Tag: Valencia

October 23, 2018 Valencia SP

Today we wanted to see the new part of Valencia.  At some point recently the residents of the city rerouted the river that used to run thru the center of the city to prevent flooding.  This opened up the old river bed for development which they turned into a giant park thru the city center.

At one end they have constructed some very monumental buildings with a very modern design.  This area of development is the largest in Europe of it’s type.  The main buildings are an opera house, a science museum, an Imax theater, and an aquarium. They are tied together with large walkways and fountains.  It is an immense development and quite striking.  The opera house in particular impressed us with its design.

The opera house in the background and the Imax theater in the foreground.
It is an impressive complex, reflecting pond in front of the Science Museum.

It was quite a walk there, and eventually we tried to take a bus, Ron spent quite a while trying to sort out how the bus system worked.  We did eventually work it out, but had an issue when we found out that the bus drivers would not make change for €20 note.  We emptied our pockets but were about 40 cents short of the €3 we need.  Luckily a lady in one of the seats saw this ordeal and handed us 2 10’s for our 20, everyone was happy.  Another good person doing a good deed for complete strangers, we find this happens far more often than the opposite.

Having walked quite a distance we headed back to our campsite.  We met Pat and Jessie for another couple of drinks.  We are hoping we meet them again in a few years in the US so we can repay some of their kindness to us.

October 22, 2018 Valencia SP

Our campsite is located outside of Valencia about 40 minutes by train.  Ton has been looking forward to Valencia for a couple of days particularly the market which is the largest in Europe.  The downtown has a new and old feel simultaneously that we liked.  Once again the old town is great for walking with very few cars in it.  

A gargoyle on one of the old churches.

We started at the market which is immense.  It is an old iron building which seems to have been popular for markets in Spain and France during the late 1800’s.  We spent quite a bit of time just walking from stall to stall enjoying the sights and smells of the different foods. We ended up buying some spices at one of the stalls.  

A whole piglet for sale in one of the meat shops.
Some of the spices Ton bought.

After shopping was done we decided to have a Spanish specialty that we had been seeing, Churros and Chocolate.  We found a street food stall that was highly recommended by the spice lady in the market.  It was an interesting variation of the churros we have in the US and Mexico. The churros are designed to be dipped in the chocolate, and the chocolate is quite a bit thicker than we serve it at home.  They were delicious.

We then walked around the old town and took some pictures of the usual suspects.  Valencia has a nice large cathedral, but they were charging an admission fee so we passed.  We also looked at a couple of nice churches and some remnants of the old fortifications.  

The symbol of Valencia is a bat.  This is from the city hall.

Having walked around a bit we decided it was time to have some Paella.  Valencia has its own version of Paella that includes chicken, rabbit and chick peas. We wandered past 15 or 20 restaurants before settling on a place. We did good in picking the restaurant, there was some confusion as we understood that we would get to pick a first course each from a list of 3 first courses, and one of the main courses.  We had decided to go with a seafood paella and a Valencia paella for the main course, but when Ron went to pick the 1st courses  the guy explained in his best English that we did not get to pick.  We were a little confused until he brought out all three 1st courses, we did not get to pick because we got them all.  By the time we were done we were completely stuffed.

On the way to Valencia we had met an English couple Patrick and Jessie.  They had given us some good tips.  We happened to meet them walking back to the campground, and ended up joining them for drinks at the campground bar.  One thing led to another and we ended up in their RV where they filled our brains with information about Spain, and Ron tried to convince them to come to the US for a vacation.  It was a great way to end a good day.

August 21, 2018 Valencia SP

After a night of sleeping in howling winds and a couple of showers we began to feel for the first time that time was against us.  Since the weather was supposed to be similar to yesterday we decided to spend the day driving.  We want to visit Valencia and Barcelona before we leave Spain so we decided to make the leap to Valencia.  Today we covered nearly 450 km’s which is the longest drive we have ever taken in Europe.

Even though we were on the equivalent of an interstate, there were interesting forts periodically along the way.

The roads were good so we made the drive in a little over 5 hours.  Since it was Sunday we did not have many options for going out, so we just hunkered down.  While taking an evening walk we ran into another British guy who was full timing.  We had a nice talk with him, and received some tips for the next trip.

When we left it felt like we had more than enough time to see all of Spain.  Now we are in the position of having to make hard choices about what to see and we feel like we are  missing out on some good places.

Valencia is famous for it’s Oranges, and we passed miles of orange trees along the way.

October 23, 2018 Valencia SP

Today we wanted to see the new part of Valencia.  At some point recently the residents of the city rerouted the river that used to run thru the center of the city to prevent flooding.  This opened up the old river bed for development which they turned into a giant park thru the city center.

At one end they have constructed some very monumental buildings with a very modern design.  This area of development is the largest in Europe of it’s type.  The main buildings are an opera house, a science museum, an Imax theater, and an aquarium. They are tied together with large walkways and fountains.  It is an immense development and quite striking.  The opera house in particular impressed us with it’s design.

The opera house in the background and the Imax theatre in the foreground.
It is an impressive complex, reflecting pond in front of the Science Museum.

It was quite a walk there, and eventually we tried to take a bus, Ron spent quite a while trying to sort out how the bus system worked.  We did eventually work it out, but had an issue when we found out that the bus drivers would not make change for €20 note.  We emptied our pockets but were about 40 cents of the €3 we need.  Luckily a lady in one of the seats saw this ordeal and handed us 2 10’s for our 20, everyone was happy.  Another good person doing a good deed for complete strangers, we find this happens far more often than the opposite.

Having walked quite a distance we headed back to our campsite.  We met Pat and Jessie for another couple of drinks.  We are hoping we meet them again in a few years in the US so we can repay some of their kindness to us.

October 22, 2018 Valencia SP

Our campsite is located outside of Valencia about 40 minutes by train.  Ton has been looking forward to Valencia for a couple of days particularly the market which is the largest in Europe.  The downtown has a new and old feel simultaneously that we liked.  Once again the old town is great for walking with very few cars in it.  

A gargoyle on one of the old churches.

We started at the market which is immense.  It is an old iron building which seems to have been popular for markets in Spain and France during the late 1800’s.  We spent quite a bit of time just walking from stall to stall enjoying the sights and smells of the different foods. We ended up buying some spices at one of the stalls.  

A whole piglet for sale in one of the meat shops.
Some of the spices Ton bought.

After shopping was done we decided to have a Spanish specialty that we had been seeing, Churro’s and Chocolate.  We found a street food stall that was highly recommended by the spice lady in the market.  It was an interesting variation of the churro’s we have in the US and Mexico. The churros are designed to be dipped in the chocolate, and the chocolate is quite a bit thicker than we serve it at home.  They were delicious.

We then walked around the old town and took some pictures of the usual suspects.  Valencia has a nice large cathedral, but they were charging an admission fee so we passed.  We also looked at a couple of nice churches and some remnants of the old fortifications.  

The symbol of Valencia is a bat.  This is from the city hall.

Having walked around a bit we decided it was time to have some Paella.  Valencia has its own version of Paella that includes chicken, rabbit and chick peas. We wandered past 15 or 20 restaurants before settling on a place. We did good in picking the restaurant, there was some confusion as we understood that we would get to pick a first course each from a list of 3 first courses, and one of the main courses.  We had decided to go with a seafood paella and a Valencia paella for the main course, but when Ron went to pick the 1st courses  the guy explained in his best English that we did not get to pick.  We were a little confused until he brought out all three 1st courses, we did not get to pick because we got them all.  By the time we were done we were completely stuffed.

On the way to Valencia we had met an English couple Patrick and Jessie.  They had given us some good tips.  We happened to meet them walking back to the campground, and ended up joining them for drinks at the campground bar.  One thing led to another and we ended up in their RV where they filled our brains with information about Spain, and Ron tried to convince them to come to the US for a vacation.  It was a great way to end a good day.

October 21, 2018 Valencia SP

After a night of sleeping in howling winds and a couple of showers we began to feel for the first time that time was against us.  Since the weather was supposed to be similar to yesterday we decided to spend the day driving.  We want to visit Valencia and Barcelona before we leave Spain so we decided to make the leap to Valencia.  Today we covered nearly 450 km’s which is the longest drive we have ever taken in Europe.

Even though we were on the equivalent of an interstate, there were interesting forts periodically along the way.

The roads were good so we made the drive in a little over 5 hours.  Since it was Sunday we did not have many options for going out, so we just hunkered down.  While taking an evening walk we ran into another British guy who was full timing.  We had a nice talk with him, and received some tips for the next trip.

When we left it felt like we had more than enough time to see all of Spain.  Now we are in the position of having to make hard choices about what to see and we feel like we are  missing out on some good places.

Valencia is famous for it’s Oranges, and we passed miles of orange trees along the way.