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.
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