had by us both, and more info, pics, and vids will follow.