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Published: June 10th 2023
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The restrooms at the Coves de Sant JosepWe woke up earlier today because we had tickets for the Coves de Sant Josep tour and we had to be at the pickup point by 8:20am. We'd asked the hotel staff to order us a taxi for 8am. We got downstairs with plenty of time to spare, and the taxi showed up a few minutes early too. Arriving at the pickup point, we sort of wandered around a bit, making sure we were in the right place, since there were no signs. We noticed a few other people sort of waiting for something, and sure enough, they too were taking the tour also. The bus arrived ontime and away we went, the bus pretty well loaded. It was quite a long trip and one of the guides told us all along the way about history and the various places we passed. We made it to the caves arond 9:45 and the guides asked us to wait for about 15 to 20 minutes so they could get our tickets. A lot of us used the restrooms and sat at the bar for a coffee. It ended up that we were in the first of two groups, and the guide took us
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The Tapas & Tapones Cafe for coffee con leche into the entry, which was a short walk to a fairly small boat. On the way in, it was pretty dark, and I didn't see the low ceiling, and smacked my head pretty hard. I fell to the ground and took a few seconds to get up, while everyone around me was worried about me. I shook it off and told my wife and others that I was fine. We continued to the boat and we all sat down. Sitting there for a few minutes, Manoli started getting nervous, since she was claustrophobic and from what she could see it was going to be a pretty closed off ride. After I tried to calm her, the boat guide got involved, understanding her problem and recommended that she didn't go. That was all Manoli needed, so she got out of the boat and headed back to the open area outside. Oh well, I knew about her problem, but I'd hoped she'd gotten over it. I guess people never "get over it".
We started our "cruise", heading down the river thru the caves. It was pretty fascinating, with a lot of interesting nooks and crannies. After a while, we pulled up
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Stalactites in the entry to the caves to a dock and everyone got out for a walk thru the next part. That was even more interesting. After a while, we reached another dock (I guess the boat went a different route, since they were on the river and we were walking. Maybe the section the boat went thru was too narrow or low. Anyways, our boat picked us up and we rode the boat back to the original dock, but first, they gave us a light show, with music. That was really cool. After that, we got to the dock, climbed out, and returned outside, where I found my wife. We had to wait a while for the 2nd part of our group to finsih their tour, then we got back on the bus for the ride back to Valencia. They cut down the pickup points, but the one we got one was still on, so when we got off the bus, we decided to walk around the very modern looking museums for a while. We asked someone where to get a bus to take us back to the Estacion del Norte, found it, and soon our bus came. We rode the bus back and found a
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Another shot in the cave entrance place to eat, called Ioa, that served paella, so we stopped there. We order a serving of valencian paella, which turned out to be very large, but very good. I almost finished my big plate.
Since it wasn't late yet, we decided to walk up the street to the Torres Quart, another set of towers like the ones we saw yesterday, but those we'd passed on since we'd just finished walking the 200 steps of the Miguelete Tower. This tower was pretty much just as cool, so we paid our entry of 1.50 EU and started climbing. We finally made it to the top for some spectacular views. Afterwards, we continued towards the Estacion del Norte. We tried to get our train tickets for tomorrow to Alicante, but they insisted on passports, and told us we could purchase them online. Oh well, I guess they aren't that friendly to Americans. I don't remember having to have passports on previous trips. Anyways, we took the train back to our hotel, after a long walk again from the Alfafar station, stopping along the way at Burger King for dinner. We had the hotel call for a taxi the next day to
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A shot over the heads in front of me, boarding the boat the Estacion del Norte, then settled in our room to watch TV and work on my blog.
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