Fall is finally here!

It is the middle of December and the leaves are finally changing color and falling off the trees. We didn't have much going on today so we took a walk to the park and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Valencia Day #2

In the morning we went to Museo L’Almonia. The museum is built over the ancient Roman ruins from 138 BC. Many of the walk ways are made of glass so it feels like you are walking on the old Roman roads. Other times, it was a bit trippy because you would walk over a 30 foot deep well and it almost felt you were going to fall in.

After the museum we of course had to go see the belén in the cathedral. Belénes are my favorite part about Christmas here. They are so elaborate and celebrated here. It isn’t like in the States where they are almost taboo. Here, every store, school, church and mercado has a belén on display. Some of them are very simple but some can be quite extravagant.

Next we went to the Mercat Central. (No, not mercado. Valencia has their own language, a dialect of Catalan.) This is one of the biggest mercados we have been to. We had a lot of fun walking around checking out all the different stalls. We also bought some freshly made paella for a picnic lunch. After lunch we lounged around a bit in the sun and then headed back to the hotel.

Before dinner we went to the Museo de Ceramica “Gonzalez Martí” Palacio Marqués de dos aguas. It is a palace turned into a museum and was fun to walk through. Yummy Italian food for a dinner and then a night spent relaxing in the hotel TV room drinking tea and playing cards.

Valencia Day #1

We started the trip off by running to the train station. We lost track of time and realized we had a little over 10 minutes till the train left. Fortunately we live close and we arrived with 5 minutes to spare.

We arrived to beautiful sunny weather. We first visited the Valencia Cathedral which also houses the Holy Grail Chapel. The Holy Grail was moved from Italy to this very chapel to keep it safe from anti-Christian warlords. As many of you know it mysteriously disappeared sometime later. What you see in the photo is supposedly a replica of the original Holy Grail. 

After the cathedral we went to try some horchata and a fartón. Horchata is a drink made from tiger nuts. In my opinion, the initial taste is very sweet with an after taste combination of nuts and carrots. Very odd I know but it was good. A fartón is just a pastry special to Valencia doused in powdered sugar. 

Then we decided to head to the beach. We didn’t anticipate a two hour walk but it was worth it. Getting back to the hotel almost proved to be impossible via public transportation. We were lucky to find a bus station near the beach that was headed back to the center and when we tried to pay fare he couldn’t accept any bills over 10e. All we had were 20s and 50s. So we went to a metro station that would at least get us close to home. The machine wouldn’t accept anything higher than a 10 either! It is times like these that make us appreciate US’s law that legal tender is legal tender, you have to accept it! So I quickly asked the guard where an open store was so we could buy something to get change. Keep in mind, this day was a festival day and hardly anything was open. Fortunately there was a Burger King a block away. I bought a water bottle and wouldn’t you know, she didn’t have any 10e bills so in addition to a 5e bill I got 13 euros in one euro and fifty cent euro coins. We had enough change to take the bus plenty of times! 

We finally made it back to the hotel and rested up for a bit after our trek to the beach. For dinner, we went to a tapas bar and had all our favorite tapas and tried a few new ones too. We also tried the drink, agua de Valencia. I told Ben it is like a mimosa on crack: champagne, orange juice, vodka and gin. Surprisingly, I liked it. After dinner, we walked around and enjoyed checking out all the pretty Christmas lights.