mike & rhonda's latest adventure: Discovering More Favourites

Valencia was wonderful and turned out to be a fabulous reward for our Camino trek. The weather changed dramatically, from cool and rain to heat (22-23C) and sunshine. The city itself is beautiful. The central downtown is filled with well maintained historical buildings, 2 huge food markets, a 100 metre wide park (the dry Turria riverbed) that winds its way through the entire city (urban planning brilliance) and the Mediterranean Sea on the east side of the city, with a large port and sandy beach that seems to go on forever. We spent two full days walking around the city which had a good vibe. On the first day we explored both of the busy food mercados and took self-guided tours of the National Ceramics Museum and the old Silk Exchange building (excellent architecture). On the second day we walked along the lovely city park to the sea (5 km), relaxed on the beach and got our feet wet in the cool Mediterranean.

The next day we rented a car and drove north up the coast. The province of Valencia was filled with orange groves, with a mix of olive trees as we got further north. The Deltebre Peninsula had lots of rice paddies which I suppose supported all of the paella meals that were prevalent along the coast. We made a short stop into Peniscola to visit the castle city where El Cid was filmed before spending the night in Vandellos. We spent most of the next day in Tarragona, another great find. It has numerous Roman ruins throughout the city which was founded over 2000 years ago. The remains of the Roman Circus (chariot races), the amphitheatre (gladiator fights), the double-walled old city (original Roman walls reinforced with medieval walls in the 1300's) and the Cathedral were the highlights for us. It is also the home of the Castells championship for the province of Catelonia whereby teams attempt to build the tallest human tower possible, a challenge started in 1712. We missed this year's tournament by a month but saw a picture where the winning team made it to 8 levels which would have been amazing to watch.

We skipped by Barcleona and continued north to Girona for 2 nights. Girona's ancient city was fine but our main reason for stopping there was to visit the nearby city of Figueres, Salvadore Dali's hometown and his magnificent museum. It is the second most visited museum in Spain after the Prado in Madrid. We spent over 2 hours admiring the art of the incredibly talented and imaginative artist. He purchased the former theatre and redesigned it, including a crypt for himself which he permanently moved into in 1989. It was full of fun exhibits and others that made you wonder what hallucinatory drugs drove his mind at times. We gained a new appreciation for his vast array of work (including jewellery design) which we have always enjoyed. We did see a copy of an original piece that we have at home but I am now starting to think that we may be in possession of the copy.

Today we drove east to the coast again and headed south along the scenic Costa Brava. The winding road clung to the side of the mountains with the Mediterranean Sea below. We stopped for lunch in Tossa de Mar, a beautiful seaside town with a 12th century wall still protecting the old village and fortress, with a nice bay and beach beside it. It would be easy to spend more time there especially when it was warm enough to swim in the sea every day.

We have just arrived in Barcelona where we have rented a small apartment near the centre of the city, for our final week on this adventure. Our daughter Rachel will join us from Basel for the last 4 days before we return to the land of freezing temperatures and snow.

Valencia - City Hall

Valencia - downtown centre

Mercado Central - anchovies were considered a delicacy (and priced that way).

Walking through Turria Park on our way to the Mediterranean and coming across the City of Arts and Sciences (only two of 4 fascinatingly designed learning centres).