Two years ago, we had a wonderful exchange student from Spain, Irene, who was forced to return during the COVID outbreak. This summer, for the first time, we were able to visit her and her family. Our first stop was to see Valencia for a few days, the town where she was attending university. She is fluent in English and a wonderful tour guide.
The first day, we drove the three hours from Barcelona (only one train runs on Sunday) and found the Libere, our hotel in with an ancient exterior but modern, spacious interior. Street art was popular, but we only captured it on Pokemon Go postcards. After a brief nap to recover from 35 hours of wakefulness and waiting in line, we had a variety of tapas for dinner at a refurbished central market.
The next day, we saw the town, starting with the Queen's plaza, the mayor's palace, and the cathedral with the Holy Chalice. The flagstones could have dated back to the days of Columbus, but you couldn't swing a churro without hitting some renovation project. At the fruit stands we saw a flat peachlike fruit unavailable in the US, called a Paraguaya.
Cheap, close parking is an issue, but you can walk or take low-cost public transport anywhere.
basin prone to flooding and filled it with an elegant park and latest in architecture. The walk in the park helped to cool us in the 95 degree heat. Even the tree-shaped arches and tile work were reminiscent of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.
It felt like we were walking around on the set of Logan's Run or a Star Trek series.
This structure reminded me of an Avengers movie.
They also had a well-known sculpture garden that I've seen featured on covers.
That night, we celebrated Tammy's birthday at a Prohibition-era New York themed restaurant, Voltereta.
