Valencia, Alicante and Cartagena

Valencia

We landed at the Valencia airport around 9pm, picked up our Avis rental and called our AirBnB contact, Carlos, to coordinate his letting us into the apartment. Carlos indicated that the unit was in a part of the city that is sometimes closed to cars, in which case, he would tell us where to go and meet us there.

We plugged the address into Google maps and headed into town. At that time of night, there is little traffic so we made good time and arrived at the apartment unimpeded by 10pm. There was no Carlos and, while the street signage was challenging requiring several minutes to establish where the apartment complex was, the streets were not closed and we eventually pulled up to our front door. The door, covered with graffiti, did not help to boost our confidence that this unit was going to be any better than the one we had just left in Bordeaux.

The front door to our apartment in Valencia

As we were processing this reality, Carlos arrived on an electric rideshare scooter (they are everywhere we have been so far) and opened the graffiti covered door. Then he led us up two narrow flights of stairs (51 stairs this time) to our unit. It felt like déjà vu. The apartment itself is pretty nice. Everything is new, it is well-equipped, but the layout is strange. It is not very big and yet it has three separate levels. On the first level is a bedroom with its own bathroom and shower. You descend nine stairs and now you’re in the kitchen/living/dining room. Nine more stairs down and there is a second bedroom with a larger bathroom – one where you can actually close the door to the toilet when in use without having the door hit your knees. We selected this bottom bedroom for us to sleep in and the top bedroom to hold our clothes.

By now, Liz was slipping into a remake of Groundhog Day, and had become slightly non-verbal. We put our stuff away, had a glass of wine and went to bed at 11:30.

Early the next morning, before 6am, we were awakened by trucks backing up and unloading stuff. Lots of trucks and lots of stuff. This went on for nearly an hour and it was impossible to sleep while it was going on. The description to our rental reads, “It is in the heart of Valencia, right next to the Mercado Central (you can see it from the balcony)”, as if this was a good thing. I assumed “Mercado Central” referred to the town center, but actually, it is the largest public market I have ever seen (almost 90,000 sq ft) with over 1,000 vendors selling primarily grocery items, and it is opened every day, except Sunday, starting at 7:30am. Can this really be happening? This was Groundhog Day mixed with Nightmare on Elm Street.

The view of Mercado Central from our balcony

I immediately got out of bed, turned on my computer and re-read all 16 reviews of this place on AirBnB which I recalled were pretty positive when I booked this place two months ago. Sure enough, 16 five-star reviews! “Great location!”, “Location! Location! Location!”, “Amazing view of the plaza and the Mercado Central.”, “Such a great space and excellent location!”, “Wonderful stylish apartment in an amazing location.”, “Very nice place and a great location.”, “The location is brilliant for popping out to the market.”, “wonderful location”, “Stylish apartment in amazing location outside the market.”, “Fantastic location!”, “excellent location”, “Great location.”, “It was unbelievable that our “corner shop” was the wonderful Mercado Central”, “Nice and clean location in the middle of everything!”.

To be fair, there were some negative comments made among these glowing reviews of this apparently exquisite apartment in an extraordinary location. Here they are, all of them – “No elevator and three flights of stairs plus stairs in the apartment.”, “The only issue we had was being asked to take the trash out ourselves.”, “The stairs are a challenge after a long day of walking.”, “Some noise in the mornings during market set up but the shutters kept most of it out.”, “The area was quiet from 4pm to 7am and then became a bustling market…”. Are you kidding me?! Would this dissuade you from booking what has been described as maybe the best place in all of Valencia? Two things are clear to me. First, the people writing these reviews are very hard of hearing and quite possibly, totally deaf. Second, you can’t trust reviews on AirBnB. They must screen out all negative reviews. This last point has me nervous about our future bookings.

Needless to say, we were up early, got dressed and crossed the 20 yards of the plaza to enter the market. And, actually, it’s pretty amazing. Fresh produce, fresh fruits, butcher shops, fish markets, bakeries, and on and on. If you could eat it, they had it and you likely could purchase it at ten different stores within the market. We bought some fruit and fresh squeezed juice and then went looking for some coffee.

One of the many fruit stands at the Mercado Central

Liz had grabbed a map from a nearby hotel and as we sat enjoying our coffee (actually, “enjoying” is too generous a word), we laid out a plan to walk the city and see what it had to offer. To Liz’s credit, while super disappointed in AirBnB, she realizes that this wasn’t my fault. We have both adopted something of a “it is what it is, let’s get on with it” attitude. It is time to enjoy Valencia.

Valencia is Spain’s third largest city behind Madrid and Barcelona with a population of 800,000 (about the size of San Francisco) and 1.6 million in the greater metropolitan area. It was founded by the Romans in 138 BC, occupied by the Moors in 714, conquered by the Christians in 1238, became part of Spain in the 18^th century and briefly served as the capital of Spain in the 1800’s. It is a port city (5^th largest port in Europe) on the Mediterranean about 200 miles southwest of Barcelona.

Barrio del Carmen is the oldest part of the city dating back to the Romans and Moors and also happens to be where our apartment is located, so many of the most interesting sites are a short walk for us. Lonja de la Seda or Silk Market is right next to the Mercado Central. It served as the financial center of Valencia, where the merchants work out contracts. It is comprised of a large, open space market with a roof where the trading of goods took place and several, smaller enclosed rooms where the more serious transactions took place.

Inside the Lonja de la Seda or Silk Market

Also, next door to the Mercado Central is the Iglesia de Santos Juanes (St John’s Cathedral). It was originally built, soon after the Christians conquered the Moors in 1238, on a site that had previously been a mosque. After a major fire destroyed the cathedral in the late 1500’s, it was re-built and completed in 1700.

Iglesia de Santos Juanes

From here we walked to Torres de Quart (Quart Towers) which are one of the twelve gates, built in the 15^th century, that once surrounded the old city of Valencia (Barrio del Carmen). Standing next to them, at 34 meters (112 ft), they are imposing and still reflect the cannon blasts from Napoleon’s siege of Valencia which lasted over two months before the Spanish surrendered. A reminder that, even back then, walls don’t work. Another reason I prefer bridges.

Torres de Quart complete with cannon pock marks courtesy of Napoleon

Iglesia de San Nicholas (Church of San Nicolás), built in the 13^th century and refurbished in the 15^th century, is a beautiful cathedral on the outside. Liz and I opted not to pay the admission price to view the interior mostly as a protest (like they care). So far, we have freely walked into churches everywhere. Spain, perhaps more than any other country in history, looted the rest of the world in the name of the church and then used these stolen goods to build magnificent cathedrals back home and now, today, they have the nerve to ask visitors to pay to look at their stolen goods. This was our little protest against oppression in the name of the church.

Torres de Serranos (Serranos Gate), together with the Quart Towers, are the only remaining gates of the original 12 encircling the old walled city of Valencia built in the 14^th century. The Serranos Gate is in beautiful condition and one of the best preserved monuments of Valencia owing to Napoleon electing to stage his siege at the Quart Towers. Definitely worth a visit.

Torres de Serranos

Our last stop for the day was the Valencia Cathedral, another church that visitors must pay to enter. Our original protest was still operative, so we did not go inside, but the exterior is magnificent and the reviews of the interior are amazing. We just may have to relent before we leave this city later in the week.

After a long day of walking, we returned to our apartment for a quick nap and then out to dinner at this fabulous Italian place, Le Favole, only a couple of blocks from our apartment. We shared buffalo mozzarella, tomato and mesclum as an appetizer, margherita pizza and pasta with tomato, olive oil and sage for our mains and shared a chocolate torte for dessert. It was all fabulous.

Sunday was our second full day in Valencia and since the Mercado Central would be closed, we expected a sound, uninterrupted sleep. Wrong! The plaza surrounding the market was turned into a flea market requiring tent set-ups, trucks, the unloading of goods, etc. – all of this occurring directly below our apartment and beginning at 6am. Unbelievable!

After a coffee and a croissant (don’t bother with the croissants here…they are horrible, but, then again, nothing holds up to a croissant from France), we decided that today would be a walking day including a trip to the beach. From our apartment in the old town, it is several miles to the beach, but the walk is through a beautiful greenway that reminds one of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco or Central Park in New York.

The park, named Antiguo Cauce del Río Turia, which means “old Turia riverbed”, is an interesting story in itself. Valencia was built on the Turia River which frequently flooded. The Great Flood of Valencia occurred in 1957 causing significant property damage and killing over 100 people. City government decided they could no longer allow the Turia to run through the middle of the city due to the risk of future floods and it was determined that the Turia would be diverted to flow south of the city. When that was complete, the old riverbed of the Turia was turned into a city park running over 7 km and occupying a space of 110 acres complete with walking and bike paths, gardens, fountains, playgrounds, etc.

Antiguo Cauce del Río Turia

At the end of the park is the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciències, the City of Arts and Sciences. Completed in 2002, the City of Arts and Sciences is comprised of seven very modern structures: Oceanogràfic (the aquarium), the Hemisfèric (Imax theatre), Príncipe Felipe Science Museum (interactive exhibits made to be touched), Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (opera house), the Umbracle (>4 acres open-access garden), the Ágora (private venue for hosting events), and the Assut D’or Bridge (a beautiful cable-stayed bridge).

Hemisfèric (foreground) and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (background)

After passing through the campus for the City of Arts and Sciences, we then walked several additional miles to get to the beach. I had plugged in a specific beach into Google Maps and the walking instructions took us through some pretty bad areas, super unattractive and sketchy. Eventually, Liz suggested we simply make a beeline for the nearest beach which we did and upon our arrival found this lovely beach that was having a fantastic kite flying exhibition – the sky was literally filled with amazing kites while others were actually putting on kite performances.  Liz and I walked the beach, had lunch at a lovely hotel on the beach and then started the long, but more direct walk home.

By the time we got home, having walked over 11 miles. Our original plan was to cook dinner at home, but, instead, we elected to go out and returned to Le Favole where we had dinner the night before and we actually ordered exactly the same thing. Very uncreative by us, but it was delicious and we were not mentally capable of being more creative.

While we were planning this trip and soliciting ideas from friends and family, several people mentioned Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean. Due to its proximity to either Valencia or Barcelona – two cities we would definitely be visiting – we had decided that a side trip to Mallorca would be in order. Upon arrival in Valencia and the noise we encountered on our first morning from Mercado Central, we knew that, while we were in Valencia, this was our chance to escape to Mallorca. Consequently, we booked a flight and hotel for two nights.

The next morning, Monday, May 13^th, we awoke to the banging of the re-opening of the Mercado Central plus a second day of the flea market. Just when you think it can’t get worse, somehow the stars align and it does. We drag our sorry butts out of bed and head to Starbucks. Having tried numerous other coffee alternatives, nothing seems satisfactory. We hardly ever go to Starbucks back home, but here, after three nights of not great sleep, we needed coffee.

Mallorca

At 11am, we were on the way to the Valencia airport and a flight to Palma. After a short flight and taxi ride, we arrived at Gran Meliá De Mar, a lovely, waterfront hotel far away from the cacophony of delivery trucks. We immediately treated ourselves to massages at the spa, sat at the pool and then had dinner across the street at a local restaurant. That night we slept in a fantastic king-sized bed and the only noise we heard were the waves lapping at the coastline while a gentle breeze whispered through our window. We slept like babies.

View from the Gran Meliá De Mar

The next day started with a walk through the local town and along the shoreline. We were both surprised that the area surrounding our hotel wasn’t nicer. It is common in the Caribbean to encounter poverty-level conditions immediately adjacent to five-star hotels. It is better than that here, but less than our expectations given that 8 million people visit this island every year making it the most popular island in the Mediterranean.

On our return walk, we stopped at a public garden – the Jardins de Marivent – to which the Miró family has permanently donated 12 bronze sculptures by the artist Joan Miró, a Spanish artist, sculptor and painter born in 1893. The gardens are part of a palace that, today, is the official residence of Spain’s royal family.

A Joan Miró sculpture in the Jardins de Marivent

We then returned to the hotel for a wonderful breakfast and settled on the beach and read books. That night, at the suggestion of the hotel, we ate dinner at a local Italian favorite. The place was packed, but the food was only ordinary. Fortunately, we returned for our second great night of sleep in a row.

The next day, we ate breakfast and then went for a walk, this time taking a left out of our hotel rather than a right as we had the day before.  This was a lovely walk, mostly along the coastline, until we reached a small peninsula upon which, a long time ago, stood a fort, now reduced to a few remaining parts of the original foundation. From here, we had lovely views of neighboring harbors on both sides. We returned to our hotel in time to pack, check out and then have lunch at their restaurant. As our flight didn’t depart until 5:30pm we would spend the remainder of our time hanging out near the beach.

When we arrived at the airport, I checked the flight reservation to confirm name of the airline. As expected, it was Air Europa. What was not expected was the flight departure time – 8:15pm, not 5:30pm. We were over four hours early for our flight! How on earth did that happen? While it was the case that we put this trip together at the last minute which included checking lots of flights, hotels, and even dates, how do you miss a departure time by this much? While I was berating myself (and inwardly fighting concerns related to cognitive ability), Liz was super calm. She told me it was no big deal, “at least the actual flight wasn’t 3:30pm and we missed it.” Wow, its good to have a partner that is so understanding. I am reminded just how lucky I am.

Back to Valencia

We were back to our apartment by 10pm, prepared for another bad night of sleep and an early wake-up call courtesy of Mercado Central which did not disappoint (the chorus of trucks, garage doors and the unloading of tons of produce, fruits, meats, fish, etc. began precisely at 6am).

On Thursday, May 16^th, after morning coffee and a nearby café that boasted croissants from Paris (they weren’t, but they were way better than what we have had so far), Liz and I decided to walk back to the City of Arts and Sciences and, this time, actually go into and explore the Príncipe Felipe Science Museum. Our walk took us, once again, through the Antiguo Cauce del Río Turia city park until we reached the science museum at its end.

The museum, while stunningly beautiful on the outside, was a disappointment on the inside. With over 400,000 sq ft of interior space, we were expecting a plethora of amazing exhibits catering to visitors of all ages. What we found was lots and lots of open, unused space with exhibits that seemed to be catering primarily to children (and there were lots of school children in attendance). In fairness, our lack of ability to speak or read Spanish was a drawback and I’m quite sure our experience would have been greatly enhanced with a tour guide. We were out of there in about an hour.

Príncipe Felipe Science Museum

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that has its roots in Valencia back to the days of the Moors in the 10^th century. The modern version of paella began in the 1800’s. The most widely used, complete ingredient list of this era was: short-grain white rice, chicken, rabbit, snails (optional), duck (optional), butter beans, great northern beans, runner beans, artichoke (a substitute for runner beans in the winter), tomatoes, fresh rosemary, sweet paprika, saffron, garlic (optional), salt, olive oil, and water. By the 20^th century, Valencians were replacing the meat components with fish given their location on the Mediterranean and it is this version of paella that has now become popular all over the world.

I bring this up because Liz had found a restaurant, Navarro, that is famous for authentic Valencian food and, in particular, paella. As their website reads, “The Bayarri sisters are the third generation running Restaurante Navarro. They grew up watching and helping their grandfather, father and uncle in the restaurant, gradually learning their craft. When the time came they were well prepared to transform their lifelong passion into their profession - a passion for food and particularly traditional Valencian food passed down from one generation to the next.” We walked back via the Antiguo Cauce del Río Turia and found ourselves enjoying a sumptuous vegetable paella at Navarros.

After lunch, we determined to revisit the Valencia Cathedral and, this time, pay the entry fees to have a look on the inside in spite of our previous protest. We’re glad we did. As described early, the Valencia Cathedral was built on top of the site of a former mosque at the time the Christians defeated the Moors in 1238. It is even more beautiful on the inside than the outside. It also contains many relics, including one of the supposed Holy Chalices in the world (also known as the Holy Grail), the vessel that Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve wine. The cathedral includes an extensive museum of other relics, old books with every word painstakingly prepared by monks, and a large collection of art, primarily paintings and sculptures. It is definitely worth visiting in spite of the €8 entrance fee.

The Holy Chalice in the Valencia Cathedral

For dinner, we left the old town and went to a restaurant named Pulpo due to its 5-star rating on Trip Advisor. Our reservation was for 8:30 which is when the restaurant opens (that’s something to get used to in Spain), so naturally, we arrived to an empty restaurant. While the restaurant itself has a warm and welcoming ambiance, we were severely disappointed in the food and, generally, we find Trip Advisor to be relatively reliable.

We were back home late having logged in another 11-mile day and ready for bed. Tonight, we are going to bed better prepared with our eye masks and ear plugs. They didn’t do me much good as I was up at 5:30 before the normal market raucous had even begun.

Today is our last day in Valencia. Next, we head to Cartagena for the night as we make our way along the Mediterranean to the southern Spanish city of Granada.

Alicante

On our way to Cartagena, our first stop is Alicante, a port city on the Mediterranean, about a two-hour drive south of Valencia. Liz had read some interesting things about Alicante and suggested we make a visit to this seaside town which turned out, to our surprise, to be a city of over 330,000 and a metro area of over 750,000 making it the 8^th largest in Spain. Alicante has a long history dated back many millenniums. But things got interesting in the 13^th century when the Christians drove out the Muslims and then the Kingdom of Castile and the Crown of Aragon clashed over Alicante for hundreds of years (sounds like Game of Thrones). Eventually, the King of Spain stepped in (1600’s), the War of Spanish succession occurred (18^th century), WW1, the Spanish Civil War and WWII happened and Alicante was relegated to a tourist town. “They could have been a contender”, is an appropriate slogan for the city.

The Castle of Santa Bárbara is the most important site in the city having first been established by the Moors in the 9^th century and then captured by the Christians in 1248. It suffered through each of the conflicts listed above and, today, has been restored as a must-see attraction for tourists.

The Castle of Santa Bárbara

After a wonderful Lebanese lunch of hummus, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush we were back on the road to Cartagena. As I went to enter the address for our hotel, the Hyatt Regency, into Google maps, I received an error message saying “there are no routes available”. I re-entered the address and got the same message. It was only then that I realized I had made reservations for the Hyatt in Cartagena, Columbia, not Spain. Columbia! Really! Yes, really! OK, so now I feel super-foolish and increasingly paranoid about early onset Alzheimer’s. We scramble and, eventually, find a hotel in Cartagena, Spain. To Liz’s credit, she didn’t overact even a little bit during this entire episode, in fact, she was super-supportive. Amazing!

Cartagena

An hour and a half later we pull up to our hotel, the NH Hotel Cartagena right in the center of old town which turned out to be a perfect location for our less than one day visit of this city. Cartagena’s history also goes back millenniums to when the Romans were here and turned it into a vibrant port city. For the next 1000 years after the Romans Empire fell, Cartagena suffered the back-and-forth conquering that much of Spain’s Mediterranean coast experienced and, eventually fell into disrepair as the western ports on the Atlantic became more important to Spanish expansion.  Cartagena didn’t fully recover until the 18th century, when it became a leading naval port in the Mediterranean. Today, Cartagena is primarily a tourist town.

Our hotel is located at the southern end of the Calle Mayor, the main pedestrian walkway in old town, and next door to city hall. We take a stroll down Calle Mayor which is lined with lovely old buildings and lots of newly-refurbished retail shops and restaurants. After walking from one end to the other and back, we make a dinner reservation at Chef Momo, a terrific vegetarian restaurant. The food was fantastic.

The next morning, after finding coffee and baked goods at a patisseries on Calle Mayor (we each had two coffees and one baked good for a total of €8), we took a tour of the Roman Amphitheatre This was unexpected and one of the coolest things we have seen so far. Discovered by chance in 1987, the theater is now one of the city’s most impressive sights. This site remained hidden for centuries because of its location in a part of the city that had been constantly inhabited since its founding. There are two parts to this museum; the amphitheatre itself and an exhibition room which describes the theater’s history and contains many of the items found during the excavation. It is a must see.

The Roman Amphitheatre in Cartagena

After our tour, we took a walk along the seaside where we happened to spot the 7^th largest yacht in the world, the Prince Abdulaziz, a gift from the King of Saudi Arabia to his son, the brother of MBS. He didn’t invite us aboard. We eventually returned to our hotel and, checked out and began our three-hour drive to Granada.

And that completes the third week of our post-retirement adventure!

Musings….

Hola – como estas? That and about 15 other words are what I remember from high school Spanish – but it feels a whole lot easier than French.

AirBnB – another car wreck! When Malcolm describes it as “close to the mercado” – let me assure you if it was any closer we would have been sleeping with the fishes! Unbelievable. And another walk-up and even the apartment (with its faint musty smell) was a tri-level. I’m glad I bought an Apple watch so I get credit for flights climbed😉.

Valencia, although some very interesting sights, is somewhat forgettable. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it or recommend it. Mallorca was just what the doctor ordered; beautiful hotel set on the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea. Couple of days out of the city hub-bub was perfect. Lots of sun and great sleep.

Weather has been incredible in Spain – gorgeous sun and warm temps – loving it. Malcolm neglected to mention the parade outside of our apartment on Sunday – literally it went on for hours – Our Lady of the Forsaken, which means that woman from all the regional villages dress up in custom garbs, as well as the women who dress in black. I kid you not…it went on for hours. Occurs on the 2^nd Sunday in May every year. Just happen to be our lucky day.

Somewhat off topic but interesting books to read – Wine & War (picked it up at one of our Chateau stops in Bordeaux) describes WW2 and the impact on the French vineyards, very interesting perspective. Also, both Malcolm and I read ‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson – a must read for anyone interested in the current US mass incarceration epidemic. Bryan is a crusader, part saint and part revolutionary. He is also responsible for the Montgomery Legacy Museum (which we are looking forward to visiting next year).

Back on tour – Cartagena is wonderful – well worth a stop. The Roman Amphitheatre is fantastic – incredible job of preserving what they could. A very quaint and educational stop on our travels.

Off to Granada (sneak peek – our apartment has an elevator!!!). Buenos Noches for now.