Tres Abuelas ("Three Grandmothers")

Despite the fact that I seem to be falling apart faster than our old Dodge Caravan, I've found it somewhere inside me to make some room in my heart for Valencia. It is the third-largest city in Spain with about 800,000 residents, and has a wonderfully mild character. It's more than just a sleepy Mediterranean town though. With history dating back over 2,000 years, it began as a Roman port city. Although the Roman walls are now gone, one can still wander the quaint and twisty alleys of the Old Town. Interestingly enough, 10 minutes away one can find one of the most modern architectural feats in all of Europe-- La Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. And then if you go another 5 minutes from that, you've got beautiful beaches and some of the best paella in toda de Espana (all of Spain). There's so many faces to this city, and they all seem to fit just right.

As it worked out, I had checked the weather for Valencia the night we arrived, and learned that it was supposed to be rainy both days, but less so on Wednesday. So, we woke up Wednesday morning and were quite pleased to see that it was overcast, but not raining, and decided to spend the day exploring the Old City. We started with the Tourist Office, and were promptly armed with a map the size of a small Amish quilt. It proved to be much more helpful than the staff at the Office though, and so we continued on our way to the Museo Taurino- The Bullring Museum. I really enjoyed the exhibit; it was simple, but well done. The ring itself is pictured above, although in Valencia there are only bullfights three months out of the year, held during certain important festivals. Personally, I don't agree with it, but I still respect it as an important aspect of Spanish culture.

From there, we meandered along into the heart of the city. We stopped to peek into the Central Post Office, which is a spectacular building; beautiful arches and columns and a stained glass dome ceiling. And then onwards to the Cathedral, nestled in the heart of the city. We climbed to the top of the bell-tower, which really ought to be advertised as the best way to burn off the day's Menu del Dia because even I, spry little thing that I am, was feeling the burn as I fell up the last few steps onto the turret. The view was great- from the Mountains to the Gulf- and all of the little rooftops with morning underwear hung out to dry.


The central market in the Old Town was quite similar to the one in Budapest- a grand open-air building with lots of vendors selling fresh wares. It was all fine and dandy until we saw a man packing the leftover deer legs-- hoof included-- into the back of his small sedan. The weather was still holding out for us, though looking ever more ominous, and so we continued on, now in a pedestrianized pursuit of food. If you haven't noticed, I love the "Menu del Dia" that seems to be everywhere here. We eventually found a nice little bistro with food that we could roughly translate to as appealing, and both ordered the Valencian paella, which came from the dish as pictured. The word "paella" actually means pan, and generally speaking it's a rice dish with either surf, or turf, but not both. The key ingredient is saffron, and you know it's Valencian because it will have delicious crispy bits that come from the bottom or the edges of the dish.


After our late lunch, it still had not begun to rain, so we ventured off to the Modern Art Museum. Though the exterior of the building looked like a Soviet bunker, the interior was significantly nicer. Even though I don't always "get" modern art, I love how it makes me feel. There's this sense of childlike wonder that I get from looking at pictures that resemble my scribbles in Kindergarten; but the sophistication of their nature is what really draws me in. In one exhibit, the artist, Jaume Plensa, chose to explore the use of letters as art-- strung across each room was a "wall" of metal letters dangling down like an alphabetical windchime through which you had to walk through to get to the next. Just beautiful, really.

I believe at this point, we were both so tired from all of the food and walking that we worked our way back to the hotel. The evening was so warm and balmy that we took a seat on a bench in the central plaza and simply sat and relaxed, watching the palms sway and the clouds of the deepest azul you can imagine tumble along the skyline.


We certainly picked the right day to do things because this morning we woke up to a grey sky and intermittent rain. Our plan was to go to the City of Arts and Sciences and spend the better part of the day at L'Oceanografia-- the aquarium. For as small as the city feels, it's rather big to walk everywhere, so we took the bus. This is where the title comes from, because on the bus we were both looking at our map the size of an Amish quilt, trying to figure out where to get off, and while doing so a little abuela "Grandma" sitting behind us tells us we have a few more stops to go. Then another little abuela says that it is a lovely place, and we still have a few more stops, but see over there-- that's the Arts Building! And as the first abuela is getting off, another abuela tells us in broken English that it's just around the bend, "solo otra mas" or "one more stop." Here we are, American tourists speaking Spanish that probably sounds like nails grinding down a blackboard, and we have three Grandma's all making sure that we get to where we need to go. I love it! Que bueno!



I think I read somewhere that the new aquarium here is the third largest in Europe; maybe the world, but my memory is fuzzy. The Oceanografic facility is actually about a half mile to my right while I was taking this photo, but as you can see the buildings are incredibly modern. For the most part, we had the place to ourselves. One or two school groups, an occasional family, and a really nice couple from Ecuador that took our photo. The dolphin show was absolutely incredible-- I've never seen anything like it. The handlers spent just as much time in the water performing various tricks in stunts with the dolphins as they did out of the water. One even stood on the swimming dolphin like a surfboard! We were both very impressed with the variety of party tricks that were performed.


After the show we went over to the Arctic exhibit, which was really neat. I've never before seen a Beluga whale, or a walrus, but there they were. The whales looked unreal; perfectly white, and smooth as an ivory bar of soap. And then when I saw the walrus I was nearly taken aback at the sheer size of it; easily the size of our two-person couch in the loft at home. It seemed to be bumping it's head on the glass too, and then we realized it was licking the wall. Adorable! This great hulking mass of blubber and muscle licking the glass of the aquarium right in front of us (we had the place to ourselves.) The most spectacular experience though was walking through these massive aquarium tunnels. Not only were we the only two people in the whole place, but it was so enormous and clear, it felt and looked as if the fish and sharks were literally swimming over your head. I was in awe.

After the aquarium, we went down to the beach, which was very much asleep. Windy, rainy, and a bit chilly on the waterfront, I have no doubt that it's a wonderful place to be in the summertime (not so much in the middle of December). We took the bus back to the hotel, and from there I retired to my room and Shelley went to check out the Ceramics museum and a local market. I seem to have come down with another cold, so sleep is a must, in spite of the fact that I'd much rather be out and about. Around 9 o'clock, we walked about three storefronts down to a warm and welcoming little restaurant for dinner, and then walked about four storefronts in the other direction for gelato. Which brings me back to here, getting ready for bed once again, and preparing for the train ride tomorrow to Madrid.