Valencia, Spain

We got up early and planned the day. Shay and I wanted to go to the beach. Leslie wanted to stroll around town, so we did our own thing today. We walked to the market in the morning.

The Market

"These handles are too small for my gigantic hands"

"I don't know what you're talking about, they're perfectly normal sized"

Leslie had a map and was on her way!

After some breakfast, we split for the day. Leslie walked around town, and we went to the cathedral, up the tower that looked over the whole city.

Very steep and winding steps!

At the top! Finally.

Beautiful views

We walked through town to get to the bus stop.

An old man at the bus stop spoke to us in Spanish and got us on the right bus to the playa (beach, or platya if you’re catalan). Bus number 19 from the nord station area gets you to the strip that goes along Malva Rosa beach.

We got there with no problems passing the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias, very modern architecture. It was hot, and we didn't want to get off the bus and have to get back on again. So we took pictures as we passed.

Really bad side view of the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias

Driving through town, was like driving down Rodeo Drive. The streets have a boulevard in the centre and are lined with palm trees. Very beautiful.

The beach was very nice. There were miles and miles of beach. The sand was soft. I think this was a man made beach. Lots of little waves and a smooth sandy bottom. It was clean, but there wasn't any food or drink for sale.

La Playa

View of the port in the background

I love the ocean!

We walked around shops and found a paella magnet for us and Leslie. We found a place for a bite to eat. Most kitchens are closed around 4, but we found some tapas and drinks on a patio. We ate choricitos, papas bravas and something else, I can't remember.

We took the bus back, skipped stopping at the Ciudad de las Artes y Sciences again, as we were hot and it was smack in the middle of the sun, no shelter.

It kind of reminded of us of a certain part of the female anatomy...not sure what architects Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela were going for here...

On the drive home we passed some unique sculptures. We got off the bus at Placa de l'Ajuntament. Very pretty. There is a cool fountain, lots of shops, and gorgeous modern castle-like buildings.

Placa de l'Ajuntament

We made it back and met Leslie at the bar by our apartment.

The Bar beside/below our apartment

Some neighbourhood art

We went to the local "mussels" place that was recommended to us by Marina. Locals stand and throw mussel shells on the floor, while the tourists sit at the surrounding tables. We had a bunch of tapas, the mussels were ok. Salty. The rest of the food was mediocre.We were getting a little tapa-ed out at this point, as we were finding the selection slim, the prices high, and the taste bland to mediocre at best.

We walked to the Italian place where Leslie had eaten lunch and got dessert…some banana thing and lemon meringue pie. Ok.. not as good as mom makes of course.

Most things close around midnight here, so we headed back to the apartment.