November 2, 2024
Day 85: Valencia
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This was our day to stash the bikes in the storage locker at the edge of town, and to be ready to transfer to the airport hotel tomorrow. A very important part of this is to decide what gear will stay here, and what comes back home. For the stuff that is staying, we need a very good list. That's because in storing stuff after past trips, we always ended with questions like "Do we have a tire pump there, or do we have to bring one?".
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2 weeks ago
With the bikes finally loaded only with the things that are staying with them, we cycled off into the town. We flip flopped a bit on whether to tour the sights some more by bike, cycle to the storage, and then walk home to the hotel, or some other permutation of cycling, walking, storing, and sight seeing. We ended by cycling first to the Market and surrounds, then to store the bikes, then walking back to the Market, and finally walking home. One way and another, it was over 15 km!
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The cathedral sits at the top (north end) of the large Plaza de la Reina. But just north of the cathedral is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Helpless. It's part of the complex of buildings in the photo.
The Basilica is fairly small, but it features an impressive painted ceiling and also the statue of the famous Virgen.
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The ceiling above the altar is very baroque, and attractive, though I could not tell which subjects it was covering.
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Next we passed by the cathedral, not trying this time to go in. The external carving is sort of white plaster and very attractive.
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Beside the market, I tried to capture a menu board - that had a lot of glare from the sun. My idea was to document what was on offer. Are you ready to order, or are you thinking Ugh? The paella Valenciana, by the way, is chicken and rabbit. That's the one Dodie ordered.
I dashed into the market, leaving Dodie to field UQ's from an interested family. This time I just tried to capture the crowd and the scene, rather than any specific produce.
Telling ourselves that we would be back to buy food at the market, we carried on by bike toward the storage locker we had rented. Although we had set it all up months in advance, we were told that availability was limited and that only a small locker was on offer. We took it, gambling that we would be able top squeeze the bikes in. It became a matter of pulling the front wheels and storing the bikes on end - a bit of a bug but not really a problem.
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With the bikes locked away, it became a matter of walking back to the Market. We looked longingly at a Metro entrance - but the whole system is locked down.
Along the way this confusing gaggle of pigeons. It was either a love-in or some really yummy food source.
Back at the Market Square, we found that we had dawdled with the bike storage too long, and the market had closed. But ok, lots of restaurants were open in the area. We chose one appropriately named Le Mercat. This is the one whose menu board is in the picture above. I was reluctant to go for a dish with (cute, furry) rabbit, but Dodie did order the paella Valenciana. I went instead for Norwegian salmon. The salmon came, and it was superb. It also had fries that were just like the Belgian ones. Probably made with Dutch potatoes.
Since Dodie's dish was slow in coming, I shared my salmon. It was convenient because I had gotten two good sized pieces. They also brought bread with aioli and the tomato chunks/paste often found at breakfast. Dodie eyed this suspiciously, but I dove right in. And yes, it's a "scam" that we had read about in Rick Steeves - the bread is not free. We were charged 4 euros for it. On the other hand it was really good, and my first time, I think, for aioli.
Dodie's paella never arrived, so it was a good thing I shared. The one dish, as is often the case, was enough anyway. And besides, we nipped across the square and immediately bought a pile of nougat, which is called here Torron. I commented that the Spanish have a lot more flavour variety in this than the French, but Dodie likes the French better - not so sticky or sweet.
Earlier in the day I had noticed a young woman with rather fancy boots, but a wrapping of orange plastic around them. Not thinking about it very hard, I casually mused that there is no accounting for the style choices of youth. But it was some much more than that. As the day went on, we noticed more and more people - yes, youth - with their legs wrapped in plastic, but also covered in mud. We spoke to some, and it turned out that they were volunteers who had been to the outlying villages, helping with cleanup. Similarly we noticed groups walking with shovels, and these were not random gardeners or maintenance people.
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We continue to be shocked by how close we have been to the natural disaster here, and grateful that we were not caught up in its more extreme aspects. Rather we seemed to only encounter the reflection or consequences of the events, rather than being swept away or buried ourselves.
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2 weeks ago
Today's ride: 17 km (11 miles)
Total: 4,150 km (2,577 miles)
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