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Published: February 28th 2010
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The Coast of Spain
We picked up the rental car in Barcelona and quickly made our way out of the city, amazingly easy I thought. We were headed to Valencia, on the water, and were hoping for some warmer weather, like our nice sunny day in Barcelona. The ride, however, was dark, grey, and rainy. I noticed two things in particular about the ride - oranges and tolls. We could see orange trees as far as the eye could see. I enjoy a good orange but I generally don’t crave oranges. Seeing as many as I did, however, I quickly informed Eric that I needed a large bag of Valencia oranges within the next few days. The other notable thing about the highway in Spain - tolls, tolls, and more tolls. Over a four hour drive we spent almost USD$40 on tolls. I certainly did not budget for that level of tolls during the time we would be spending with a rental car.
Once we exited the highway, we followed our directions to the hotel - at least we tried to. We splurged again with a points stay at the Westin Valencia and we wrote down the
Blue Skies
And beautiful architecture directions from their website. We did not have a detailed map of the city and did not have a printer to have more detailed paper directions available before we left. The directions had no left or right turns, solely “follow X road to Y road to Z road.” At first, we continued to follow the highway into the city center; I was not overly impressed with Valencia. It was grey skies as we followed what was once a river and is now a dried out river bed. There were unimpressive brick high rises along the highway as we made our way to the port and city center. It looked almost Soviet drab. We were lost as soon as we made it into the city proper. We tried to follow the directions but it was nearly impossible, even after I stopped at another hotel, received a map and directions. We had to stop and ask a police officer to finally get us straight.
We were a bit cranky when we arrived, but at least the warm welcome at reception helped. The room was nice, and warm, thank goodness. I was not feeling well waking up that morning, and the long
Eric Wearing Sunglasses
A little bit of a change during this part of our trip ride did not help. I lay down for a bit before we finally made our way out to dinner. We wanted to stay close and I did not want too much food, which worked out well because almost everything in the neighborhood was closed. It was a Saturday night, but 95%!o(MISSING)f the establishments were dark. It was about 7pm and we figured a tapas place nearby would be open, just like in Barcelona, but it was not the case. We were unsure if it was because it was Saturday or before 8pm. After we found a kebab place for a quick bite we were back to the hotel a little after 8pm, and still, nothing was open. We have a tendency to arrive in cities when they are virtually closed - this was no exception. Thus far, Valencia had not impressed us.
Sunny Sunday
We woke up Sunday to beautiful blue skies. It was warm and toasty in the sun, but still chilly in the shade. It made us consistently zip up the coat and unzip the coat. I did not mind though, because once we crossed the former river into the circle of the
Mosaics
Inside the train station city center, the architecture became increasingly more beautiful. The city was still more or less closed, with only cafes and restaurants catering to tourists open. But, as we walked through the center of the town, past the beautifully mosaic filled train station, and over to the cathedral we were awe struck with the nature of the buildings - they were stunningly well maintained with crisp paint, ornate detail, and wrote iron trim. Although a strip of parkland on the old river bed at the edge of the city center has been turned into a modern art masterpiece including groups of museums and an opera house, the center of the city preserved the history of the town. We merely wandered through the city and around the gothic neighborhood for a few hours, stopping for a café and later some awful touristy paella. For our second main meal in Valencia, I was still not impressed.
While we were in town, the America’s Cup was finishing up. We were aware it was in town, and that is why we just made an easy reservation at the Westin thinking the city would be crazy packed. I know absolutely nothing about the America’s Cup.
I was not sure if it was a spectator sport or not, but it was receiving enough press to wonder about the city and the hotels. Well, the hotels were empty, the streets were empty, and we did not even know it was the final day of the cup while we were in Valencia until we saw it on the news that evening. In fact, when we woke on Sunday we completely forgot it was going on because the town was so quiet. It was a little strange for such a publicized event.
Also, our Sunday in Valencia was Valentine’s Day. For a romantic dinner, we found a great Indian restaurant a decent walk from the hotel. We asked for the food spicy, and I think we met our match on spiciness. Eric’s Vindaloo was so spicy his stomach was on fire. My butter chicken was just one notch below the Vindaloo. It was fantastic - the best meal we had in Valencia and a perfect Valentine’s Dinner.
As much as the food was not the best we had on the trip, and that the city was quiet and closed, there was something about Valencia that we liked.
It would be nice to see it in better weather to give it another shot. All we saw from this round was that it has a beautiful city center, and I would love to see more.
In the morning, it was raining once again - keeping with our tradition in Spain of having one sunny day in each of the two cities we visited. We stopped at the Carrefour supermarket to pick up some food, including a 2 kilogram bag of Valencia oranges and a 1 kilogram bag of Valencia Clementine oranges. We were headed into the country, the true heart of Spain, for an adventure. I knew, minimally, we would not come down with scurvy, but aside from that, we were on the road, driving in the rain again, this time, north into the mountains.
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