Christmas in Valencia


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January 1st 2019
Published: January 2nd 2019
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Very Cute Hotel and RestaurantVery Cute Hotel and RestaurantVery Cute Hotel and Restaurant

Kathy and I may be able to ride our bikes from Valencia to this cute little town about 30 miles north of Valencia. Should be fun if we can find a bike route.
Nov 21 to Jan 1 2019: In the last 45 days Kathy and I have done so much. For Thanksgiving, we attended a Thanksgiving dinner provided by Americans Living in Valencia. About 75 people were in attendance including many Spaniards who just liked the idea of giving thanks for the many things they had. It was fun. Kathy had a clandestine meeting with David, the organizer, to buy the tickets about a week in advance. It was like she was buying drugs or passing national secrets. We walked across town on a dark and dreary night where she met David about 9 at night at a corner in the rain. I watched the plot unfold from a sidewalk café across the street. They talked for a few minutes and then the transaction was completed. She came back to the café, said we were done and we left. We really didn’t know if we had just given some stranger 40 Euros or did we actually have tickets to a dinner. Thanksgiving evening we walked to the designated place and lo and behold, they were all there. It was quite an experience. David has been putting this on meal in Valencia for a
Pre Hike CoffeePre Hike CoffeePre Hike Coffee

Note: We are the oldest hikers in the group!
number of years and has quite the reputation for its organization. The food was traditional American Thanksgiving fare. The restaurant that cooked the food actually took cooking lessons from a cook from Kentucly in order to have an authentic dinner.

We did find an excellent and inexpensive outdoor shop name Decathlon in downtown Valencia. Since this discovery, we have spent muchos dineros and muchos tiempos in this store. It is located about 3 miles from our apartment and now serves as a destination for walking. Consequently, we are getting our exercise as well as spending our money. What more can you ask for??? Well, let me tell you! We joined a gym just last week. They have 6 locations around town and we can go to any of them. Between the gym and walking to Decathlon, we are going to look better every day. Now I ask you, how is that possible???

Our Spanish classes are going well but we decided that we needed a break so we took the last half of December and the first half of January off from class but not from studying. We are spending about 4 hour a day studying Spanish but
View from the TopView from the TopView from the Top

This is Benicássim. A nice little seaside town. It is where we had the coffee. Kathy and I will try to find a bike route from Valencia to this town.
as some of you know already, the older you get, the harder it gets. I swear I have looked up the same 10 words about a hundred times and I still can’t remember what they mean. We are doing Duolingo, doing flashcards on Quizlet, listening to Spanish audio tracks, studying our workbook and exercise book, reading Spanish articles in the newspaper, listening to Spanish on the TV, listening to Spanish on the radio, reading Spanish signs on our way to class, reading Spanish signs on our way from class, playing Spanish scrabble (now that is hard), doing Spanish crosswords puzzles, going to language exchange to speak and listen to Spanish….well you get the point. We are beating this horse to death. If I don’t learn to speak Spanish, I’m going to start drinking….wait…I’m already drinking. Well…maybe I will stop drinking. After this blog, I’m gonna get the books back out.

Kathy’s goal with Spanish is to carry on an intelligent conversation with our doorman, Alfonso. Alfonso is a very nice guy who has helped us on a number of occasions and delivers our mail. We don’t know why he delivers our mail, as we do have a mailbox in
PeniscolaPeniscolaPeniscola

Peniscola is a tourist town whose size grows from about 10,000 to up to 150,000 in the tourist season.
the lobby. But Alfonso likes delivering our mail directly to us anyway. I guess he has a need to help these “foreigners”. Alfonso speaks NO English so Kathy is taking it upon herself as a personal goal to communicate with him. Right now they are still at the staring stage with some improvements towards grunting and hand gestures….progress.

Our apartment has become an entertainment center for Kathy. We have a school administration building next door where it is undergoing some renovation in the parking lot, including a new block wall. I suppose the block wall is meant to keep Kathy from staring into the parking lot watching the construction. It’s like having a 12 ft. big screen TV. Several times each day, Kathy is observing their progress and making comments to me about their work. Of course, I am the local construction expert and I provide Kathy with insight and intelligent conversation about their progress. For example: Kathy…what are they doing? Me: I don’t know. Looks like they are putting up a block wall. Kathy: Why? Me: I don’t know. Maybe to keep you from staring at them every day. Kathy: That’s ridiculous. Me: Why don’t you go ask
PeniscolaPeniscolaPeniscola

View of the hilltop city from the Peniscola port.
Alfonso? Then she gives me the stink eye.

Anyway, we have taken two significant weekend trips since my last post. In the first weekend of December we took a trip with our hiking buddies to Peniscola which is a surfside resort town north of Valencia about 2 hours. Peniscola is one of the most beautiful coastal towns in Spain and recently has been used for filming game of thrones. It was fun, but the town was more touristy than Kathy and I care for. They do have a nice castle, Castle de Peniscola. Kathy and I didn’t tour the castle but we had a coffee at a small cafe with a nice view of the bay. The two hikes were great. On Saturday, we hiked 10 miles in the Desierto de las Palmas inland from Bánicassim. We hiked to the castle of Alcalá, where we had views of the Mediterranean. The name “desert” was the term used by the Carmelite nuns to designate lonely places far from the population, to which they retire to dedicate themselves to contemplation and prayer. Since palm trees abounded in the area, this now national park was renamed Desert de les Palmes. On Sunday, we hiked another six to eight miles in the Sierra de Irta national park to an old castle outside of Alcalá de Xivert by the same name, Castle de Alcala de Xivert. Castles and monasteries in Spain are everywhere. Almost any mountain top in any small town has one. I often wonder how much effort it took to get these monstrosities built on top of these mountains, most of which have sheer cliffs.

A couple of weeks later, Kathy and I then went to Alicante, about mid-December. Alicante is also a tourist destination about 2 hours south of Valencia. We took the train there and spent a weekend tooling around town and visiting the Van Gogh exhibition and touring El Castillo de Santa Bárbara. Although I am not a fan of Van Gogh, the exhibition was very interesting detailing the major phases of Van Gogh artistic development throughout his life.

The Santa Bárbara Castle in Alicante is located on Mount Benacantil on the edge of town. It is 160 meters above the sea where you can see the entire bay of Alicante. This must have been a hell of a fortress with significant strategic value. The origins of the current fortress is believed to be around the end of the 9th century with Muslim domination. It also has sheer cliffs but the opposing force in this case decided to tunnel under the fortress and set off a pile of explosives which did the job nicely. That certainly is something to keep in mind if you ever have the opportunity to build a castle…make sure that you have defenses for all angles. If you have the need, Kathy can build you a nice block wall around your castle. She might be looking for a job just to have some time away from me.

I have said before that Kathy is the Queen of free entertainment. Well she has outdone herself now. The week before Christmas, Kathy setup a trip to visit one of the local dog shelters to walk the dogs. The shelter housed about 50 to 75 dogs and there were a number of volunteers to help. We spent about 3 hours walking various dogs around the neighborhood. These guys were so cute. I wanted to bring a couple home but Kathy said “Ni Hablar!” Damn!

Kathy and I put up a small Christmas tree and
Castle BridgeCastle BridgeCastle Bridge

This is a bridge from the port side to the Castle Peniscola.
had a quiet Christmas day. A couple of days after Christmas, we walked to the Marina and the beach for paella and just to get out and about. The weather is great with 45 degs in the mornings and 65 degs in the afternoon. Between Christmas and New Year, we joined a local gym. It has several locations in town all of which we can attend. We get a lot of walking in but I want to focus a bit on my girlish figure (lol). Additionally, we have decided we will go out to dinner, lunch and breakfast one time each a week in order to get to know the local cuisine a bit better. We have been focusing on Ruzafa, which is an upscale yuppie/student (my word, not theirs…I don’t think anyone uses ‘yuppie’ anymore) neighborhood, that has several nice bars and eateries. In the Cami Fondo area across the Turia park, the restaurants lean more toward the business/professional clientele. We have found a couple of nice restaurants in our area, Montolivet, but the majority of our neighborhood is working class and the restaurants tend to reflect that. We did get a recommendation from our profesora de español regarding
Castell de Alcalá de XivertCastell de Alcalá de XivertCastell de Alcalá de Xivert

This castle is just outside of Peniscola in the town of Alcalá de Xivert This castle occupied a strong position for the control of the routes along the Mediterranean coast. This Moorish castle was captured by James I of Aragon in 1234, who also resettled the place with Christian villagers.
‘Valencian Chocolate Caliente’ at the local Mercat de Colón. She said it was the best in town. So Kathy and I decided to try it on the way home from class. What a treat. This stuff is so thick, a spoon will stand up in it. But it is so good!!! We have stopped several times for a cup and even found some at the local market. See previous comment on girlish figure…

On New Year’s, we walked to the city center for the Valencia New Year celebration. There were an estimated 3000 people there (my estimate). There were fireworks and lots of music. An interesting fact is that the Spanish play a lot of American. Just about all of the music for the New Year celebration was American music and most of the bars and restaurants play American music all the time. They particularly like pop and blues.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish everyone a Happy New Year.


Additional photos below
Photos: 39, Displayed: 29


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Alcalá de XivertAlcalá de Xivert
Alcalá de Xivert

A view of the city from the castle walls
Castle of Alcalá de XivertCastle of Alcalá de Xivert
Castle of Alcalá de Xivert

Exterior walls of the castle
The Castle of Santa BarbaraThe Castle of Santa Barbara
The Castle of Santa Barbara

This is a picture from the Alicante port looking at the castle.
The Castle of Santa BarbaraThe Castle of Santa Barbara
The Castle of Santa Barbara

Located about 160 meters above the city, this castle is impressive. At one time, an opposing force tunneled under the castle and ignited several tons of explosives and was able to take the castle.
UsUs
Us

Having fun!!!
SailingSailing
Sailing

I thought this was a good photo.
Sailing TooSailing Too
Sailing Too

I thought this was a good photo too. May turn one of these into wall art.
Kathy Asked Me What Time it WasKathy Asked Me What Time it Was
Kathy Asked Me What Time it Was

So I pulled out my watch and told her it was 11:30am.
View of the BeachView of the Beach
View of the Beach

This is a view from the top of the castle


2nd January 2019

Latest blog
I so enjoy reading your blog. Informative and funny at the same time. I hope you find another place to keep this up. Would really miss your updates. Hope 2019 is a wonderful year for you bith.
2nd January 2019

Living it up in Valencia!
What terrific blogs. I love reading your travel and local living stories. So glad you decided to do this. I spent a month traveling through Turkey in April/May 2018. I often wish I had done a blog. Working to remember those delicious small moments that really meant a lot. Highly recommend Turkey. In spite of the politics right now. They truly miss Americans, British and Japanese tourists. They went all out when ever I needed help, advice or some directions. I went with my daughter and granddaughter for a week, then they left and I toured via local transportation on my own for 3 weeks. Saw most of the country. Except the coast where all the cruise ships dock. Couldn't deal with the multitude of tourists. Take care. I'll keep watching for your communications.
2nd January 2019

Wicked Humor!
Love your blog...pictures...and WICKED sense of humor! Think you should roll it all up and publish it in a book for the folks to see how enjoyable, adventurous, and entertaining living outside the U.S. Can be!!!
5th January 2019
Us

Love your blogs
Hey Russ, I'm amazed that the Spaniards even know about Kentucky and our amazing Thanksgiving dishes. I Love your blogs and Spain looks like a beautiful amazing place to visit. Keep writing and I'll keep reading. Sending Best Wishes from your Hillbilly friend back in Kentucky. <3 Victoria

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