Valencia Day 2

We didn’t have a peaceful night, a lot of traffic flowing past, very hot and sticky, and a rubbish truck arriving in the small hours to shake all the rubbish out of various neighbourhood bins, however after a cup of tea and some cereal the blurred vision began to clear (or was that when I put my glasses on for the day?).

Either way we headed off not long after 9, to have a look at the “Nord” railway station. Again, the photos will show you better than I can describe this old and beautiful building. The tiling is quite stunning, as are the leadlight windows and the mosaics. It was very much an ‘art nouveau’ style, (or art deco as we from Napier call it), beautifully kept, and the whole station clean and orderly.

The Western facade of the railway station

The clock on the northern aspect

The detailed work on one of the twin "front corners"

Entrance lobby

Tiling in front foyer area

More tiling/mosaic work

Northern aspect of station from "the bull ring"

Once we had looked around at the building we decided to stop at a bar to have a coffee, I was hanging out for one, not having had a pleasant caffeine hit for months. This little bar served delicious “café con leche”, but the milk was frothed so it wasn’t far from a cappuccino, in fact it was so good (and cheap at 1.50 euro) that I had 2. Di had a hot frothed milk in a glass (that’s what he gave me when I asked for a latte?) but she was quite content to have some of my rather strong brew added to her hot milk to have about the correct strength (for her) latte.  Hilary had a Pepsi (I know she shouldn’t, but it’s a rare treat and probably just akin to us starting the morning with a strong coffee). It was served with a wedge of lemon and lots of ice; she was quite taken with the flavour twist and has added that to her repertoire of drinks to remember.



Enjoying a coffee break


We went across the station to a clothes shop which Di had managed to find while I left her unattended for a short while. Di and Hilary tried on a couple of tops, they were nice, we left about 70 euro lighter, clutching a paperbag.

Advertisement in the clothes shop.

The bull ring, opposite the railway station.

Hilary racing around the square

We ventured up to the plaza where a lot of the government/council buildings were as we had passed here the day before, but not stopped to look at the old and ornate buildings.

Buildings around "Ajunctment"

Our next destination was the Basilica which we now knew was actually attached to the cathedral by an arch, so that narrowed down our search area. Even knowing that, we nearly missed it in the crowd of people who were gathered around the rear doors of the cathedral. We had forgotten (Diana having read about it earlier) that Thursday morning was the time that a strange custom was played out which had been happening for a thousand years. This was when disputes over water rights or access to the irrigated water in the area were settled. We didn’t hang around long as we couldn’t see a lot due to the crowds, nor understand anything due to a language barrier. Basically about half a dozen men dressed in black gowns and one with a staff and funny hat process out of one building to outside the cathedral where they proclaim their findings and settlement details for the farmers who have been at the centre of the disputes.  I’m not sure what the outcome of this days “case” were, whether someone was sentenced to three dunkings in the irrigation canal or what I’m not sure? Shame really, would have been good to know.

The water disputes "board"

Meanwhile we went into the Basilica and had a look around at the “Virgin of the helpless” who was hanging around in a very pretty room, and various other golden sights that the area held.

The helpless one

After we left here we came to another church, don't know its name, it was a "find" rather than a destination. It was gorgeous though.

We stopped outside this cafe, partly because we wanted to look more closely at it, and partly so we could consult the map again.

We biked through the streets, map in hand looking for the still elusive ceramics museum, eventually finding it at about ten to 2, of courset was closing for siesta time until 4, so we biked off to some gardens we had inadvertently missed the day before, determined to return once it reopened for the afternoon.

The outside of the ceramics museum (formerly a palace)

A carving outside the door way of the ceramics museum

A gorgeous flower on a tree in the Jarden du Real - saucer sized at least

University registry

Hilary in the gardens

The tree with the pretty flowers

We biked back to the ceramics museum, it was spectacular, the palace more so than the actual ceramics from my perspective. Wonderful architecture and decorations, over the top interior decorating.


Hilary at the top of one of the flights of stairs.



1920s outdoor mosaic furniture- I thought a set in our garden in Chch would look OK

A series from inside the Palace/Ceramics museum

We all loved Valencia, probably a highlight with the ease of getting around, beautiful architecture, friendliness, gorgeous weather, laid back character, and relatively low cost of doing things. The campsite was 25 euro, but it was right in the middle of town, and had all the facilities we needed. It was only 3 euro each for me and Di to get into the ceramics museum (and Hilary was free) in the UK it would have been close to 30 pounds for the three of us for an equivalent. Petrol is cheap (comparitively)- diesel actually, 1.26 euro a litre compared to 1.39 in France and 1.45 pence per litre in England. That makes a big difference when the truck has a big tank, to fill up here is about 70 euro, we were paying over 100 pounds in the UK. Groceries are variable, beef is quite expensive (if you can find it,) pork or pig meat very reasonably priced - can't think of a euro price but we had 6 very nice pork steaks for 2.40 euro (we didn't eat them all at once)!! Dairy products are much cheaper here too, we are buying UHT milk, partly for convenience and partly because fresh very low fat milk is almost impossible to find, UHT is 49 cents a litre. Butter is as low as 80 cents for 250gms, cheese (we aren't eating much it is too hot, other than feta), is more expensive than in France, but still comparitively cheap compared to NZ.  Water (which we buy for drinking, just for safety) is 50 cents for 5 litres, everyone buys it by the shopping trolley full!