We left Barcelona today bound for Valencia. The trip down was through an extremely dry, rocky, scrubby landscape notable for it’s red dirt. What looked like scrub at times turned in to orchards of olive trees and citrus trees. The citrus trees stood out for their comparative green-ness making a sharp contrast to the vest of the vegetation.
As we headed south we were introduced once again to the ‘highway hookers’. We haven’t seen them for some time. Some of them looked like they had walked straight out of the kitchen and had seen better days, others looked like they had come from the bedroom and forgotten to get completely dressed. Even where they were absent, there were the empty chairs with a towel or handbag draped over it, reserving their spot. Nearby you were sure to see them rearranging themselves amongst the shrubbery, or perhaps a car emerging from down a dirt lane. They seemed to be doing a successful trade considering it was still only mid-morning.
We stopped for lunch down by the waters edge in a small place of which we are still to ascertain its name. It was another nondescript Spanish town, with dry red earth and a population that seemed to have gone into hiding. The occasional clay tiled roof emerging from the sea of scrub. As we sat there eating our cold chicken sandwiches we looked out over the sea in the direction of Italy to the east and Africa to the south. But there was nothing to be seen but the haze obscuring the horizon. We would like to say that we were basking in the Spanish sun, but the sun is a mere weak spot of light in the clouds. We have a very anemic looking sky today.
We arrived in Valencia in good time hoping to spend some time wandering around the city, but this plan was thwarted with our checking in process. It took almost two hours to find the place, find a public phone that worked, so that we could ring the owner to come and let us in. But we finally got checked in to a wonderful place, right in the heart of the old city, on the seventh floor, looking down on the narrow lanes and back alleys. We even managed to score ourselves a good parking spot, which judging by the expectant queues that formed every time we went anywhere near our car, was a better score than we had first anticipated. They have an unusual arrangement on this narrow, single lane street, the parking on one side of the street is free and the other is metered and paid for (which is actively policed).
We went for a walk which firstly took us to the Cathedral, ‘Cathedral de Valencia y El Miguelete’. This church is well known for two things, it holds the withered, dried, right arm of St Vincent, and secondly the only ‘Holy Chalice’ that is recognized by the Vatican, and apparently the one used in the ‘Last Supper’. We saw the right arm in its little golden case, but the Holy Chalice had been locked away for the night, so we will have to go back in the morning for a peek. But aside from these two objects, that are certainly worth mentioning, it is a very cool old church. As you walk in, the interior is quite dark but is illuminated primarily by the light coming from the alter end of the church, which leads you down through the nave to its cumulation of ornate gold. By comparison the rest of the church is quite plain looking. Very cool, a very interesting effect.
As we wandered on through the old city we came across the arena that is used for the bullfights. Nothing happening there tonight though except for the procession of tourist gimmick shops that circumnavigated the ground level. On the pretext of buying something we managed to scoot through in the dark and get into the grandstand of the arena. Wouldn’t it be great to come here for a bullfight, but unfortunately there is nothing doing here for the next week or so, so we’ll have to come back for that. We were then faced with the problem of getting out again, but then we figured that we had already been yelled at by irate German woman, it can’t be as bad as that, and it wasn’t.
Meandering on we found all manner of shops, some not too different from home, others selling items that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, and others just take you by surprise. Like the number of shops we found that sold knives, swards, daggers, flick knives, handguns and semi-automatics. You can walk in and buy these things straight off the shelf. Now that’s a scary thought.
Having said that, there have only been a couple of places that we have been throughout or travels where we haven’t felt completely safe walking through the streets at night. But then I am sure that there are areas in these same cities where you wouldn’t feel quite so safe. We are very aware that we only manage to see a small portion of the places that we visit. As a general rule, this is a sad thing as we would like to get to know these places better. Everywhere we go, there is so much more that we would like to see and do.
As we headed south we were introduced once again to the ‘highway hookers’. We haven’t seen them for some time. Some of them looked like they had walked straight out of the kitchen and had seen better days, others looked like they had come from the bedroom and forgotten to get completely dressed. Even where they were absent, there were the empty chairs with a towel or handbag draped over it, reserving their spot. Nearby you were sure to see them rearranging themselves amongst the shrubbery, or perhaps a car emerging from down a dirt lane. They seemed to be doing a successful trade considering it was still only mid-morning.
We stopped for lunch down by the waters edge in a small place of which we are still to ascertain its name. It was another nondescript Spanish town, with dry red earth and a population that seemed to have gone into hiding. The occasional clay tiled roof emerging from the sea of scrub. As we sat there eating our cold chicken sandwiches we looked out over the sea in the direction of Italy to the east and Africa to the south. But there was nothing to be seen but the haze obscuring the horizon. We would like to say that we were basking in the Spanish sun, but the sun is a mere weak spot of light in the clouds. We have a very anemic looking sky today.
We arrived in Valencia in good time hoping to spend some time wandering around the city, but this plan was thwarted with our checking in process. It took almost two hours to find the place, find a public phone that worked, so that we could ring the owner to come and let us in. But we finally got checked in to a wonderful place, right in the heart of the old city, on the seventh floor, looking down on the narrow lanes and back alleys. We even managed to score ourselves a good parking spot, which judging by the expectant queues that formed every time we went anywhere near our car, was a better score than we had first anticipated. They have an unusual arrangement on this narrow, single lane street, the parking on one side of the street is free and the other is metered and paid for (which is actively policed).
We went for a walk which firstly took us to the Cathedral, ‘Cathedral de Valencia y El Miguelete’. This church is well known for two things, it holds the withered, dried, right arm of St Vincent, and secondly the only ‘Holy Chalice’ that is recognized by the Vatican, and apparently the one used in the ‘Last Supper’. We saw the right arm in its little golden case, but the Holy Chalice had been locked away for the night, so we will have to go back in the morning for a peek. But aside from these two objects, that are certainly worth mentioning, it is a very cool old church. As you walk in, the interior is quite dark but is illuminated primarily by the light coming from the alter end of the church, which leads you down through the nave to its cumulation of ornate gold. By comparison the rest of the church is quite plain looking. Very cool, a very interesting effect.
As we wandered on through the old city we came across the arena that is used for the bullfights. Nothing happening there tonight though except for the procession of tourist gimmick shops that circumnavigated the ground level. On the pretext of buying something we managed to scoot through in the dark and get into the grandstand of the arena. Wouldn’t it be great to come here for a bullfight, but unfortunately there is nothing doing here for the next week or so, so we’ll have to come back for that. We were then faced with the problem of getting out again, but then we figured that we had already been yelled at by irate German woman, it can’t be as bad as that, and it wasn’t.
Meandering on we found all manner of shops, some not too different from home, others selling items that you wouldn’t find anywhere else, and others just take you by surprise. Like the number of shops we found that sold knives, swards, daggers, flick knives, handguns and semi-automatics. You can walk in and buy these things straight off the shelf. Now that’s a scary thought.
Having said that, there have only been a couple of places that we have been throughout or travels where we haven’t felt completely safe walking through the streets at night. But then I am sure that there are areas in these same cities where you wouldn’t feel quite so safe. We are very aware that we only manage to see a small portion of the places that we visit. As a general rule, this is a sad thing as we would like to get to know these places better. Everywhere we go, there is so much more that we would like to see and do.
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