QuattroRomeo

We reached this restaurant in a beautiful orange tree-lined square, where they served us outside. We had a variety of drinks here, including the best sangria I have ever had, and of course some bites to eat. It was so quiet here and beautiful- felt a bit surreal.

We walked through some lovely streets on our way to the last tapas spot:

Hi Val! Yes we got it, thanks!

We did have great weather. With the exception of Toulon, where it rained in sheets at times, most of the trip was just right for sightseeing.

Next to the church, there were a few shops. I liked this one, where I bought a casual handbag with 'Valencia' on it that everybody seemed to like. The prices in town were better than other ports!!

As we continued walking, there was this beautiful church:

The church led into this square. Suzie said that in the hot summer, the buildings on either side have hooks and they string up a huge canopy!! You can sort of make out the lines going across in the air for the canopy in the next 2 photos:

As we made our way through town, we saw a few places selling paella. We didn't stop at any of these, but Suzie does a paella tour as well!

Further along we went into this old church:

Baptismal font:

Of course we had tastings and purchases here!!

Next stop- CHOCOLATE shop!!

Scenery as we walked around the block:

I like gargoyles!..

Next we went directly across the street, to an interesting organic foods shop that was very charming; it sold only locally produced items. The orange cocktail was very nice- DH had fun with security getting it through the scanner at the port later, but he was able to convince her to let it through!!...

Ceiling in the shop:

The contraband orange cocktail:

Suzie had arranged tastings for us in the market, too- we had some delicious cheeses, prosciutto, orange juice, cava wine, and turron - all delicious!

The high ceilings and excellent ventilation in the market building meant there were virtually no unpleasant smells, even with all the meat counters.

Thought this shop was rather interesting:

Next we headed to the Valencia Market!

This house is just next to it; as you can tell, many buildings are being restored.

This particular one was being embellished with embroidery!!

They still make ladies' fans in Valencia!

[

Some photos of the old town as we walked along:

This photo includes "the narrow house"- it is the one with pink doors!

We visited several eating places, including a cafe that served horchata- we quite liked trying this local beverage, it sort of tasted like a blend of almond milk and carrot juice, and looks like almond milk.

The tapas foods we had throughout the day were good-sized portions, and delicious.

Across the street from the Horchateria, we had some tapas later on at this place (excellent):

You're doing a great job; you have lots of great pics.

Thanks AF-1, it's a bit of a challenge to figure out the right number of photos to post! enough to be interesting, not too many to be repetitive! Glad you are enjoying it.

Selfish, selfish twits. What is it about a few people that, for the sake of a momentary gratification, damage something that is never their own?! Just like graffiti vandals everywhere, we are all left with the ugliness of their actions.

If we can't "throw them to the lions," then how about making them clean some sidewalks or clear up areas around the Coliseum of garbage?!

need to break now, continued tomorrow evening!:)

The next part of the tour included intermittent, multiple! stops for bites to eat, during our stroll about the old town. While Valencia is a big city, the historical centre is quite compact, so there wasn't a tiring amount of walking there; I believe most people could enjoy it. There are a lot of sit-down breaks during the tour, and Suzie did not rush anyone.

The high rise apartments in the area are required to build in complementary design to the Arts and Sciences buildings, so they look like this:

We rode the 'cone' elevator down to street level, where we took taxis to the old town for the tapas tour.

We moved on to the Opera House building, which looks like a space helmet from one angle, and the surface of it was not white like I had remembered from photos, but bare metal. Suzie explained that it was originally covered with white ceramic pieces (mosaic) when it was built, but the pieces kept falling off! So the surface has been stripped and they are testing different types of adhesives. You can see the test patches in one of the photos.

Looking back at the science building:

Opera house toward the back of the photo:

Sorry duplicate post

The Science building was open, so we went in briefly and had a quick look around. It is worth a visit to even the washroom in here - what an ultramodern space! I popped into the gift shop as well for a little souvenir.

Valencia, Spain

We joined a roll call excursion for this port, to enjoy a day with Suzie, of "Tours in Valencia". The tour was divided into 2 parts- first we saw the City of Arts and Sciences, then we had a tour of the old town, with tapas tastings along the way.

Suzie used a series of taxis to get our group from port to the City of Arts and Sciences. The modern structures there are huge and unusual. Being November, there were no crowds and it was easy to stroll from building to building, while Suzie gave us some background.