Valencia, more than just oranges!

Day 460 (15/7/09) Steps 20291
Early start, we packed up of gear and headed to the bus station, feeling slightly worse for wear following perhaps a little too much brandy in our sangria. We boarded to Valencia with Chris and were all asleep before we had left the city making our trip seem significanty shorter! We arrived in Valencia and having picked out a campsite (recommended by Rough Guide) we opted for a taxi. We arrived at Devesa Gardens and were immediately disappointed with our barren camp ground in the middle of no where, particuarly after passing some impressive camp sites on the way. After the slowest and expensive check-in on record we spent the next hour trying to set up our tent on the the rocky ground, avoided the pool you have to pay extra for and discovered there wasn't a beach in site. We finally we were set up and got the bus back into town.
First stop was the Cultural Centre a very impressive set of four buildings housing a couple museums, art centres and an aquarium. We took some pics and continued on into town on foot, in search of a bar showing the Tour de France.... mission failed. It seems the Spanish aren't at all that interested in the tour. We wandered round rather aimlessly, stumbling across the Cathedral and the Museum of Ceramics with its famous carved alabastor door frame. We picked up some drinks and snacks and made our way to the bus stop for the second last bus of the day, sprinting the last couple hundred meters but making it just in the nick of time.
Back at camp we relaxed over a couple vodka's and DJ Potter's tunes!

Day 461 Steps 19936
We headed into town to Pension Alicante a “cheap cheap" motel we had spotted the day before right in centre of old town, dark, with a strong cigarette aroma it was still better value then our camp site. We dropped of our gear and attempted to sort out some jobs on the net.
We met Potter for lunch and headed to the Irish Pub which was televising the Ashes (should have gone to the beach!!!). Arriving at lunch we relaxed with a few beers to watch the Poms power through the afternoon session, which fortunately slowed when we headed out to tour the cathedral which houses the holy grail We climbed its mighty bell tower which struck five whilst we were beneath it.... loudly!
We headed back to the pub meeting up with Bill and Sarah for the final session of the cricket, where things improved very marginally. We grabbed some dinner at Aries, a very ordinary meal (not recommened) before setting out for to take some night pics of the cultural centre, racking up 12km walk before crashing for the night.

---

---