Sunday 18 October - Valencia

[Photos: Cannon-pocked Tower, Valencia Railway Station]

 

Slept sort of OK, but the book going round in both our heads, and the airbed a bit noisy against the parquet floor, which we have fixed for tonight by putting a carpet under it. Couldn’t afford to catch up with a sleep-in after last night’s 2am, as the replies and fixed book files needed checking and responding to. It has been a mammoth effort, and very little fun towards the end. Karen worked on it all morning until 1pm, when she finally set the last emails back to New Zealand, while I chatted with Dani & Ana.

 

We headed out around 1:30pm for some lunch and a look around Valencia. As we left we felt some drizzle, so I went back for an umbrella, but after a few metres it started raining properly, so we went back for our jackets this time. Rather grey and cool, and a bit gloomy in the rain. Wandered about to the cannonball-pocked tower to our north, then into the centre, all the while looking for a place with bocadillos (rolls with ham & cheese). Because of the rain, many of the café-bars were full, and most full of smoke, which we are not prepared to tolerate any more. We though the EU would have mandated EU-wide against it, but clearly not yet.

 

After a lot of walking, finally found a place where we picked up some food, then sat under a big awning to eat it. We decided we were not prepared to walk for ages in the rain to look at old buildings, so headed for a café where we had a superb thick chocolate, and back home past the gauntlet of black, short prostitutes at the far end of our street. Not much of a life for them in this weather, or any weather I suppose. By now 3:30, and Karen has the good sense to be tucked up on our bed, catching up on a bit of sleep. We are looking forward to being in Mojacar where we can sit in the sun and do absolutely nothing, in the knowledge that the book has to look after itself from then on.

 

In the evening, the rain had stopped and the temperature warmed up, so we headed out again for a look about. This time got out to the edge of the old city, where the city had blocked off the river and turned it into walks, parks and other facilities. We tried heading to a big white centre (?science exhibition) which looked most impressive from a distance, but we never seemed to get any closer so gave it away. We managed to see quite a lot of the central city, before heading back to our Asian restaurant of the previous night, only to find despite the advertised hours that it was closed up solid. Very hard to find restaurants here. There are dozens of tapas bars, but at 8:15 they empty out swiftly and close up shop, leaving only more formal restaurangts, but remarkably few. Tried a buffet place, but after getting our plates found the food looked just awful, so eventually after far too much walking, had another good Asian meal at a place near the railway station. You can always count on getting good, reasonable food close to a railway station.