Spain 2011 Day 7 Sunday May 29

Spain day 7 – Sunday May 29, 2011 – Barcelona to Valencia = Calatrava City !! – 232 Miles

NH Center Hotel, Ricardo Mico 1, Valencia E-46009

http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/spain/valencia/nh-center.html

“Globus: Along the coast to Valencia, once a royal capital. Valencia’s Roman, Moorish, and Spanish history comes alive when your Local Guide takes you on an orientation drive including the Town Hall, La Lonja, the bull ring, the massive gateway towers of Serranos and Quart, and the new Arts and Science Complex designed by famous Valencian architect Calatrava. End your tour in the center at La Seo Cathedral. (Breakfast, Dinner)”

Should be an easy day thankfully, after last night’s celebrating. Wake up is later today, 7am, with bags out and breakfast at 8am, so we are on the road at 9am for a long drive to Valencia in Catalonia, with several rest and lunch stops along the way. General the bus doesn’t go more than two hours without a stop, so that is nice to at least stretch our legs and head for the asseos (restrooms). The laws on buses are very strict, and the drivers can’t go longer than two hours without a stop, nor more than six days without a day off, so we change drivers for one day. I bought a Spanish newspaper before leaving, mostly for the front page picture of a guy holding the European Cup, so maybe I’ll try to read some of it. A souvenir of our Barcelona adventure in any case.

Well – Valencia is a WOW all because of the Calatrava buildings in the City of Arts and Sciences (google him if you want info: Calatrava and Valencia), and they are absolutely smashing, unlike anything seen anywhere, rather like a futuristic city in itself. They are laid out along the old river bed, with shallow pools of water between them, which reflects the mostly white structures. It is one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever seen, so I really must come back here, as we only stopped for ten minutes to take pictures from one spot. I wanted to go back tonite to see it lit up, but as usual we are too tired to go anywhere after our hotel dinner, and the place is way the other end of town.

Our city tour with a local guide was quite interesting, showing us the mixture of styles throughout the old town, where we passed by a square with the protesting kids all camped out and other squares without them. So the police must let them stay in one place and not in others, just to keep them contained. We have avoided any demonstrations so far, so it may be at night. And is a good thing we left Barcelona as there will be more celebrating today with the team being welcomed back and paraded throughout the city no doubt.

The hotel is again very nice and modern, with an elegant restaurant that’s not in the basement as most of the others were. Chicken cutlets with a delicious tomato sauce. Our group is followed by another Globus tour doing the same route, as they must have had too many for one tour (ours is 35 folks), and many people have been on other Globus tours, favorably it seems.