Blogs from Valencia, Valencian Community, Spain, Europe - page 11

Friday, July 31 After our frantic 24-hour rail journey from London to La Spezia in Italy, we were so exhausted that we slept through the noise of containers being loaded onto the ship and didn't wake until lunchtime. No doubt the crew have their own routines that shape their day but as a passenger on a freighter the day is divided into meal times and other times. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are at fixed times - miss out and you don't get to eat. Morning and afternoon tea are optional. Lunch today was: Oxtail soup / Calamari, peas and chips / Fresh fruit. It may not sound exciting, but it was freshly prepared, well presented, very tasty and more than enough to fill us up. We finally sailed at 15:00 only to anchor about a kilometre ... read more

Valencia (Valenthia) June 18, 2012 Today we departed Barcelona and headed toward Valencia, a 7 hour day on the road! Breakfast was another buffet and departure was promptly at 8:00 PM. Today our riders had a test. We were assigned seats and were introduce to the Trafalgar tradition of rotation. The first problem is, no one really checked their seat number posted on the bus door so one were sitting in the right seat, thus requiring much changing and causing much laughter. But we soon figured it out the, well most of us did anyway. In any event we finally settled in and off we were. Unfortunately, we learned that Richard had gotten sick last night. Something at dinner did not agree with Rick, so at 2AM he got sick and spent the rest of the ... read more

Makeout Queens and Kings Valencia is a beautiful city. I must admit after spending four days here, I think I like it better than Barcelona. It has such a wonderful feel to it, with lots of delicious Paella Valenciana, stunning architecture, friendly locals, a lovely beach, and the most amazing park. I would move here in a heartbeat. There are so many people out with their dogs every single day so I really do believe that my dog Bill would be happy here too. Oh and Lee, there is the coolest park ever to go running through :) We arrived in Valencia right after the famous fire festival called Las Fallas. The festival is held in commemoration of St Joseph. Each neighborhood is responsible for creating their own falla which is then burnt out in the ... read more

30 OCTOBER - MADRID Landed in Madrid from Dublin on Sunday. Glad to see a bit of sunshine. Due to our amount of luggage, had to take a taxi to our hotel. After arriving, discovered that there was no lift (elevator). UGH!! So, up we went, 3 floors. In Europe they consider the ground floor as 0, and we were on the 2nd floor. Checked in and waited for Wolfi to arrive. He was one of the exchange students (from Germany) who lived with us in PA. He had arrived Saturday and was quite energized by the city. I can see why. He was very happy to show us around a bit as we walked around and got our bearings. Went out for tapas and drinks to plan what we would do. The Spanish do love ... read more

Note: All the events mentioned in this entry occurred back in April 17, 2007. For more updated entries and trips, please refer back to this blog at a later date. An updated trip or entry will NOT include a note like this. Thanks and enjoy! Before traveling to Spain, even to the European continent, I knew one of the sites I just had to see was L'Oceanografic at La Ciudad de Artes y Las Ciencias after watching a program about it on the Travel Channel. I have always loved aquariums, even when I was a child because I loved to learn about whales and dolphins. I wanted to become a marine biologist and/or an animal trainer (and I will admit secretly I wouldn't mind becoming one if I had a chance to change careers) therefore I ... read more