Today we
spent a lovely, and sunshiny day in Valencia Spain. Famous for a few things:
oranges, lemons and Ernest Hemmingway…apparently.
I wasn’t
sure what to expect from this stop as it was the one stop I did the least
amount of research on. There wasn’t much to discover about Valencia that I
could tell. And now after a day here I can understand why. It’s a small-ish
city (well third largest in Spain but it feels small) and somewhat unassuming.
They have quite a history but nothing overly interesting about their history.
We took the
“Explore Valencia” excursion today. The tour started by driving down their
beautiful public beach – the name I forget – it was a wide, sandy beach that
looked very inviting to go and sit on the sand. From there we drove through the
streets and our guide pointed out some of the more important historic
buildings.
I think the
most interesting thing – historically – is that they had a major river running
through the city, but it caused problems with flooding so they moved it. How
they moved it I have no idea the guide didn’t really say. But now this river
bed is a beautiful park that runs the length of the city limits.
Our next
stop was an area designed to promote science and culture. The unique and
futuristic designs of the buildings I found fascinating and could have easily
spent another hour there with my camera.
The City of Arts & Science houses a museum of the sciences, a
“hemispheric” dome that is their Imax – it looks like an eye ball sticking out
of the water, and lastly their opera house.
He rattled off some famous opera singer who performs there on a regular
basis.
Leaving that
stop we took off to the historical center of Valencia. This is where the tour
got very interesting to me. The guide dropped us off for some free time in the
Central Market. This market dad would have loved. In fact, we never would have
gotten him out of there. It had all sorts of meats, cheeses, vegetables,
fruits, spices, anything you could imagine. And it was massive. We had only 30 minutes there and somehow I
needed to taste freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice, go pee, buy some
olives, and buy some Spanish ham AND take photos in 30 minutes.
I managed.
But let me
tell you about that freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice…oh my goodness.
Probably the best orange juice I’ve had in a long time. When the guy came over
to ask mom and I if we needed help, I literally, jumped into Spanish speaking
mode. Mom looked at me kinda surprised, and me too for that matter. We got our
orange juice and walked away and I said to mom, “I’m not sure where that
Spanish came from but it just came out.” Turns out all those years of school
and something did stick.
After the
orange juice, I asked the guy where the bathrooms were. He pointed and said, let
me give you a receipt. Apparently you had to buy something in the market to use
their bathrooms. So down stairs we go with our receipt to a gal sitting in
front of the bathrooms that have turn styles. No lie. She handed both mom and I
a token and pointed. We put our token in, the light turn greened, a little bell
rang, I pushed through and I was in the ladies bathroom. Very odd to me, but
interesting.
Back
upstairs we found a meat shop selling Spanish ham and salami’s. The owner let
us taste some of the ham and I was hooked. We bought two packs of it to bring
back to the ship for happy hour.
Then we
found the olives. They were giving samples too. I think mom and I ate one of
all of them. Sooo good. We bought two
types and it was all I could do to NOT eat them on the bus on the way home.
They, along with the ham, were a big success at happy hour tonight.
Do you know
about happy hour? Have I explained it?
Happy hour
started many cruises ago with Mom, Dad, Jack and Suzi. They decided that every night they’d bring
their drinks and any snacks to one of their rooms and they’d have happy hour
before dinner. It’s a great tradition
really. Everyone gets together and talks about what they did all day, eat a
little appetizers (or whatever we scavenged from the buffet upstairs), drink a
little wine, and just enjoy the moment.
So after the
olives purchase it was time to meet back up with our guide. Jorge was our guide
today and he was a charming Spanish man who could whistle but could not play
any instruments…or so he told us.
We walked
the historical center and went through the Silk Exchange (La Lonja) building
where business was done in Valencia for years until they recently moved to a
more modern building. But the gothic style of this building was breathtaking.
The ceilings were carved wood and were stunning. One ceiling was carved wood
with gold enlay in it…it was beautiful. Jorge did tell us it wasn’t the
original ceiling in that part of the building. Apparently the ceiling was in a
historic landmark that the government decided to destroy and was going to burn
down. Some activists got together and saved the ceiling and moved it to the
Silk Exchange building to preserve it. Thank heavens they did. It was
beautiful.
We walked
through several squares today and eventually we found ourselves in a “round
square”. When Jorge said we had one more square to see (they were all starting
to look the same) I was somewhat surprised to see this square was round. This “square” was for textiles and had
several Spanish women sitting around in circles doing needle work with silk.
Some were making laces, some doing pictures on material, but all of it was
beautiful and the craftsmanship was unbelievable.
We left the
round square for the cathedral in Valencia. This cathedral – from what I could
understand – was “owned” by many different religious groups at one time or
another. So there were parts of this cathedral that were jewish, part built by
the moors and part built by the Christians. The outside certainly looked like
it was a combination of cultures. I didn’t venture inside – first because it
cost 5EU and second because we were hungry and we had about 30 minutes of free
time.
Mom and I
found a little café, plopped ourselves down and ordered ham and cheese
sandwiches. I ordered a Fanta and mom ordered Sangria. My Fanta was a normal size Fanta, but mom’s
sangria was huge. She slurped that thing down so quickly I wasn’t sure I wasn’t
going to have to carry her to the bus. The ham and cheese sandwiches were made
with Spanish ham, thick cut and cured. It was, in my opinion, delicious, but
almost like jerky. The cheese and bread though…wow…such a good combination. I
wish there was a way to really share the flavors in this blog.
We finished
up early today and were back on the ship by 1pm. We both were thankful for some
down time. I certainly don’t want to complain about all the places we’re
seeing, but it does feel like we’re in a sprint. We’ve hit 3 countries in 4 days.
I’m sad to
report that I did not get my gelato today. We saw some, but I was too full from
the ham sandwich to even consider eating it. And they didn’t have Nutella as a
flavor. Maybe tomorrow.
Tonight we
branched off and had dinner at one of the specialty restaurants on the ship.
They cost a little extra, but it’s worth it to me. The food starts to all taste
the same by this time of the cruise. So tonight we chose to do the Brazilian
steak house. I think I must have had at least 14 oz of meat tonight. I didn’t
bother with any of the sides or a salad before. I wanted to save myself for the
meat. I think we had 10 different types of meat: Chicken breasts wrapped in
bacon, chicken thighs marinated in lime, Spanish chorizo, Linguisa sausage,
lamb legs, filet mignon, garlic marinated beef, sirloin, pork ribs, beef ribs,
and finally grilled pineapple. And then they asked if we wanted dessert. Ugh.
But the meats were so flavorful and delicious if I wasn’t so full I’d still be
eating. That Spanish chorizo in particular was my favorite. Not spicy, but full
of flavor.
Tomorrow we’re
in Majorca Spain. A small island off the coast of Spain. Dad had wanted to me to go to school in
Majorca when we were choosing which boarding school to attend. I think he wanted me to go there just for the
olives, wine and all around Spanish culture. We shall see what Majorca has to
offer us tomorrow.
And then we
have a blessed day at sea. A day of rest
if you will. All our excursions have left by 8am so far, which means up and to
breakfast by 7am.
Hasta Luego!
