Last Night

I liked the lunch place so much that we went back for supper.  Frank said he was still kind of full and only wanted a chicken caesar salad.  I asked if he could help if I got the dinner menu, and he said yes.  So I got the night menu thing.  It was 2 appetizers, an entree, and dessert, for 18.90 euros.

This is another OMG moment.  For appetizers, I got what was described as mini fried squid.  I also got the mussels.  That was an appetizer!  The squid was actually hunks of squid, lightly fried, and delicious.  The mussels were the same as earlier.  I ate about half and was getting stuffed.  Then my main course came out.  I had ordered what looked like a shellfish platter.  Well, a plate full of all kinds of little fried things came out.  It seemed to be squid, mussels, maybe clams and oysters.  The frying kind of overpowered these, but they were still good.

I made a mighty dent in the mussels and fried stuff.  Frank tried to help a little bit.  We'd eaten the squid since it came out first.  So imagine my surprise when a plate of shrimp came out!  Not those tiny ass shrimp you get in a lot of American restaurants, but what I call shrimp.  Frank asked if I had room, then laughed as I tore into the shrimp.  I love shrimp!!!

After the shrimp, I was even fuller.  But I still had a dessert course to go.  It was a rich, dense chocolate cake, with chocolate icing, and some real whipped cream on the side.  It was so rich and I was so full that I couldn't finish it.  Yes, I left chocolate cake on the table.

This was a fitting end to our trip.

Last Day

I slept in again today.  More Castle in Spanish.  Frank wandered around and hit the souvenir shop by the post office.  He found me a t-shirt!  I've been looking, but there aren't that many fat Spaniards, so they didn't have many big sizes.  After he got back and cooled off for a while, we set out for lunch.

OMG!  We stopped at yet another random cafe, but this one had a menu de dia, like in France.  You got an appetizer, entree, and then a drink/coffee/dessert for about 9 euros.  I got my ensalada Valenciana.  This is the one that had a piece of white asparagus on it.  Frank got something, we weren't sure what until it arrived.  It was a bowl full of steamed mussels!  I counted and there were about 2 dozen of them!  They were so good and rich!  Lightly cooked in butter and something, maybe wine.  Wow!

Our main course was sort of a fish and rice soup.  It had fish, clams, squid, and shrimp in it, with rice, and saffron, in a soup.  Also really good.  After that we went to the supermarket and took pictures and got some candy.  Then back to the hotel to wait for supper.

Still Here

Sorry I didn't post last night.  I was tired and my blisters hurt. We didn't do much.  I slept in and watched Castle in Spanish while Frank wandered around.  He went back to the main post office and mailed our postcards.

After he got back, and rested from the heat, we set off down the Turia towards the Arts & Sciences stuff.  It's really cool!  There's a Gulliver park, which is basically stairs and slides in a vague man shape.  So kids can pretend they're Lilliputians and walk on Gulliver.  There's tons of water features and trees.  There was mini-golf and a cafe.

We finally made it to the Arts & Sciences stuff.  First there's the Opera House.  They have this thing called "culture" here.  I've heard of it, but it can be hard to find in the US.  Next is the Sciences building.  They had different exhibits, but we just rested and I had a chorizo sandwich at the cafe.  Chorizo here is more like a peppered salami.  It was yummy!

There's a walkway down the side of the Sciences center but we went on to the aquarium.  We didn't get in.  The aquarium is big and had dolphin shows and stuff, so it cost almost 30 euros.  We balked at that and headed back.  There's a long "walkway" down the side of the Sciences building.  It's got a pool on the bottom, and palm trees on top.  It's hard to describe, you'll have to see the pictures.

We headed off towards the restaurant section and found a cafe for lunch.  I had ensalada Mediterraneo!  It was similar to the ensalada Valenciana I've had at a bunch of places now.  Valenciana is basically lettuce, tomato, olives, and tuna.  Variations include carrots, egg, and asparagus. For dressing, you get oil, vinegar, and salt.  This cafe had avocado in the salad and it was great! Frank had some kind of chicken, bacon, and cheese sandwich. His was good too.

After lunch we rested up until supper.  My feet hurt a lot, so Frank went to the kebab place to get takeout.  It was closed, so he went to the one around the corner.  It was okay.  The fries were good. So was the taziki.  But the chicken was kind of charred.  Oh well.

More Driving

Today we went back to Denia, since we didn't get there yesterday. We really liked it.  It seemed like more of a water sports town than just a place with a beach.  And it was much less crowded than Alicante.  The beach wasn't pristine, it had seaweed on it, so that may have been one reason.  But we thoroughly enjoyed it.  It's a little touristy, but in an okay way, not in an annoying way.  There's a ton of apartments and villas, and a section of cafes and shops along the beach and marina.

We did have one adventure there.  We were only a block or so off the beach and wanted to go see it.  We kept seeing these red signs saying access point or beach access.  Finally, at a red light, there was a left turn towards the beach.  There was a wall where the left turn would take you, but a road just behind that.  And it said beach access.  So we turned left.  We realized it might have been a mistake almost immediately.  It was a dirt road, not much larger than the car.  We kept going, hoping to turn around at the beach.  It got narrower and curved.  When we finally got to the end, the beach was right there.  And there were people, looking at us like we were crazy.  There was no way to turn around, so Frank had to back up all the way to the main road, in a standard, in a tiny curvy lane.  I got out and tried to direct him, and eventually we made it out!

We found parking in Denia itself, and had a snack, then walked around and took photos.  There was a sign about the flora and fauna of the region.  The borders were defaced with graffitti, but there wasn't any over the pictures or words on the sign.

After our break, we headed back to Valencia.  We rested up and then set out for dinner.  We went to place we'd seen the first night, on our way home.  We got empanadas as an appetizer and they were amazing!  I got a tuna salad and Frank got gnocci.  The salad was good, and came out in a huge bowl.  Frank's gnocci was okay.  The sauce was good, but the gnocci weren't quite done correctly.  The empanadas were so good that we got some to take home for breakfast in the morning.

Not much to post about today.  We tried to take it easy.  My blisters were still sore and Frank's need hurt from the driving.  We're hoping to see the sciences building, etc. tomorrow.

Paella Valenciana

We really liked the place from a few nights ago, and they had Paella Valenciana, so we decided to try it.  We went back, and the lady remembered us.  We ordered the paella, which takes about 40 minutes.  It was at least an hour.  They give you chips when you sit down, so I ate chips while I waited on our appetizer.  We got the fried calimari again.  It was really really good.  I even tried some of the mayo that came for dipping.  It was good too.  And this time we weren't so hungry that I forgot to take pictures!

Finally, our paella came.  OMG!  It barely fit on the table.  This was the real Paella Valenciana with chicken and rabbit, and the harricut (sp?) beans and green beans.  It was amazing.  It was so rich I couldn't each a whole lot of it. I ate a hunk of chicken and a hunk of rabbit, and the rice and beans, and then I was full.  The beans were really good.  I thought they tasted funny at the organic place.  The whole dish was seasoned well, and the chicken and rabbit were also seasoned well.  I stopped eating, but Frank was determined to finish it all.  He had red wine, which really helped cut the richness.  So after a valiant effort, he finished the paella!  This was the best paella we've had in Valenciana.

After that we sat for a while and then asked for the bill.  We were both completely stuffed. But the lady brought us more shots.  This time I asked what was in them.  It's kinshasa (sp?), a white rum from  Brazil, and passion fruit.  The other night it tasted like half rum-half passion fruit.  Tonight it was like all rum with a bit of passion fruit thrown in.  I drank most of it, and Frank drank most of his.  Then we wadded our way home.

Back to Valencia

The drive back was much better.  We took the more scenic road and passed through a bunch of small towns and big towns.  Some were pretty neat, some were okay.  One looked kind of like it was dying.  Of couse, it was near an industrial park.  There was some great scenery.  There were a lot of orange orchards outside Valencia.  And we went by the park below Valencia. I think it's some kind of wetlands or something.

We made our way back into town, on the street on the opposite side of the Turia from our hotel.  How easy was that!?  If only we could have found it on our way out of town.  It was after 6 pm by now, so we went to our room to rest up before supper.

We'd had 2 paellas so far but not the true Paella Valenciana.  So we wanted to find out how it tasted.

Alicante

Alicante was fairly nice.  It's a big city, but we figured since they had an esplanade along the beach, and were known for the beach, that there would be parking near the beach.  Nope.  We drove past the beach, then past the marina, then turned around.  We almost turned into a parking garage on the back side of a building, but it looked like a pedestrian pathway.  Frank turned there and I was like "Is this a road?"  Turns out it was a brick road behind the building.  But it was too far from the beach so we kept looking.

We finally found a parking sign I'd spotted before and turned in there.  Anyone who's driven in Europe knows what comes next.  You realize why the cars are so small.  Because the damn parking garages are tiny.  (Yes, I know it's really because the roads are so tiny between all the old buildings.)  A parking spot is slightly larger than a small car.  That's it.  And every few spaces there's a square pillar holding up the garage.  Which eats into that space.  Frank did a good job parking.  There was a couple in something the size of a Geo Metro that had to back up about 6 times to get into a space.

The pedestrian exit for our parking garage was up a staircase, which took you to a kid's version of Coney Island.  I kid you not! (Pun intended.)  It was called something like World of Kids.  There were the regular carnival games like where you shoot the water gun to make your whatever go up the wall the fastest.  But it was short, for kids.  There were mini foosball tables and mini pool tables.  A single swing.  Like those rides at amusement parks where everyone gets on an individual swing and then it goes up in the air and turns so that you're swinging.  This was the single version of that.  Coin operated.  Everything there was coin operated.  Mini go kart track, mini bumper cars.  One of those mini carousels with 3-4 horses on it.

After leaving Coney Island we were on the walkway around the marina.  We followed it, then crossed over the esplanade.  It looked like marble, in a wavy pattern, and there were palm trees down either side.  The center was basically a midway with shops and people hawking things from something they were carrying.  There was also a McDonald's and a Burger King.  Yuck!

We kept going and crossed back over where the end of the marina made way for the beach.  It was packed!!!  There was a long "peninsula" with a hotel on it so we walked down that side and took pictures.  It's beautiful.  The Med was several different colors of blue and there was a huge wind.  Frank had to hold his hat.  I managed to keep mine on, but it's woven.

We stopped for lunch there because we were hungry and really liked the view of the sea. We both love the seaside, we're just not beach people.  Lunch was okay.  It was at a hotel restaurant, so it was a bit overpriced.  We had prawns in garlic as an appetizer.  It was good, but it was small shrimp like you'd get in NWA.  Then we split paella mariscos.  Seafood paella.  It was okay, but not as good as the organic place.  We sat for a while, then headed home.

This was when we discovered that Spanish parking garages do not work like American parking garages.  When you go in, you get a ticket from the machine.  That's the same.  But when you leave, there's a machine near the exit, somewhere.  You have to get out of your car and put your ticket in this machine.  Then you pay, and it gives you a ticket that lets you out of the garage.  So you get back in your car and go to the garage exit and can leave.  We caused a small backup and excited the attendant because we didn't know that.

Driving to Denia

My feet have been hurting and it's been so hot, that today we decided we'd drive to Denia......so we drove to Alicante.  Navigating in Spain is not the same as navigating in the US.  In Valencia, sometimes the right lane is for buses and taxis only.  Sometimes it's not.  When you stop at a red light, sometimes the lanes across the intersection don't line up with the lanes on this side.  And if you're turning at a major intersection, it's a scrum.  When we first got here, we thought people just couldn't stay in their own lanes.  Now we know better.

So we left the hotel, trying to find the road to Denia.  We couldn't find any road numbers, so thought we'd head towards Alicante, which has a big interstate.  But all we saw were roads to Barcelona and Madrid.  Since Barcelona is north, we took Madrid.  Eventually it said Madrid-Alicante-Airport.  The problem is that they have a sign saying, "Go this direction."  You do that and then the road forks, and you maybe see it in time to take the correct fork.  But then your fork forks, and you can't see the sign for which way to go until you're past it.

It was a pain and a half getting out of Valencia and on to an interstate.  It took us several tries to get on the correct one, and it was heading towards Alicante.  So we decided that today we would drive to Alicante. It looked pretty interesting, with mountains and stuff.

The mountains were great!!!  It looks just like New Mexico.  On the way back we even saw what looked like Sandia Peak.  There were also mountains like the Organ mountains towards Las Cruces.  The Spaniards must really have felt at home in New Mexico.

We even got rained on in the mountains.  There was rain, and cool peaks, and tunnels, and switchback roads.  We had to stop at a gas station convenience store for the restrooms.  That's where we discovered that they are the same the world over.  Ovepriced and the coffee sucks.

We finally turned off the interstate around Villajoyosa.  The good roads aren't free here and it cost us almost 15 euros.  We took the smaller road I'd originally been looking for the rest of the way to Alicante.

Yummy Dinner Again

Like I said before, here all the yummy food is just regular old food.  We found another place to try. We're starting to get used to restaurants not opening until 8 pm.  We go out in the morning, have a snack mid to late morning, then lunch around 1 pm, then back to the hotel to cool off and nap.  Then get up and go to dinner.  LOL.

We split our dishes tonight.  We had ensalada Valenciana, Galician style octopus, and iberian pork loin.  They also brought us a little tapas dish of salami on bread when we sat down.  It was really good.  Everything was good.  If you had told me I would go to Spain and eat tuna salad, I would have laughed.  But I did!  The salad was tuna, lettuce, tomato, onion, and olives.  There was a little oil on it and they brought out oil and vinegar.  The vinegar was wine vinegar and really good.  And the tuna was from a fish, not a can.  The tuna Frank had a few nights ago was so good I wanted to try more.

The octopus was great too.  I was thinking little octopi like you get in sushi.  Not so! It was 1 or 2 tentacles cut into bite sized pieces, with potatos, in paprika and butter.  The octopus was chewy and had a generic seafood taste, but it was good.  And, again, it wasn't overcooked, it was just big and chewy.

The iberian pork loin was more of the thin jamon they serve here.  Think Spanish prosciutto, but better.  There was a rectangular plate layed out end to end with the pork loin slices.  It was good, but we had to ask for some bread to cut it with.  It's really strong and a bit salty, so the bread is helpful.

After that we just went home.  We'd hit the mercadona before dinner and got some Cokes and water.  I took some pictures that I'll post later.

More Touristing

Today we went a little slower and left a little later.  It was supposed to be about 90 and it felt it!  That's unseasonably warm, so I'm blaming it on all you jealous haters out there ;)

We did our normal winding around and ended up at an outside exhibition of columns at the MUVIM.  They were neat. There was also an arch and statue.  Maybe of Zeus?  Frank commented on how the metal pillars around the arches had graffiti, but there was none on any of the old stone work.

We finally  made it to the Mercat!  It's awesome!  Unfortunately, there's no seafood on Mondays.  So that sucked.  I only took a few pictures because it was crowded.  It was also warm to we got fresh squeezed fruit smoothie drinkoids.  I got strawbrerry-watermelon and Frank got orange-banana.  They were so good!  They were in half sized plastic cups and cost 1 euro each.

Since it was about lunch time, we stopped at the Lebanese place I'd spied yesterday.  Unfortunately, no shish taouk (chicken kebab).  But I did get a nice fatoush.  Fatoush is a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and pita chips or crumbles in it, in a vinaigrette dressing.  Mine also had lots of radishes and black pepper.  It was nice and cool on the hot day!  Then a guy with a saxophone started playing in the nearby square.  At one point he was playing the Pink Panther song.  (I don't remember what it's really called.)

We also hit a pharmacy.  I forgot to get new insoles for my hiking boots and I could feel it.  And I had a few blisters around my toes.  Got some good gel inserts and now I'm much better.  It seems like there's a pharmacy on every block.

We did some more souvenir shopping and got some postcards to send to people.  So some of you will be getting postcards!  I also passed a paper store and bought another journal.  I got one yesterday too.  I just can't help myself.  After that, I noticed a few paper stores here and there.  Not a lot, but they were there.

By this time it was really freaking hot and we wanted to go back to the hotel and rest. Betweeen the heat and my feet, there were many stops on our way back.  Even Frank was feeling it.  He got a little heat exhaustion.  So we took it easy until dinner.

Dinner

We knew where to get dinner after our first evening here.  We headed back over to that area and looked for tapas.  We didn't find any real tapas, where you get the little portions for a few euros.  And there were a ton of pizza places!  We walked up and down the street, sometimes being acosted by waiters trying to get our business. We finally stopped at a little place with a nice woman who showed us the menu.

At first, Frank wanted to get more Paella Valenciana, to compare.  It's an order for 2, but Frank said he could eat both.  But it would take 40 minutes, so he decided against it.  I ordered shrimp in garlic, calamari, and fried potatoes.  Frank got a meat plate with 2 kinds of iberian ham, chorizo, and something like salami, and some cheese.  OMG!  One of the hams was so freaking good.  We have pictures of the meat plate but were so hungry we don't have any others.

The lady asked if Frank wanted some bread, so she brought out a bread plate with 2 slices of white, 2 of wheat, and tomato aioli.  Wow - that aioli was amazing!  The bread was nice and chewy.  The calamari rings were big and chewy too.  Not rubbery, but chewy because they were so big.  They brought mayonaise instead of marinara, and it wasn't bad.  This is not your mother's Helmann's!  When my shrimp came out, there were 10 of them.  The biggest one was about as thick as a Twix bar.  We were really happy with the meal!  Even the fries were nicely fried and salted.

When we finished the lady brought us some shots, on the house.  They were some kind of passion fruit juice and maybe peach juice in a small glass bigger than a shot glass, with ice and a straw.  It was really good.  I actually drank the whole thing and you know how little I like alcohol.

That brings me to another topic.  Almost every place we've eaten at has given us something extra, for free.  The place where I puked gave us the 2 tapas dishes.  The museum gave us the bowl of peanuts.  The dinner place gave us shots.  It's really nice.

That brings me to my next topic.  We're not eating in fine dining establishments.  These are just random cafes on the street.  The food they serve would be in trendy or upscale restaurants in the US.  Here, they just call it food.

We Act Like Tourists

Today was our first real day in Valencia.  We set off around 8 am, forgetting that it's Sunday.  It was pretty deserted.  We wanted to go to the Mercat Central, and headed off up the side of the Turia.  Then we found a huge pedestrian bridge across and took it.  There were stairs down from the bridge to the Turia that had a sign saying they were from the 15th century and you should use the banister. When we got to the regular auto bridge over the Turia, there was a pedestrian walkway on either side that had beautiful flowers separating the cars and people.

We got to the roundabout to make our turn towards the market, but didn't quite make it.  We took the first left turn instead of the left on the far side of the roundabout.  This put us on a main road through a clothing district.  Lots of shops and boutiques and opticians. 

I finally realized we were on the wrong road because we saw lots of people with luggage and came upon the train station.  It's really nice!  There was a panaria nearby so we stopped for a break.  For 6 Euros we got a ham sandwich (like an unpressed panini), fresh squeezed orange juice in a beer glass, and coffee.  Coffee in Europe is often espresso.  Frank's coffee was about 2 espressos worth and cost 1.2 Euros.  The orange juice was really freaking good.  And large, about 300 ml.  The sandwich was more jamon on a really nice chewy bread. We may go back tomorrow.  The kid running it was nice.  When I didn't understand something he said he just pulled out his phone, talked into it, and showed me the translation.

We wound our way up the street to a plaza with the city government on one side and the main post office on the other.  Really cool buildings!  There was some kind of talk about stopping sex trafficing in front of the city hall.  Then more winding and we got to the Mercat.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  But there were stalls and blankets on the ground, and lots of stuff to look at.  We hit a few souvenir shops and got stuff for people back home.

We headed north towards the Museum of Fine Arts.  We passed a church and maybe a basilica on the way.  There was a violinist and cellist playing on the side of it and they were pretty good.  We got some gelato and sat and watched (and gave them money).

We had to cross the Turia again to get to the Fine Arts Museum.  It was free!  I think it's because it was Sunday.  I seem to remember reading that lots of museums are free on Sundays.  Because, you know, they want you to have culture.  It was a little cooler in there too. We were sweating a lot with all the walking and heat.  The museum was mainly Spanish artists and church paintings:  Jesus, Mary, apostles, martyrs, etc.  There were a few seascapes in the main hall and a small Flemish section, and some portraits.  And, of course, Goya.  There were some really cool alabaster carvings, and some stonework from the Roman era.  Our favorite was a bunch of writing desks and cabinets.  Some had tortoise shell or ivory inlays, and they were pretty cool looking.  No pictures in the museum though.

There was a cafe at the museum so we went for lunch.  Except lunch didn't start until 1 pm.  So we got water and a Coke.  They gave us a bowl of peanuts too.  The water was really good!  It's Salon de Cabras, and it's a Spanish mineral water in a blue glass bottle.  I'm hoping to bring one home.  The Cokes here are really good too, because they're made with sugar.  There are only 4 ingredients in them.

After cooling off we decided to head towards home (the hotel) and find a cafe along the way. Eventually we made it to Mercat Colon, which has been made into a bunch of cafes.  At that point my feet hurt and I was really hot and sweaty so we stopped at one of the first places that had a free spot and a breeze.  It turned out to be organic, and we both got the plate of the day, which was Paella Valenciana.  It just had chicken in it, the real one has rabbit too.  And there were some harricot (sp?) beans, like big lima beans.  It was really good.  The rice was so rich.  Frank said it was definitely made with chicken stock.  

After that we went home, cooled off, and napped for about 3 hours.  Frank thinks we walked 6-10 miles, with all our winding around and going the wrong way.

Supper Quest

I had looked up the area on Google a few months ago, so I knew there was a restaurant area across the Turia from us, so we headed there.  The Turia is awesome!  More on that later.  They eat late in Valencia, so we thought everything would be open by 7pm.  Not!  There were a few places open, but most seemed to be waiting until 8.

We passed a fruit and vegetable store, and another one that was closed.  There were bread stores and pastry stores!  The few cafes open seemed to be winding down.  And nobody had air conditioning.  There was a slight breeze outside, but no AC inside.  We were sweating trying to read the menus.

We finally found a place to eat at.  We went inside and the lady there didn't speak English, which was fine.  I asked for the menu and we looked at it.  It was 5 pages long.  At this point, I'm over heated, sweating, and in the past 12 hours I've had yogurt, a few peanut butter crackers, and 1/3 of a small sandwich.  I was not in good shape.

I took a quick look at the menu and found hamburgers.  I hate the idea of going somewhere in Europe and ordering a burger, but I felt crappy and my stomach didn't feel too good either.  I figured a burger would sit best.  Frank loves looking at the menus, so I went outside and grabbed a table while he kept reading over it.  It was a really good menu!

Eventually he came outside and then went and placed our orders, and we waited for dinner.  It was a square table with 4 chairs and Frank sat across from me.  I had a Coke, and Frank had an Amstel. I didn't realize that's a Spanish beer.  They had several on tap and he said it was quite good.

When the lady brought the Coke and beer, she also brought out 2 little dishes of goodies.  They were stuff on bread, kind of like bruschetta.  The first one was some kind of chopped shrimp-fish stuff with cream sauce.  The other appeared to be lamb, cheese, and berry stuff.  I took pics, so you can see those later.  There were 2 of each.  I took a small bite of each, but my stomach wasn't happy so I waited on the burger.

Frank had gotten a salad, and it came out first on a golden plate.  It was pimento (roasted red bell peppers), a salad of greens with corn and tomato relish and vinagraitte dressing.  That was also on the peppers.  And there were 2 pieces of tuna, about 3-4 ounces total.  I took a bite of tuna and it was really good!

Finally, my burger came out.  It was on a big square slab with a small dish of what looked like cranberry relish, and a few fried potatos.  The burger bun was ciabatta-ish, but not actually ciabatta.  The burger was thick and had lettuce, tomato, and on top was a bunch of pieces of actual bacon.  Not slices, but pieces, stacked high.

One thing I had forgotten in my crappiness, is that they tend to cook burgers differently in Europe.  It looked about medium, and very pink.  Later, Frank said that could be because they cooked it with the bacon.  And there were lots of herbs in the meat.

I wasn't too concerned about a medium burger, because the quality of meat is better in Europe.  And I like my steaks medium rare.  But I wasn't sure how my stomach woud handle the medium ground beef.

I used my knife and fork and cut off a small bite.  It went down, but not that well. I tried another small bite.  I felt worse.  I drank a little Coke, and tried to let the food settle down in my stomach.  I felt kind of nauseous, so I turned my head a little to the side, and all of a sudden I vomited.  Mostly on the chair next to me.  Which is where Frank had set his hat.

So I puked everywhere.  Just once, but everywhere.  The chair had puke, the sidewalk, my shirt, my jean shorts. There was even a puke stain over 5 feet away. I tried to dab myself off with some napkins and did the same for the plastic chair.  The lady came out and I was like "Lo siento" but she seemed more worried about whether or not I was okay.

There was a mercadona a few doors down, so after dinner, Frank went there to get some Cokes, and maybe something I could keep down.  I stayed at the table with his pukey hat and paid the bill.  Also got my burger to go (Frank ate it later and said it was really good).

Frank got the Cokes and stuff, and one of those clear veggie bags to put his hat in.  It's a felt fedora, so he hosed it off in the shower and it's fine.

We went back to the hotel and cooled down again. I tried to eat a peanut butter cracker and that made my stomach feel bad, so I stopped.  Later I got down some Coke and a few pieces of chocolate.

And thus concludes our first day in Valencia.

Valencia!!!

The flight to Valencia was uneventful.  It was a little plane so we had to go outside and climb up the stairs to the plane.  We were at the end of one of the long terminals.  So then when had to drive down the long terminal, then up the next long terminal.  Basically we ended up not far from where we'd started, just the long way around.  Then we had to drivea to a runway in Outer Mongolia.  Frank joked that the pilot was driving the plane to Valencia!

The Valencia airport was smaller but nice.  It was a short walk to the baggage claim, then a longer wait for the bags.  Then we went through a door where a security dude decided if you looked suspicious and needed your luggage inspected.  We were fine.  It really pays to be a middle-aged white woman.

Next we got our car.  There was a huge line at most of the places, but nobody at ours. Yay!  It was simple and quick, and then we walked across the street to the garage and Frank tried to remember how to drive a stick.  The shifter was backwards.  R was on the upper left.

We got out of the airport and drove into Valencia, with me navigating.  We didn't do much sight seeing since we were tired and driving in a new city.  Our hotel is right on the Turia, so we parked in a spot there because the hotel lot is expensive.

Getting our room was also pretty painless.  We got upstairs and turned the AC on high, and tried to cool off.  Our hotel room has something I like.  When you first walk in, there's a place in the wall to put your key card.  This turns on the electricity.  When you leave, you take it, and everything (except the AC) turns off. Great way to save electricity.

We were soaked with sweat by the time we got in, so we took showers and then passed out for about 3 hours.  Around 7 pm we set off on a quest for supper!

We set off!

So, Friday was takeoff day.  We got the dogs set at the kennel, then went home to finish packing.  I think the hardest part was getting through Bentonville.  It was lunch time and we needed to eat before we left.

Probably the best flight was from XNA to Dallas.  It was 2 seats and 2 seats, and they were big enough you could lean against the back and not hit shoulders with the person next to you.

Dallas to Madrid sucked.  It was a 787, which Frank has requested we never fly again, along with the 767 (which mom doesn't like either).  I am perfectly fine with that.  This flight had okay food and stuff, but the seats were so close that you would hit shoulders.  And my back hurt pretty much the entire way.  I just couldn't quite get comfortable.  Did see a few movies on the flight:  Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Kong: Skull Island, and Paris Can Wait.  I liked all of them.  And there was yummy strawberry yogurt for breakfast.

I think Madrid is probably the start of our saga.  We got in around 9 am and our next flight wasn't until noon.  When you get off the plane, you walk up the big jetway, which was fairly long.  Then you walk all the way down the terminal.  They have 2 terminals with are both shaped like a small letter "l."  Just long straight terminals.  So you walk all the way down the terminal, taking the moving walkways if you want to. Then you get to customs.  That was pretty easy too.  We zoomed through there.  Then we found the terminal for our next flight.  It was in HJK.  They don't give you a gate assignment until 1 hour before the plane leaves.

If  you switch terminals you have to go through security again.  But you don't have to take off your shoes!  So now we had to walk up and down banks of escalators to get to the tram to get to the next terminal and then up from the tram.  We finally made HJK, and it was packed, and had a bunch of perfumey shops stinking it up. I was getting pretty hungry by now.  I get low blood sugar and all the walking and sweating and not really having breakfast was getting to me.

We passed several places to eat but they were all serving breakfast, which was mainly croissants and jam.  Not what you need when your blood sugar is low.  There were a few pre-packaged sandwhiches, but the tuna salad sandwich looked the best, and there was no way I was eating a pre-packed tuna salad sandwich at an airport.

We hung out for a while in a quieter area of the terminal.  Once we got our gate number, we found a shop nearby that had better sandwiches. I got the caprese and jamon sandwich.  It was pre-packed, but looked a heckuva lot better.  It had lettuce and tomato, on ciabatta.  I called it my JLT - jamon, lettuce, and tomato.  It was okay.  A little salty.  I only ate about a third of it and saved the rest for later.