Given the current global environment, please excuse my recent blog hiatus! On what turned out to be my final weekend in Spain (š), my parents came to visit me and we caught the train down to Valencia for the weekend.
After checking into our AirBnB, we went to one of their restaurant recommendations, La Cigrona, and despite having to send back some cold paella and some uncooked cod, my parents were very impressed with their daily menu.
Having filled our stomachs, we walked all the way through the beautiful Turia Gardens down to the City of Arts and Sciences. We were lucky to catch some late afternoon sun and to find some very aromatic orange trees (reminiscent of childhood holidays in Lanzarote) which I couldn’t take enough photos of!
The next day we spent the day wandering around Valencia. We visited the cathedral in the morning, before witnessing the amazing mascletĆ display (basically a daytime firework display!) in front of the town hall! The display takes place every day during the first 19 days of March as part of Valencia’s biggest festival, Les Falles.
We visited the central market, which had a very impressive ceiling, and we also discovered the stunning gothic silk exchange! Dad and I very much enjoyed playing around with the angles and light falling on the columns.
In the evening we sat and enjoyed a beer in Plaza de la Reina before watching part of a procession where the themes of the Falles (large artistic constructions) were displayed. After dinner we took a walk to Ruzafa to look at the light displays, which were pretty cool!
There was one thing we all could not wrap our heads around, which was the fact that there were little kids all over the place setting off firecrackers, having been supplied them by their own parents! It was almost as unsafe as the correfoc I mentioned in this post! But I guess it’s all part of a tradition!
Fresca como una lechuga bien frotada 