Valencia

Typical Valencia Architecture



Bull Fighting Ring

The Silk Exchange Building

Real Valencia Oranges

Columns of the Silk Exchange


Religious Pageantry

Spicy Tuna - Yum


Delicious Bread Pudding

 We left some of our luggage behind in Madrid, and headed off to the train Station to take the bullet train to Valencia. Why can’t the US have trains like this? It had wifi, it was very smooth and fast. We arrived in Valencia about 2pm and taxied to our hotel.

 

The hotel is in a hip part of Valencia, with lots of outdoor cafes and stores. The weather is definitely cooler than Madrid. I went for a walk (quickly finding the Apple Store), while Cathy remained in the room. When I returned it was time to head out and see our first sites. We decided to go to the Silk Exchange. It is the most famous building in Valencia. The taxi driver dropped us off at the Silk Museum instead. He must have misinterpreted where we were intending to go. The small museum was interesting, but not where we wanted to be. Luckily the Silk Exchange Building wasn’t far. We walked to it.

 

The Silk Exchange Building was built when Valencia was at the height of its economic power. It was trying to divert finance from the Ottoman Empire. Construction was started in 1492. It is a gorgeous building, the columns in the main hall are amazing, as they spiral to the ceiling. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After visiting the museum, we went to a nearby plaza for wine. As we drank our wine a thought of a new Spanish word that I learned yesterday. It has no direct translation into English but it well expresses the difference between Spain and America: sobremesa: "It literally translates to 'over table,' and it refers to the time that people spend chatting and enjoying each other at the table once they have finished a meal".


We then decided to taxi back to the hotel. We were in the very old part of Valencia, and it was literally impossible to find our way of the maze of twisty streets. We asked people along the way and they pointed in various directions. In our wondering we came across a Church Procession of men pushing a large cart of what we assume are relics. 

 

We eventually found our way out of the maze and found a taxi. We intended to go back to our hotel and clean up for dinner but decided what the hell lets go directly to the restaurant. When we arrived there it hadn’t opened, so we did the only thing we could do: go to an outdoor café and have some more wine.

 

The Canalla Bistrot eventually opened, and we got our table. The food was excellent. This is the down scale restaurant by the 2-star Mechlin chef: Richard Camerena. We had an excellent meal. We loved the Spicy Tuna and Rice, great Asian flavored Ribs, the dessert Bread Pudding was wonderful. This is a restaurant you should go to if you are ever in Valencia.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pastrami in Madrid

Image
Masked on the Subway Drinks in  Chueca, thinking of Jaimie Mezze Spread Thickly sliced Pastrami  Today was a continuation of getting over jet lag. We started on a quest to get my SIM card. iPhone have dual Sims so I thought (incorrectly as it found out) that I had a an empty slot for a 2 nd   sim card. When I switched from AT&T to Spectrum, Spectrum didn’t use the eSim on the phone but actually installed a SIM Card. That meant that if I installed the Spanish SIM I would loose my California phone number while we were here, and I didn’t want to do that. Long story short we put the SIM in Cathy’s phone. This took a long time at the store, and it was frustrating. Oh well. We did accomplish the other two items on our agenda. I successfully withdrew money from an ATM machine and took the Subway back to the Hotel.   Cathy stayed behind and I took a long walk into the Salamanca. This is definitely the place where the rich live and shop. It was a very fancy area filled with name brands Timm
Read more

Paella in the Albufera

Image
  Hoisting the Paella Pans Lake Albufera, where they grow Bomba Rice Rice Liquor Paella Inspection Paella Passed the Inspection! Perfect Patatas Bravas Why can't we take Parsifal out with us? White Asparagus Beautiful Modernist Style Market Unusually Shaped Tomatoes, wonder what they taste like The Water Tribunal  When we awakened, we asked ourselves, why are we staying in this hotel? The room was nice, we had a private patio, but we thought the service sucked, and the bed was hard. We had to decide if we wanted to switch to a better hotel. The obvious answer was Hell Yes! We quickly secured a reservation at the Westin Valencia, a luxury hotel in every way. We packed up and took our luggage to our much nicer new digs. Since it was only 11:30am we checked in but couldn’t go to our rooms, which hadn’t been cleaned yet.  We then taxied to The Water Court (Tribunal de Las Aguas). The Tribunal meets outside the Door of the main Cathedral, every Thursday at noon, keeping alive a one thou
Read more

Paris Without the Attitude

Image
Pedestrian only Streets The  Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers Tapas Bar opened in 1892 Tortilla Monument to  m onument of Daoiz and Velarde Heroes of May 2 Fireman at Chueca in background After our long day of walking in Toledo, today was a down day of rest. Cathy had a 90 minute massage at the hotel and loved it. She said the masseur was cute. Hmm. I went for a walk, and somehow screwed up the Spanish SIM, and had to buy another one. It was a hassle to get it activated. But we are connected again. This is critical if you want to walk in Madrid. We are staying in Chueca (the Silverlake of Madrid). It is so full of short streets that twist around that it would be impossible for a visitor to find anyplace without Google Maps! You see many people walking around looking at their phone. We have been here 8 days and can now somewhat navigate on our own.   After Cathy’s massage we headed out for a walk. We came across a great building that could have been in Barcelona. It had that lo
Read more