Friday-Monday, May 11-14, Valencia

 

Mike Here.  A short train ride to Valencia on Friday afternoon, A little less than 2 hour ride but we had a lunch and beverage service in first class.  Not very many people on the train but it looks like we may see a larger crowd on Monday's longer trip back to Barcelona. 

 

We are staying with Heather and Eddie in their very nice apartment in Valencia 

 

Margaret's cold has progressed to a full sinus issue.  We managed to go out with Heather, Eddie and TJ for dinner on Friday and spent Saturday exploring with Heather and Eddie.  We were all going on a Sunday outing, but the sinus progression has Margaret and I spending Sunday in the apartment while they went out without us.  

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Valencia is quite a bit bigger than Alicante and has some great architecture.  The original river ran through the middle of the city with ongoing flooding issues  They solved that problem by rerouting the river around the city and turned the entire former riverbed into a long, long park.  It felt like we walked it all on Saturday but really didn't cover but a small portion.  There are a lot of firework displays here.  One long, loud one at midnight on Saturday and another long, loud one at noon on Sunday just two short blocks from the apartment.  If Margaret hadn't been up that would have done it.  

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We had a very nice paella at the Barcelona  beach on Saturday and were looking forward to a homemade paella on Sunday's outing but were stranded in the apartment.  The Saturday night paella was the best so far. 

 

Wedednesday-Friday, May 9-11, Alicante

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Mike Here.  We had a very nice 5 hour first class train ride down to Alicante on Wednesday.  We were in comfortable first class seats and were pampered with snacks, lunch and refreshments all included.  It was not a high speed train but we enjoyed the ride.  There were only a couple of stops but we were surprised at the Valencia stop when the train moved backward all the way to Alicante.  We confirmed that the train would eventually reach Alicante and we relaxed and enjoyed the ride. I did find out that drinking a beer while facing backward on a rocking train did not make my stomach happy.

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Our hotel is a modern business travelers hotel but we were surprised to find that instead of a single queen bed we had two twins!  Hello Camp Alicante!  We went for a stroll to find dinner well ahead of the Spainish 9PM dinner cycle and found this long, wide, beautiful mosiac esplanade along the waterfront.  Right then we decided that we were going to like Alicante.  There were outside cafes everywhere and we wandered inland a block or two and found a charming cafe with shade and a little less bustle than its competitors.  Had a nice dinner with paella better than our last meal in Barcelona.  A little too much to eat, a little too much to drink and a nice long stroll through the neighborhoods back to our hotel.  

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Thursday was our day to visit our niece Sandy's shoemaking partner, Julian Sanchez, and Julian took the time to walk us through each step of the factory process and took us out for great lunch.  We were introduced to a local version of paella that is wet not dry, more like a soup.  At our dinner later that night we knew what the "soupy rice" description meant on the dinner menu.  It turns out that the area inland from Alicante is a concentrated set of factories making shoes.  Cobblers from all parts of Spain migrated into this area and economies of scale took over.

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Margaret was getting some sniffles so we went to local seafood restaurant just a short walk from the hotel.  They opened for dinner at 8:15 and the crowd didn't start to flow in until after 9.  

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Thursday night and Friday, Margaret's sniffles had settled into a cold and I was standing in line at a Farmecia at 9AM.  We had planned on doing some local exploring, Roman ruins and a Muslim castle, but rain on Thursday and Margaret's cold put a stop to that.  We extended our checkout time at the hotel and used the internet to catchup with pictures and blogging.

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