4-28 Tarragona – Barcelona

Today we drove from Requena to Tarrgona where we visited the Roman amphitheater beautifully situated next to the ocean and walked along the beach. The water was cold but not too cold. Interestingly, the sand here have specks of gold that shimmer in the sun.

After our visit to Tarrogona, we drove to Barcelona. We visited Colonia Guell – a church/crypt designed by Antonio Gaudi for a workers’ colony. The church was not open as it was closed for restoration but we still got pretty good views from outside the fence. In addition, the architecture of the little town is very particular.

Next, we tried to visit Park Guell. However, it took us nearly 1.5 hrs to drive the 20 km from Colonia Guell to Park Guell because of heavy traffic. It turns out that tonight is a big semi-final soccer game between Barcelona and Milan Inter. While crawling along in traffic, we saw a huge commotion going in the opposite direction. It was the motorcade of the Barcelona team – preceded and followed by police cars, protecting a big team bus and followed by a long tail of many motorcycles driven by Barcelona fans dressed in team jerseys and waving team flags. When we finally got to Park Guell, it was fairly late and there was no parking to be had. We ended up giving up and heading off for dinner instead, in the Gothic quarter. After dinner we learned that Inter had won due to the unenthused people in Barcelona jerseys and a passing motorcycle shouting cheers of Inter while passing by.

4-27 Albufera - Sueca - Xativa - Requena

We left Valencia today (after one last horchata drink with farton pastry - yum) and headed south to Albufera lake. We stopped by Albufera Lake and then by the ocean on the other side. As we were leaving Valencia a dense fog passed over the city covering everything in gray but as we drove around the lake the blue sky reopened and the view was glorious.



Next we passed into Sueca which appeared to be a sleepy dusty town with one and only one beautiful building in town. There we bought supplies for lunch and had a wonderful picnic by the orange groves where we dined in the wafting scent of the orange blossoms. We have been really lucky in terms of our timing in the Valencia region. We are here at the perfect time for wonderfully scented orange blossoms to greet our every walk and drive. We also picked some orange blossoms and have placed them in the car in little cups of water - now every drive is freshly perfumed, naturally!

Our next destination was the castle of Xativa. It is an immense castle that served as a major post before 1707. The views from the castle were spectacular!!

And finally, we concluded our day in Requena - a little city with a medieval center. We are staying in a hotel in the heart of the medieval center which consists of narrow winding streets within medieval city walls perched on a hill. The medieval part of the city seems to be in repair but the rest of the city is bustling.

We had dinner at our hotel and had the tasting menu which apparently meant all the specialties of the house and was enough to feed an army. I think we may have gotten through 1/4 of the food. Most of it was pretty good. Especially the fried pig tails I especially ordered.

Back to Barcelona tomorrow.

4-26 Valencia

Today we explored the city of Valencia. We walked around and came across the big market - one of the largest in Europe. It was awesome - so many yummy goods!!To
Mmm...yummy pig parts!
Paella pans of every size!
Old stuff

The bullfighting arena (not the collosseum)

For our last dinner in Valencias - paellas of course. We went to a lovely little restaurant across the city of arts and sciences - offering lovely evening/night views.
Dinner consisted of a plate of cheeses each paired with its fruit/flower counterpart, paella with squid and artichokes - absolutely phenomenal, and ending with yummy sweets.
A plug for the place we're staying in - Rooms Deluxe - a part of a company that offers many low-cost housing options in Valencia. http://www.roomsdeluxe.com/?l=en - cheap clean rooms with free wifi at good prices - what more could you ask for.

4-25 road to Valencia

After a long visit to the airport Hertz station to add a second driver and a long phone call to Mastercard, we were off towards Valencia.
Our first stop was in Sitges - a beach town not too far from Barcelona. Apparently, this place is crazy busy in the summer months but since it was so warm and beautiful today, there were plenty of people sunning already. It was a really pleasant stop along the beach and for brunch - pulpitos (little octopi) - quite yummy.




We also made an unplanned stop in Sagunt because we saw the huge castle complex from afar and had to visit it. It's apparently the site of a critical battle between Rome and Carthage and is historically significant in many era after thus bearing the architecture of many empires. We failed however at actually getting to the castle because it's very well nestled on high. We made several attempts - both by car and by foot - but were nevertheless defeated by the formidable fortress. The car attempts were quite freaky. Fortunately, Antonio was driving - 45 degree inclines, exactly 1 car width narrow lanes, acute angle turns, and cars crazily parked along the way. The town itself was also very strange. It was as if it were a fully functional town from half a century ago that fell into decline and has just been stuck in time.



Finally, we arrived in Valencia where we found a nice little hotel next to the City of Arts and Sciences which is impressively beautiful. After a long walk around these sculpturous buildings, we headed into town for dinner - paella of course. I have a feeling we'll be sampling many paellas before the week is through.