Valencia

We arrived in Valencia on the non-stop early morning flight and left our luggage inside the entryway to our apartment building. We took a short stroll around the neighborhood before our guided tour of the old town. 

The architecture is quite impressive including the church that took more than two centuries to complete. ... 

• Top left. La Llotgeta, originally the Municipal Market Administration Office, now a cultural center.
• La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia, aka the Silk Exchange: Being at the western end of European Silk Roads, silk was a big business in Valencia.
• Bottom right. The Royal Basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken (left) and the Cathedral (right)
• Bottom left. El Miguelete - Valencian Gothic-style bell tower of the Cathedral. It is 50.85 metres high and was built between 1381 and 1424.

We concluded the tour with a stop at the City of Arts and Sciences. Note: We were concerned about the 2024 flooding damage, but the press coverage was misleading. The flooding was severe, but not in the urban center due  to the earlier successful drainage and rerouting of the Tura River. The drained river bed now forms a long and picturesque sunken park that culminates the City of Arts & Sciences, a cultural and architectural complex. Notable buildings and structures of the complex include:

• L'Umbracle – an open structure enveloping a landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia.
• Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía – an opera house and performing arts center
• Museu de les Ciències – an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale. 
• L'Hemisfèric – an IMAX Cinema, planetarium and laserium. The building is meant to resemble a giant eye,
• L'Oceanogràfic – an open-air oceanographic park, the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe (not shown)

Along the way we enjoyed an eye catching ceramic sculpture sitting in the shade provided by a bougainvila shrouded arbor. 

During the tour were introduced to Spanish horchata, a drink made from tiger nuts and the requisite long round pastry (farton) to accompany it (dipping then eating). Later we visited the touristy central market where we noted the fine food and wine seleselection. After the tour we had paella at a restaurant recommended by our guide.

The next morning we returned to the central market and bought snacks, pastries, and wine.

We then wandered across the former Turia River (now a park as previously mentioned) to a shopping center where we had lunch (1st of 2 non-Spanish meals). On our return to the apartment we visited a botanic garden.

Our paella class was a hit. We had a small class, 3 young women from Montreal and a group of 4 from Sydney (a group of 10 failed to show up). Everyone got to participate in the preparation and enjoy the results, Spanish tortilla, paella and dessert.

Las Fallas, a celebration of Saint Joseph and the arrival of spring, is a colorful and unique festival held annually in Valencia from March 15th to 19th. It culminates in the burning of large, satirical monuments called "fallas". Each year one or more  fallas are pardoned and not burned.These are then displayed in the Fallas Museum. Below, clockwise from top left: 

• 2024: Starts with 0. place where no one should be dropped (sorry, I have no idea what that means)
• 2024: Horchatería "the old one". Note: Horchata is the local hot drink we mentioned earlier.
• 1956: Indian Tourist Family. Motto: Tourism at full speed. First pardon of a caricature as a genuinely Falla form of expression The failure humorously reflected the incipient tourist exploitation of the country.
• 1962: Milk Brothers. Reflects the social reality of the rapid growth of cities compared to rural life in which people are itegrated into the environment, both with animals and nature.

More fallas continue:

• 1980: On the tightrope / The Circus. Three elderly people make a thousand balances to avoid falling from the rope that holds them, a situation that the artist equates to the balances they must make each month to be able to survive with the miserable retirement pension they receive.
• 2005: Unconditional love / Love on all fours.  Guide dog, who has put on his rain boots and has taken his owner in his arms to prevent him from getting his feet wet, the man, grateful for the animal's attention, covers him with the umbrella to avoid getting wet. The scene is of great tenderness, while criticizing the flooding that occurs in the streets of Valencia as soon as it rains.
• 2023: The pyrotechnics. This group pays tribute to a profession closely linked to the Fallas festival: pyrotechnics. In the scene, two sisters are forced to contemplate the castle from home, since the little girl has caught an untimely cold in the middle of the Fallas.
• 2013: Classics never die. The public pardoned this group made up of a retired cabinetmaker and his granddaughter who is distracted a toy Trojan Horse while her grandpa tells her the classic story. 
• 2014: A tribute to the writer Miguel de Cervantes.

The Ceramic Museum is in a mansion that was as interesting as the many ceramic pieces that were on display.

For lunch we had our second non-Spanish meal, Turkish, at Dede in the Rusafa district (Borek-a bread, Dede fries, and Donner Kabab with beef and chicken).

The Silk Museum gave the history of silk in Valencia as well as examples of the fabrics.

One day we visited Alcalá, a 1.5 hour drive outside Valencia. It sits on a hillside above the Jucár River. Once an important location it has fallen in population and now is primarily a tourist site. The castle is not impressive but the houses built on and in the hillside all have caves that were used for storage and additional rooms. Today several have caves that pass through the hillside and offer tours and drinks overlooking the river. Before returning to Valencia we dined on huevos rotos (broken eggs over fried or roasted potato) and pork cheeks accompanied by red wines, Bobal and Monastrell. 

We move onto Madrid with a stop in Cuenca.