Pick Pocketed (Again), Best Paella

Park atop the Parking Garage with species indigenous to Valencia

Face inside of Statue

Performance Arts Center

Interior Main Performance Space

Reflections of light off of broken tiles

Water Features and Cinema

Cinema

Inside the Garden atop Garage

Fabulous Garlic Shrimp

Best Paella Yet!

Let’s get the worst part out of the way first, and add some lessons learned. A little background first, when we were last in London, Cathy got pickpocketed. We have no idea how they accomplished it, but as we were walking, we realized her purse was open, her wallet was missing. It was amazing how professional it was.  Because we shared the same American Express and Visa cards all our credit cards needed to be cancelled. In addition, Cathy lost all her id’s, Driver’s License, Insurance Cards, etc. When we arrived back in the States, we got new credit cards and made sure that we had separate numbers so that if one of us ever lost their cards the other one will still have a working card. 

 

Another lesson was not to carry a wallet in your purse, just some cash and credit cards. If your purse was stolen they wouldn't have any personal id. Cathy had wisely left her wallet in the room safe. She was only caring credit cards and Euros.

 

Because Cathy’s back was tired, I stuffed her purse inside my shoulder bag. My wallet and phone were in my front pocket.

 

Late in the afternoon we were finished visiting the immense City of Arts and Sciences. It was hot and involved a lot of walking. We were ready to take a taxi back to our hotel. Just to get to a taxi required lots of walking.

 

We finally got into a small elevator with a middle-aged woman. She was very helpful. She held Cathy’s left hand as we descended the stairs, it seemed European charming. She left us and then a nicely dressed younger woman came up and firmly grasped Cathy’s hand in the most trusting way and said she would guide us towards a taxi. She never stopped talking. My attention was on her, the way she was holding Cathy, so warmly. As we were walking a third woman came up on my side and started talking to the woman holding Cathy’s hand. At that point I was getting nervous about the woman holding Cathy’s hand, and I said to Cathy, let’s stop here and wait for a taxi. The two woman left.

 

I then noticed my bag was open and Cathy’s purse was missing. We had been pickpocketed! Luckily, they didn’t get much. Cathy had her old iPhone 8 in it, we were planning to get a new iPhone anyway. There was about $ 300 in Euros, and her Amex, and Visa Card. We called Amex and Visa, both had fraudulent charges on them, we won’t have to pay for them. We called Apple and they helped me erase Cathy’s phone of all data and lock it. It was obviously a very smooth group of 3 women that played us. One more adventure, we would have preferred not to have, but other than our bruised egos and a little cash all was well.

Valencianos are proud of the Jardín del Turia, a magnificent stretch of gardens, shaded paths and cycling tracks following the former course of the Río Turia. After the River flooded in 1957 city authorities diverted its flow to the south of the city and invited urban planners and landscape artists to create a municipal park where the water once flowed. The dry riverbed was planted with orange trees and palms, and fountains and ponds were added. The gardens were finally opened in 1986.

The City of Arts and Sciences by Santiago Calatrava, is a series of giant white structures built along the restored river bed. We walked all through and around them. It was interesting them with Disney Hall and Guggenheim Bilbao. The series of buildings are far larger than either, yet we far prefer Frank Geary's designs. They are much more elegant. We took a tour of the concert halls. The concert halls were Calatrava's best interior works, but even they paled to Geary's finest. The structures and water features are a must see however if you ever are in Valencia, they won't disappoint. This is what Los Angeles should do along the LA River and the covering of the 101 Freeway to make a park.

We returned to the hotel, alerted our banks and Apple of the thefts. Rather than sit around and decided to go to the Hotel's garden and drink some Champagne to help us recover.

We went out to dinner at an old Valencia Restaurant: Racó del Turia. We had an incredible Garlic Shrimp as an appetizer, Valencia is located on the Mediterranean Sea, so they amazingly fish. Surprisingly to us we the best Paella of the trip. It was made with Cauliflower, Salt Cod, Chick Peas and Spring Onions. We now have to modify our opinion about Paella, the crust on the bottom (Sacarrat) is important, but equally important is the blending of flavors. This Paella had it all, including the sweetest Cauliflower we have ever eaten.

It is now 9:00am Sat in Valencia. Our final anxiety on the trip is taking a covid test at 6:30pm tonight, so that we can be allowed to fly back to the United States. We brought a home Covid rapid test with us from the States and just took them. We are Negative! I am sure tonight's will be also be fine. We brought the tests with us so that we wouldn't have the anxiety all day wondering what's tonight's test will show.

In life you have to take the good with the bad, today we had some of each, but we will always remember the Paella dinner long after we have relegated the pickpockets to the fate they deserve.