Valencia is famous for its oranges. However, the Valencia orange originated in Santa Ana, CA where it was invented in the mid-19th century. He did name it for the city of Valencia, Spain however. Interestingly, the thousands of orange trees lining València’s streets are bitter Seville oranges meant for decoration, marmalade, or perfumes rather than raw snacking, according to Wikipedia.
Monday was our full day in Valencia. It was a lovely day, mid-70s and sunny and calm, perfect for walking.
Our first stop was Tennis Point Valencia, because I needed shoes…it was located conveniently across from a tennis facility (all hard courts). Vicki and I also found red skits which was a bonus. We then started walking to the old town where
Next we walked to old town (stopping along the way for coffee & pastry for Vicki and a baguette for me). In the old town I discovered that Vicki was on a mission to buy clothes and found a very nice (and very reasonably priced) ensemble (except for shoes in her size..more about that later.) The old town had the typical narrow streets, buildings with Juliet balconies, and was busy with shoppers and tourists. Our goal was the central market and we arrived around peak lunch time. I love markets and this one was a good one, with the typical stalls galore for Iberico ham, fresh and seasonal fruits and vegetables (the apples were very good), spices, nuts (the marcona almonds were fantastic), bread and pastries, candy and more and around the food market were lots of clothing stalls. Here, unlike many other markets there were lots of paella stands, some with just Valencia paella and seafood paella but also some made with squid ink and red paella made with beets I think. I tried the seafood paella (not great there) but the marcona almonds more than made up for it!
After eating we climbed the bell tower of the church, 207 very steep steps. From the top the view was extensive, to the sea in the west, and the City of Arts & Sciences, featuring a futuristic fish shaped building in the dry riverbed park running through the city. We were going to visit that area, but part two of shopping involved trying to find a pair of shoes in Vicki’s size. So we walked to a different outlet of the same shoe store, which we were told would reopen at 4 PM, but it was 5 PM instead. Fortunately, she did find the shoes she wanted, but by the time she finished that it was too late to go to that park and also we were tired I was carrying around a lot of Marcona almonds all day!
After the shoe store, we walked back to our apartment and got ready for our trip to Turkey. We are now on the plane and will arrive late tonight.
