The sun had barely lit the sky when we met our tour bus this morning. The air was crisp and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky: a perfect day to visit Valencia.
We started by driving past the harbour used by the Olympics and then down the old river bed. It had been turned into a park after the river was re-routed following a devastating flood. It was a beautiful stretch of green augmented by fanciful buildings. It was an incredible start to the tour.
Across from the ultra modern landscape the old world started. We drove through the ancient labrynth of narrow streets, past row upon row of amazing apartment buiildings, past old cathedrals and chuches, until we arrived at the jumping off point for the walking part of the tour.
You’d think that the narrow, winding lanes would have lost their magical appeal, goodness knows we’ve walked for miles on those slippery ancient stones.It was still early so not many shops were open, but we did pass charming coffee shops with rows of pastries in the windows.
When we reached the old market we took a few minutes for an espresso and the loo before we entered a cornucopia of foods. Booths overflowed with green beans, mushrooms, and peppers. Bowls were towering with bright red spices. Chicken heads and pigs feet vied for space with other meat. And of course, oranges had a staring role.
After the market we walked some more, past the palace of the Borgias and through an ancient church.
We passed glorious squares with marvoulous fountains. A saxaphone was playing. As we passed through the open square, sun shining yellow against the buildings and music in the air, I thought: I could live here.
After we got on the bus again, we stopped at a museum of papier mache figures that had won first prize and were thus spared the match that burned all the rest. Every year in March they have a huge festival of fire where everyone builds statues that are then burned at the apex of the event. The whole city gets involved, building 700 fires and sending off fireworks - the town explodes.
Valencia was nothing like I expected - it is a gorgeous city filled with ancient and modern.
Once back on the ship we had a light lunch at the IC and then crashed in our room with a movie. Well, Carm crashed, I worked on this blog which as you’ve seen is verbose! We haven’t decided if we’ll do formal night tonight or maybe just hit the buffet in our ‘grubbies’.
… 8:30 pm, back in our room and in our jammies
Well, we did play hooky and skipped out on dressing up. We sat in the Piazza to watch the finery pass by and then we went up to the buffet to gorge ourselves.
We decided to catch the earlier show with the comedian in a small theatre and when that was done we dashed to the other end of the ship to see if we could catch the end of the big production show. It was still going on when we got there so we hung at the back until a few seats emptied up. Score!
Malaga is tomorrow’s destination and we’ll split up for our tours - Carm has an all day tour and I have a shorter walking tour. We can sleep in!
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