Sunday 29th January
A very special day this – my brother-in-law, Paul’s, 50th birthday!!
Happy birthday Paul – hope you enjoy cricket in the Caribbean (don’t forget to wear your new sunhat 🙂 )
We had a lovely relaxing day yesterday. Calv did go out on his bike and found a few things that he was keen to share with me today. So we set off on our bikes for the seafront promenade (empty for Calv the other day, much busier today!)
We headed off the other way first and found our way to the Lighthouse (faro), to find it was actually a lighthouse (converted into a private residence). We eventually turned back and headed down the way he’d already been. He wanted to go all the way to the end of the beach where he’d found an Aire. So what? thought I! However we then continued down the road to find dozens and dozens of vans simply parked up on wasteground. This is where we found this little beauty (and it wasn’t the only one either; there was a pretty new looking van with a mural of an alligator wrapped around it…)
We worry about parking on Aires and sometimes you do actually have to pay for them – we prefer to pay a little extra and have the extra security.
We stopped on the way back for a pizza and ended up giving in to an ice cream (why are they always so much bigger than you expect?!) We didn’t need much at teatime, put it that way! We only actually dared order an ice-cream after we saw a Spanish couple doing the same…
In the evening we sat out with a couple of other British couples (I say evening, it was about 5pm and by 6.30pm it was too cold to sit out any longer!)
Monday 30th January
The day we went to Valencia! The bigger adventure though was getting to the train station and getting our tickets – we literally just made it onto the train. I mean we jumped on the train as it was there because we didn’t have time to check it was the right one – luckily it was J
Although it was nearly 3 miles to the station, and we needed GoogleMaps to get us there, we’re glad that we did walk as we saw much of the old town that we would never otherwise have seen. We couldn’t stop though because we were a few minutes late leaving (as Bob was trying to find a text to show us a campsite in Portugal). Anyway we made the train J
We arrived into Valencia North, a small (by city standards) but beautifully formed station at the gateway to the Old City. Also right next to the bullring (rather more impressive than that in Pamplona…)
The old city itself is a mass of small streets, squares, ancient buildings and monuments, graffiti, modern buildings and ramshackle (as in falling down) buildings. The latter are usually denoted by the netting hung in front of them (to stop the rubble falling onto the road I guess..) There are plenty more that will need the netting very soon.
We ate at a place called ‘Birra & Blues’ which, with 3 courses of tapas, cost us 10.50 euros each (plus a drink of course – I’m getting into the Sangria). I was very proud of myself ordering something that I didn’t know what to expect, and then eating it even though it was something I wouldn’t normally eat!
We then set off to see some more sights. There was an indoor market, we think, a cemetery in a building (but don’t quote me on that – there was a lack of information on most of these buildings. Well, I guess they’re two a penny in the old city!) and a Silk Merchants Hall. This last one we were able to go into for just 2 euros each. Calv refused to pay for the audioguide though because it cost more than the entrance fee (3 euros)! He’s so tight J
Next I wanted to head for the cathedral as I knew we could go up the tower from where we’d be able to see the whole city. On the way there we saw many more ancient buildings and also, one of my favourite Spanish traditions – signs made out of tiles. I love them!
Also some graffiti that was clearly somebody trying to imitate Banksy.
Not bad, but not as good as the one we saw in Arramonche last year.
(See my post on Normandy from last year) – Day 38 – The Last Post
It also cost 2 euros to go up the tower (208 steps up a spiral staircase – I’m getting better and prefer going up to down..) Once at the top we found ourselves with a party of English schoolkids. Now that’s a nice schooltrip isn’t it? Valencia! I can’t really complain as I went to Germany and had trips to Munich, Salzburg and various castle around Bavaria, including Neushwanstein (the castle that inspired that in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).
The views were pretty amazing. You just see towers and domes everywhere. We also spotted a rooftop restaurant and guessed you’d probably need to be in the know to find that one.
This bell struck 3pm while we were up there. Wish we’d realised the time as we would have recorded it! Suffice to say it was loud!
By now we were getting tired (and I’d done something to my left heel. I have no idea what but I was limping and by bedtime I was having trouble walking. I’m still aware of it, but it’s a lot better now and I was able to ‘walk through’ it today!)
Our last adventure was still to come though. We managed to get the bus when we got off the train (having managed to get on the right train again – we were concerned for a little while though)! The driver seemed to drop us off in the middle of the road when we rang the bell – he’d clearly guessed we were from the campsite though and we were pretty much as close as he could get us.
Another lovely day in Spain! See you all soon
turnrightoutofportsmouth 
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