Valencia

Was beautiful. We drove down from Barcelona in our little hired Peugeot and stopped at a stack of little towns on the Mediterranean Sea on the way.  

We stayed in a villa converted into a hotel that was gorgeous. The view out of one window was of the rooftline of little villas, the view out of the other window was of an old church (whose bells rang until midnight).

The highlight of Valencia was wandering around the city, stopping for Pinotxo on the way (tapas with toothpicks in them – you pay be the toothpick left over at the end of the meal).

There are an insane number of churches in Valencia, considering that the Socialists burnt them all down during the civil war. On the Saturday night when we were on our way to dinner we saw 4 separate weddings. On our way home the weddings were just finishing. They really like their long Catholic weddings in Valencia.

We also hit the beach (at which we promptly both got burnt – so un-Australian like of us). The Spanish have no qualms about sangria on the beach, which made things a lot more enjoyable.

Valencia also has an oceanic park and an arts centre that were built in fantastic architectural style, that in addition to being hugely expensive to get into, has cost the small city a fortune and is currently crippling their economy. Quite pretty although doesn’t match the old villa style of the rest of the town.

A highlight of Valencia was the Valencia orange juice. It tasted quite simply like no other orange juice I’ve ever tasted. Delish! 2 kilos of oranges costs about 1 euro and the entire outskirts of the town are blanketed in orange trees.