Our visit to Valencia was an afterthought so the timing was not particularly well-planned. Little did we know that we had arrived in this beautiful city just as it was beginning its biggest celebration of the year - Les Falles, a commemoration of St. Joseph and the coming of spring - one continuous street party filled with traditional costumes, marching bands, elaborate street lights, amazing sculptures, and, most of all, pyrotechnics. It's a festival like no other in the world and it's no surprise it is on UNESCO's "intangible cultural heritage of humanity" list. It is technically a 5-day affair from March 15 to March 19, but in reality it completely consumes the city starting two weeks earlier.
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Armed with Hop’s list of “must-see” attractions, we set out to take in as much as we could of Valencia (pronounced “Ba-LEN-thee-a” by the locals). Here are just a few of the highlights. Another stroll through the riverbed Jardí del Túria park brought us to the Museu de Belles Artes (Museum of Fine Arts). They have a great collection of works by Joaquin Sorolla - who was born in Valencia and has become one of our favorite artists. They are exhibited along with paintings by those who influenced him and those whom he influenced. Not quite as captivating as the museum in his Madrid home, but a great take nonetheless. Nancy’s cousin Kathleen - a faithful follower on our blog - added a comment to our first visit to Barcelona and mentioned a former colleague who was living in Valencia - “should you be headed in that direction”. Little did she know that her introducing us to Hop and Douglas would prove to be one of the highlights of our visit there. They were full of excellent suggestions for restaurants and sites, and they introduced us to a number of US expats who created a sense of community that we had been missing as we journeyed mostly alone. Some of these folks were veteran travelers who’d been to many places, yet they were unanimous that Valencia was the best - “Shh...don’t tell too many people our secret”. On our first full day in Valencia we set out to explore the Jardí del Túria where the City of Arts and Sciences was built. Admittedly when we first heard that Valencia had turned a dry riverbed into a park, our expectations were pretty low - perhaps a dusty bike and walking path? Were we ever surprised.
We love to open ourselves up to serendipity and stumble upon great things that we never expected. The coastal city of Valencia Spain was added to our itinerary at the last minute - for very practical reasons - and it turned out to be one of our favorite places in all of Europe. In this and the next few posts we'll share what makes this an absolute must-see city, especially in March.
Saturday (February 22) began with a trip to the beautiful Parque de el Retiro that was alive with locals and tourists. Over 300 acres in the center of the city, the park is filled with pavilions, fountains, art exhibits, a manmade pond with boat rentals, and all variety of flora. At one point we ran into a group of swing dancers enjoying the fresh air and music. After a quick lunch, we trekked over to the nearby Royal Botanical Gardens, but it was clear looking through the fence that it was too soon in the season to be worth the price of admission. February 19, 2020 The high-speed train glided us across the Spanish countryside - through the Andalucian mountains, olive groves, vineyards, and hill-top villages on our way north from Malaga to Madrid, Spain's capital city. The Renfe AVE had us in Madrid in 2 hours and 30 minutes where we hopped onto the city's extremely efficient Metro to our AirBnB "Hogar Dulce Hogar (Home Sweet Home)". We tried something different this time and chose an apartment outside the city center, but convenient to public transportation. This one was literally steps from a Metro station. We purchased the 10-trip rechargeable card and used it a lot. What a difference a week makes. Just days ago we were seemingly all set to ride out the COVID-19 storm in beautiful Cascais Portugal. Today we are still healthy but starting a 14-day self-quarantine, at the advice of the CDC, in Cambridge Massachusetts.
We are not looking at this as the end of our adventure. We prefer to call it our next phase. This post covers the past week, how and why our plans shifted. and some first hand observations of what it is like to travel during this historic time, This post is intentionally out of order so we can update everyone on how we have spent the past week dealing with the rapidly accelerating tidal wave that is COVID-19. First, we want to assure everyone that we are well and safely hunkered down in Cascais, Portugal at least until the end of April. Somehow we have managed to stay one country ahead of the wave. We want to acknowledge our family and friends for their concern, support, and advise. The whole world is in this together. If you've been following our blog, you'll know that we have code-named travel day as "adventure day". Well...this past week we've had 4 action-packed "adventure days". Here goes... Sometimes our visits are influenced by the cheapest flights, and flying to Málaga in the Andalusia region of Spain was our best way to get back to the mainland from the Canary Islands. The fact that it was the birthplace of Pablo Picasso made the decision easier. The streets were ablaze in preparation for Carnaval and we heard more non-Spanish speakers than ever in this lovely city on the Costa del Sol that is a surprisingly popular cruise ship stop. |
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