Valencia, Adiós

Above: a posh restaurant nearby Hotel Bristol called Nederland 1814. Not for our budget. Rather a poep sjiek plek voor stinkende rijke mensen.

Above: Central Station. Below: window detail of a building at Plaza de la Virgen. In Valencia you always have to look up in order to admire the sculptures and angels adorning the top of the buildings and appreciate all the iron work on balconies. So much rococo and baroque, oh boy !

Tile tableaux are everywhere...  it is almost an obsession.

Above: fountain, Plaza de la Virgen. The place to be with family and kids on Sunday mornings. Pigeons, pigeons, pigeons ! Las palomitas ! The flying rats !

... Tiles are indeed everywhere, even in the restrooms. Above and below: ladies's restroom, La Vida Sin Dormir restaurant, harbour area.

Orange trees are everywhere. Not so many as in Sevilla, but still... lots of them. Everywhere.

We have also visited a Museum near Plaza del Toro. The entrance is free on Sundays. I spent one week without eating red meat after visiting this museum and staring at the photos on the wall.

Another small museum that was also open on a Sunday was the Fallas (Fallero Museum), with giant dolls and carriages and altars...

Everytime I visit Spain I get a better perspective of South America. Yes, they have stollen and robbed a whole continent, leaving so many scars behind. But still - they have left a huge architectocnical legacy behind. Many times in Valencia I had a sense of deja vu and thought for some seconds that I could be in Recoleta or Palermo, Buenos Aires (that's in Argentina, South America, folks).  

After the Sunday breakfast we have heard sounds and screams when we were at the hotel lobby making plans for the day. It happened to be a marathon. A man stopped running in order to kiss this woman below (while another marathonist remarked: "Es un pegador !") and then ran away while the child was screaming "Papaaaaaa ! Come back! ". The woman explained: "Esta todo bien ! No pasa nada. Papa must run away with the others. Lets wave to all of them ! "

... And in Valencia I also enjoyed the company of a guy with and incredible sense of direction, an unbeatable good humour and always open for exploring new things. Obrigada meu amor for sharing one more adventure with me !

Valencia, City of Arts and Sciences

Above: Palace of Arts, lateral view.
During our third day in Valencia we have rented bikes so that we could explore the bed of the (former) Turia River, reaching the complex of City of Arts and Sciences and further to the harbour. The Turia is an amazing park with lots of gardens, plazas, football fields, cycle paths and trees. The bridges are very old and add a sense of grandeur to the city.

Above: Museum of Arts (left) and Hemispheric (right)

Above and below: Umbracle, a landscaped walk.

I have been in Valencia before, about 4 years ago. This time now there was this exposition for kids with giant mechanical dinos.

Above: this bloggirl in front of the Palace of Arts or Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia - in good Valencian language. For me it is rather the helmet of a Spanish conquistador. The building is so impecably white, it glows under the sun - I believe that during the summer you hardly can stare at it.

Above: Agora, a covered plaza where concerts and sporting events are held.

There is also the Oceanographic, a marine park, in the shape of a huge water lily - actually it is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe. I couldn't photograph it properly but one can easily find photos of it on the net. I had already visited it during my previous trip to Valencia with my colleagues so we decided not to visit it this time.  Hubby and I certainly plan to visit Valencia again in the future so that our kids can enjoy the marvels at such aquarium. More about the the City of Arts and Sciences here .

Valencia, Museo de la Ceramica

This is the most photographed historic buidling in Valencia, according to our pocket guides:  The National Ceramics Museum or Museo NAcional de Ceramica y Artes Suntuarias Gonzales Marti.  It is housed in a palace from the 15th century and has a magnificent alabaster entrance (see above). Below: detail.

Inside, you can visit the carriages room (two pieces from the 18th century) and on upper floors, dating from the 19th century, medieval ceramicas and tiles.

Above and below: ceiling, detail.

Above and the next photos: the kitchen at the palace.

Valencia: What to Eat, Where ?

When in Valencia, from Monday to Friday you can pay much less for lunch than on the weekends. Everywhere there is a "menu del dia" (daily specials) with prices starting at 8 euros up to 11 euros per person. It may include wine, taxes and dessert. Spaniards go for a decent meal during lunch and some tapas on the evening - just the opposite of the Dutch. Cloggies get satisfied with a simple sandwich and are prepared for the warm meal very early in the evening.

Just two blocks from our hotel we found a bar serving lunch (starter, main course, dessert and a glass of  wine at 8,50 euros). Our starters: gazpacho manchego (above) for me and paella for hubby (bellow). I thought I was going to get a chilled tomato soup, the famous gazpacho andaluz,  but instead I got a broth with chicken (and rabbit maybe?) and pasta - or another sort of dough. Exquisite. A typical autumn dish !  I do not recommend you have a paella for one person though- probably they make a big dish and re-heat it during the day or maybe is even from the night before.

The first evening we opted for tapas at a restaurant downtown called Baldo, in a contemporary decor. Must try: croquetas.  Just like it is made in Brazil: golden outside, soft inside - so different from the brown-almost-black-hard-outside Dutch kroketten.  Another delicacy is calamares a la plancha: squid lightly baked and served with garlic and parsley. The fried anchovies were also great. We spotted a couple of Dutch tourists who were in the airplane with us eating hamburgers with French fries also at Baldo. Oh My !

On the same street of the Mercado Central there were lots of paella pans and clay pots. I think I have enough clays pots but I started to caress some paella pans... My husband is my conscience and started to whisper "C'mon, you have a very good one at home".

How can use use gian paella p in aconventional stove ? Here is the answer (below).

Whoah ! This is what I call a giant paella. Spotted at the harbour area. It was noon and two men were already throwing pieces of frozen meat into the pan in order to make a huuuuge paella for the evening.
Downtown Valencia we had excellent paellas at two traditional, small places: Gres de Sabra (or Gris de Sabre ? just near the souvenir shops and where the bus turistic departs). A wonderful (and a bit too salty) paella with lobsters.  And paella de mariscos - my ever favourite - at Tasca located on Calle Corona 7, parallel to Quart Caballeros street. Just go there for lunch and ask to the owner behind the counter a paella dish for two (around 18 euros per person). At both such small restaurants the paellas were fresh - the cooks started the preparation the moment we had ordered them. Toasted on the borders and bottom, creamy in the middle of the pan, very aromatic...

Mediterranean food is wonderful, but my husband's taste buds ask now and then for something oriental. When we were at lunch time checking the menus and prices on the streets he started to talk to me about this oriental restaurant well recommended on his pocket guide: Feng. During the week, for just 8 euros something you can choose from 80 dishes - including desserts, a sweet liquor and taxes, excluding drinks. Really, you could pick as many cold dishes and salads from the belt as you wanted and also order warm dishes to the waitresses. They were Japanese and could communicate in a broken Spanish - but had a very good will and patience.

Wanna go for a change while in Valencia ? Feng is quite reasonable, calm and has elegant decor: dark wall with delicate Japanese decorative pieces. Calle Conde Altea 19, L'Eixample district. Metro stop: Colon.

Gourmet souvenirs ? I suggest you search for some turrones. A turron is a sweet bar with roasted nuts. It can be hard and crunchy (a chocolate one with almonds, for example) or soft, with or without egg yolk. Downtown Valencia, just near the bus turistic it was 13,50 euros. I refused to buy any. In a shop on the way to Plaza de Toros we  saw a shop with sweets and a turron was 3,50 euros. My husband exclaimed: "It cannot be ! I think she said trece and not tres. Go ask again.". I asked the girl behind the counter and she repeated: "Tres. Tres euros coma cinquenta".  Incredible ! I have bought five different ones, and back at home I gave soft ones to a friend of us and my parents-in-law (I prefer the hard ones cause I am a wild person - my mother-in-law even calls me barbarian, hahaha! But the soft one with walnuts surprised me and maybe became my favourite). In Holland you can find smaller, soft and chewy version of turrones at HEMA - they use rather the French name of it...  nougat.