Day 12 - Arts, Science, & Paella!

---

Today was a bus day. We left Granada at 8:00AM with a quick stop at the top of the mountain to take some pictures below. We didn’t get to see much of Granada, but I don’t think we missed much, just your typical European city. As the bus headed east, the scenery alternated between mountains and farmlands. Occasionally we could see the Mediterranean, and the seaside houses and apartments that went with beachside living. We passed the city of Benidorm, sometimes called the Miami of Spain, a seaside town with skyscrapers in the skyline. We passed the earth houses, where houses had been cut into the side of the mountain and only the façade was visible. We stopped a couple of times, once for coffee and once for lunch.

We played Trip Trivia, where we were asked 20 questions about various things we had seen and people we had met on the trip so far. I won! With 19 correct answers out of 20, and received a prize of some sweet snacks that I am eating right now as I am writing this blog. By 4:00 we arrived in Valencia, the largest port city on the western Mediterranean. It is a large city with about 800,000 residents.

Valencia has been prone to flooding, and when the latest flood in 1957 caused so much damage, they undertook a project to redirect the Turia river away from the city. This left a large dry riverbed running through the city. Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, the city developed the City of Arts and Sciences in the dried river bed. The complex, featuring a Science Center, Oceanographic Center, Opera House, and many other buildings are of futuristic designs, designed by Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela. They are really impressive! It would be great to tour these facilities, but it would take a few days, and we only have tonight.

We did however, get to get out of the bus to take a look around and get some pictures. Our hotel is within viewing distance, so when we got back on the bus, we were at the hotel in no time. We were given about an hour and a half before we head out for dinner, and we should have taken it to walk around an take pictures, but instead we decided to just be lazy and crash on the bed. Now that our batteries are fully recharged, we are ready to take on Valencia!

Our hotel is very modern, and located in the modern part of the city. For dinner, we are heading down to the old part of the city. The story of Valencia is the same as all the major cities on the Iberian peninsula: Initially populated by the Romans, taken over by the Moors in 711, Populated by Moors, Christians and Jews until 1492 when the Moors and Jews were kicked out, and then a Catholic city until the modern era. Old town Valencia is fairly modern, but some of the old buildings and squares are still there. There are also some remnants of the original city walls and the city gates and towers. There are even some ancient Roman columns.

Dominic was our tour guide tonight, taking us through some of the narrow streets and squares and pointing out some of the sights. We stopped at a local street vender where were all offered a small glass of Tiger Nut milk. It’s a non-dairy milk, similar to almond milk but its made from locally grown tiger nuts. It was really delicious and tasted like milk with a slight hazelnut type flavor. Afterwards, we were given about a half hour to wander around and we used that time to pick up a couple of Valencia t-shirts. Since we live in Orlando, just down the road from Valencia Community College, we are used to seeing Valencia t-shirts, our new ones are a little different, and they are written in Spanish.

After wandering around, we were taken to a traditional paella restaurant and setup a a long table. The chef had already begun the preparation of our paella in a huge pan that easily fed our 28 people. It typically takes about 2 hours to cook paella and all he needed to do was add the rice and cook for about 30 more minutes. The chef only spoke Spanish, but he had an interpreter with him who would translate everything he said from Spanish to English. He explained that paella is actually the name of the pan that the dish is cooked in, and that every region of Spain has different ingredients . The traditional local version of paella from Valencia is made with rice, and few different kinds of local beans that are not available outside the area, salt, spices, and for meat it uses snails and rabbit. Fortunately the traditional recipe was modified so that we had chicken instead of the snails and rabbit. Other areas of Spain use different spices, and different meats, including seafood like fish, prawns, and squid.

Our version was good, but not particularly spicy. We sat across from Dan and Edith who are Hispanic from California and speak fluent Spanish, and they also thought it was a little bland for their taste. But it was still delicious at any rate. When we finished the paella, our dessert was a pleasant surprise of vanilla ice cream cake with chocolate sauce and it was absolutely delicious!

Tomorrow we are off to our final destination: 2 nights in Barcelona. We’ve only heard great things about Barcelona and can hardly wait to get there. Meanwhile, I checked today on the status of our flight back on Saturday, and so far all is well. Bill & Lolly have already been notified that their flight on American Airlines has been cancelled, so we are just keeping our fingers crossed that our flight on Air Canada still goes smoothly. But, enough for now, tomorrow – Barcelona!

---