Thursday, June 09, 2011

A brief glimpse of Valencia























On Monday morning we started the day with a run from our hotel to the Jardines Del Rio Turio. This is a 10km strip of gardens which is actually a dried up river and is crossed by 19 bridges. It was a good place to run as we could see all the City of Arts and Sciences up close and personal. We ran 5km and turned back but on the return we found some dirt tracks and grass which was much easier on the legs than the concrete path we had run on the way out. The sun came out and it was a pleasant run.
Total distance: 10km
Time taken: 62mins!
After showering we took advantage of our 24hr tourist bus tickets and went into the city for a light lunch and browsed around the fabulous food markets where we bought delicious fresh fruit and yummy nuts. The bananas here are absolutely delicious and we are making the most of the great prices. We also discovered yet more outdoor markets before returning to our hotel on the bus just before the 24hrs ran out. From there we walked to the Oceanografic. This is a very modern aquarium where we walked through open tunnels and the fish, sharks etc swam around us. This is situated in the City of Arts and Sciences. It is a series of lagoons and pavillions linked by bridges and tunnels and is quite amazing.

There was time for me to browse round the enormous shopping complex below our hotel before we went for dinner at 10pm at an "all you can eat" complex - big mistake!! We ate too much and drank another large jug of sangria to wash it down! I have been a bit conservative with running distances as my hamstring has been bothering me but if we are going to continue to consume all this amazing food the time has come to up the distances methinks!

Speaking of food (which I am, rather a lot) I forgot to mention that on Sunday night we ate the most amazing paella. We caught our tourist bus to the beach where we walked beside the sea and browsed in the little beach market stalls before finding a restaurant. The paella was absolutely superb, as was the sangria! That was one of my favourite meals so far.

Currently we are on the "very fast" train travelling to Madrid. The speed of the train, current temperature etc pop up on a rolling screen on this very modern train. We are whooshing along at 300kph and the countryside is flashing past. It's a very comfortable ride and we should reach our destination in 1.5hrs.

Adios Valencia, next stop Madrid!

1 comment:

  1. Stop bragging about the cheap bananas! And come on!... "drank another large jug of sangria to wash it down" - you didn't HAVE to do that!

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