Valencia Market

The market here is as impressive as those in Barcelona.  The common design is a huge open space containing many small vendor spaces.  The ones I've seen in both cities are airy and full of light.  I think they are also meant to inspire awe.  

Think Grand Central Station, but for produce.



 

Inside is where the market is most impressive.



 

At the top, in the center, is a huge glass dome fit for a cathedral.



 

This video gives an idea of the scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKENNkkn8w

 

The market is alive with people, colors, and smells.

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I stood right under the dome, for this 360 view.  And yes, I'm a total geek tourist to do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMslD9uXF0o

 

Not far from the market is this lovely square, with flowers we won't see at home for several more months.



And, of course, the famous Valencia oranges grow everywhere in the city.

We enjoy wandering in old town and discovering the many squares.  Each has its own quirky charm.

This square reminds me of Santa Maria del Pi, the pine tree church in Barcelona.



Pleasant place for coffee and croissants on a sunny Mediterranean morning, no?

I especially love the angel statue.



 

There are religious statues everywhere, but there are also some fun secular ones.  Here's a raised map of old town with brail descriptions.



 

This bathing man gets neither privacy nor respect.

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We found this fountain tucked away in a less traveled square.



 

I think I'm falling for Valencia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laid Back Valencia

There's a different feel to Valencia.  Fewer tourists, and fewer people in general.  It's easier to walk slowly here and enjoy the streets.  The weather is a little warmer, and the people are a little easier going.  We've had great food here, as well.

So, to begin the whirlwind tour, the gates.  At one time, to enter the city you would have to pass through one of the two gates.



 

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Inside the gates is the cathedral.







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The Cathedral of Valencia is said by some to contain the holy grail.

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And, as usual, I found some unusual stuff.  Here's an interesting beast, perched high in the church, ready to pounce.



 

Here are the sun and moon.

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Between them is this gruesome image.



 

These dogs eternally fight over the leg of some less fortunate animal.



 

And here is a very early Goya painting with smirking demons lurking over a dying, but unrepentant man.



 

One last image from the cathedral.  It's a relic.  Can you tell what?



 

Back to Barcelona tomorrow, hopefully by train...

Valencia Trip

We got up plenty early, 5 am, even though the Sants train station is only 3 stops away on the metro.  We were pretty excited, looking forward to a relaxing train ride to Valencia.  We managed to navigate the signs at the station and find the right gate, and that's when the plan went off the rails, so to speak.  Seems there was a fire at one of the stations, and the only way to get to Valencia was by bus.



 

Oh well, lemons and lemonade and all that.  We climbed on board and began the journey.



 

We had plenty of time for goofy pics.



 

And the Spanish countryside flowed by our window.



This picture shows the half-awake, sort of vague, under-water fatigue I feel on a long bus ride.

We finally arrived in Valencia several hours later than planned, grabbed a cab, and found our airbnb lodging in old town.  Here is a flattering view of our street.



This is the graffiti on the wall to Mary's left.



 

And another flattering view of the building we're in.



Did I mention this is old town?  This part of Valencia was once enclosed by Roman walls. Stuff here is old.  Our building is from about 1858, which makes it a newcomer.

This is the stairway to the apartment.

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The beams inside are authentic, not decoration.  The place would fall down without them.

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And the wiring is still an afterthought in places.  Electricity is 220 volts here, and I think these porcelain outlets and switches were installed in Edison's era.

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But, the place is pretty comfortable, and extremely convenient.  You can walk anywhere in old town in minutes.  And it has its charms, for sure.

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So, this is our home base to explore Valencia for a couple of days.  Now, fair warning!  I ran down the battery on my camera today taking pic after pic of Valencia.  It's been one pleasant surprise after another, but I'll go into that in another post.  For now, I'll let my camera recharge, and end this post with Mary looking quite at home here.



 

I love my travellin' girl!

Super Monday

Being in Spain is no reason not to participate in that most American of annual rituals, the Super Bowl.  Yesterday evening we started the pre-game celebrations in the traditional way, by eating.



I talked Mary into sharing one of these delicious pizzas from Nap, one of our fave places to eat in Barcelona.

Since the actual game took place in the middle of our night, we recorded it on ustvnow.com, and this morning, it's Super Monday.  We've managed not to see the final score, and we're watching the game now, as I write this.  And don't think that just because it's morning we're not partying!



We didn't just have an extra cup!  We made a whole extra pot!  Mary's got a pretty good buzz going, though we're bummed that Carolina is behind 16 - 7.

The Christopher Walken beige socks ad is a riot.

16 - 10, and Carolina has the ball.  #%#@!!  Another penalty.  Punt.  Sigh.

OMG, another season of Survivor.

7:00 left.

Yay!  3 and out for Denver.

5:00 left.  Come on, Cam.

Oh no, no, no, no, no...

Ustvnow strikes again.  Our recording ends with 5 mins left in the game, and hope in our hearts.

Needless to say, our hopes were dashed by the final score.  Way too many mistakes, but congrats anyway to Denver and their fans.  That D was unreal.

 

 

 

Spanish Civil War

Friday we took a walking tour based on the Spanish Civil War.  I've been trying to digest what I learned, and come up with ideas I can write about that are fit for a G-rated blog, but the entire affair makes me want to just give up and cry.  What I will say is that lots of things I've seen in Barcelona look different to me now.  I'm re-reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, and googling and reading to understand more.

Instead of writing about it, I'm going to post two photos.  Both are propaganda.  The first is a warning.



 

The second is Marina.



If you want to know more, there's plenty of information available.

 

Back to our trip, here are two pictures I took today.



Random beauty you can find anywhere.

 



And the rarest kind of beauty.

 

 

 

Haircut Day

It's natural to look for differences between here and home, though I'm convinced there are far more similarities.  One thing that really stands out here is the neighborhoods, and especially the neighborhood businesses.  They are everywhere, as they were in Costa Rica.

Here's a quick tour of a random block, starting with this beautiful corner market.



 

These are the businesses on the rest of the block.

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A few happened to be closed when I took these pics, but all are in business.

To me, this implies:

1. There are many enterprising people here.


2. People in the neighborhoods support these businesses.


3. You can run a business here fairly cheaply.

Maybe some neighborhoods like this still exist in the US?  Ithaca has a pretty vibrant small business climate, but I don't think it's at this level.

I'm not suggesting any staggering conclusions here, just noting a difference that's obvious to any casual observer. 

Today, Mary visited a business near this same block.



We searched for a place where she could have her hair done by an English speaker, since neither of us trust our Spanish enough to describe this task.  Sure enough, this place had just such a person, though Mary was surprised when he arrived.  She's never had her hair done by a man, until today.



 

However, mission accomplished.  Mary looks great.



 

My turn next, since what hair I have left was looking pretty shaggy.  I had spotted a barber shop in the plaza with Homo Sibaris, so off we went.  The barber turned out to be from Pakistan.  He was fast, almost scary fast especially with the razor, but my ears are intact, and Mary and I are both delighted with our new do's.

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Haircut day is a huge success!

A Lazy Day

Yesterday we took the day off.  I love that on these extended trips we can take whole days to be lazy, relax, and plan the coming days.  Our latest idea is a 3 day excursion to Valencia.  I made an airbnb reservation for 2 nights, and bought train tickets.  Why Valencia?  Well, there will surely be a winter after this one, right?  Valencia has most of the advantages of Barcelona, but it's a little warmer, and maybe a little cheaper (though we have been pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices here).  Other than that, we didn't do much, other than walking around a little, looking for places where Mary might get her hair done.

We walk a lot, in all kinds of neighborhoods, and I'm always looking for picture opportunities.  So, here are some random pics.  These are from old town.

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This is a vertical garden created on a fence around a schoolyard near our apartment.



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We've also been searching out the best beer in Barcelona.  Mary looks content with her pint at Kaelderkold, a place with lots of craft beers, including half a dozen good ones from Denmark.

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This is a favorite bar in Sants, not far from us.  Good beer, and great tapas!



 

This statue of Poseidon is at a little park near Homo Sibaris.  I can never think of Poseidon without smiling about the wonderful little story by Kafka.  I guarantee it's worth your time to follow the link and read.



 

And finally, a pic that expresses how it sometimes feels to be an American in Spain.



And yes, there really are wild parrots here competing with the pigeons for bread scraps.

We ended our lazy day by watching the Barca - Valencia game on tv.   We are actually close enough to Camp Nou to hear the fans from our back terrace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Run608XF1XE

 

Barca dismantled Valencia's defense with a 7 - 0 victory.  Not only a lazy day, but a triumphant lazy day!

 

 

Las Arenas Mall

We finally got around to visiting Las Arenas, the former bullring turned shopping mall.  I expected, well, a bullring, cleaned and scrubbed, stores added, etc.  Las Arenas is not that.



It's at Placa Espanya, a very busy section of the city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BpOVEARWZE

 

Like so many things in Barcelona, it's an unlikely mix of old and new.  The entire bullring was raised one level, and a huge, modern, upscale mall built under, over, and inside the space.

 

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Here you can see the support for the bullring, which is now mainly a facade.

Inside, the old bullring is barely visible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3rKl-FtQ4o

 

I never did get a good count of how many floors there are.  At least 6.



There are escalators all the way to the roof observation deck.



 

Great views of the city from this altitude.



 

This is part of the infrastructure of the mall, with a permanent fixed crane, and what looks like the hvac system.



 

All parts of the building are served by emergency staircases.



 

I was very impressed by the engineering, which is all visible and makes the entire structure look like an immense modern sculpture.

 

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One last pic from the observation deck.  I felt like a voyeur taking it, but at the top is a penthouse apartment not far from Las Arenas.



I especially like the infinity pool that fades into the skyline of Barcelona.

I'd like to try being rich for awhile.  Looks like fun.

 

Palau de la Música Catalana

Last night we went to the Palace of Music.  The most striking part of the building is the huge stained glass sculpture in the middle of the building's roof.



 

To get a sense of the scale, here's a look from the stage up to the glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylHHGCdqixc

 

These sculptures flank the stage.





 

Our seats were on the main floor, with the palace rising on all sides around us.



 

Colored light made the statues onstage look eerie.

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I really wanted to see this place in its proper context, in a concert.  Often the shows here are classical or Spanish music, but we heard La Locomotora Negra, a uniquely American group of Spanish musicians.  Here's a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS6hQGmGcWI

 

I enjoyed their tour of jazz, though at times it seemed to me they didn't swing quite as hard as an American band might (of course an American would think that).  However, a surprise was in store.  

The leader of the band introduced each number, so we knew his voice, though he didn't sing at all until the encore.  Then, he began singing exactly like Louis Armstrong!   It was crazy.  I still find it hard to believe how well he channeled Louis.  He closed the show with this classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM

 

Nuff said.