El Costa del Sol... (the rest of Valencia)

The following day, we did a bit of swimming and beaching in the morning,

(fountain in the hotel)

and then Jen, Tony, and I headed to the historic/ city center around 3pm. The town was dead. I mean, I’ve heard of the siesta, I’d been in Barcelona and Italy where they practice the siesta, but the Valencian’s are serious about their siestas. We literally passed maybe 20 people the entire 2 or 3 hours we were there. We saw the beautiful churches, el central Mercado (closed on Sundays) and small stores & restaurants.

Valencia is maybe the cleanest city I’ve ever been in (and I’ve been in a lot of cities this past month). It is such a very cool, modern, clean city. We stopped in a local bar that was actually open for a drink (that was Sangrialess),

and headed back to the hotel to get the kids.

We went to a tapas bar “Cabelleros” for dinner and we were finally able to order SANGRIA! We had a variety of tapas, but these tapas were not very speedy. It took us 30 minutes alone to get the bill. In the words of the Italians outside one of the tabbaco earlier—“The Spaniards are really slow workers.”

The 3^rd day started the same as the rest—POOL & Beach. We made it at the pool for about an hour before Paulie bit a nice sized hole in his lip from jumping too close to the edge. When everything settled, they headed off to the world’s most famous aquarium.

I, on the other hand, really wanted nothing to do with fish. I am sure that it is as spectacular as they say it is, but the thought of spending money to see fish in anyway shape or form nauseates me. Instead I explored the inland a bit. Lots of families were sitting outside their tiny, old apartments/ houses. I got some fruit and salted seasoned, fried corn kernels. These are incredible, though an English labeled package said they contain gluten somehow. Go figure!

English was very poor in this part of Spain. Therefore I had to rely heavily on my 7 years of Spanish in Valencia. Which after the first day of getting it confused with Italian, went fairly smoothly. I would later find that the other places in Spain (except Barcelona) have the same limited English.

I proceed to have my first drink alone in a public place. I think. Champagne, duh.

Then, again, for the first time in my life, (this is for certain) I sat in a restaurant, ate dinner, and had a cocktail. I walked up and down the strip of restaurants along the beach, and didn’t look at the menus in order to choose the restaurant because lets face it, salads are difficult to screw up. Instead, I choose a restaurant that appeared to have the best atmosphere.

I sat down and did what the typical European does at a restaurant… people watched. The most interesting couple was the one right in front of me. I watched the girl pay for the bill, and the guy tried to hand her money (which she, of course, refused to take.) This will remain a continuous battle amongst people when its time to pay the bill for centuries to come, I’m certain. Anyway, she finally took the money when it blew off the table. But why he didn’t just pay for the meal to begin with is beyond me.

Valencia was beautiful, both as a city, and weather wise. There was little to no humidity, and at times it actually felt cool. There were lots of clouds to break up the heat from the powerful sun, but you still had to wear lots of sunscreen.

We spent the morning in the pool, the beach, packing, and having lunch. Then it was time for the grand adventure (5 hour drive to Granada). It was actually a beautiful drive, and the kids handled it well, considering they were in a car for 5 hours.

Random Pictures in Valencia:

• In the parks along the beach.. they have random workout machines that are designed like toys to attract kids!
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• Can you guess what this is on the shore of the beach? GROSS!
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• Check out the view I woke up to every morning:
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