Andre and Wendy: Heading to Valencia for the weekend

We skipped running this morning as we will be going to Valencia for the weekend and I am sure we will be walking lots today. Last minute packing and trying to figure how to get there kept me busy this morning. I made French toast this morning in order to try to clean out the fridge as much as possible as we probably will only be back late on Sunday.

The drive to Valencia is a pretty easy one. It takes about 1 ½ hour. We decided to take the toll highway as it is much faster. The plan was to meet James & Karen at the airport at 11 am. We got there a few minutes late.

We decided to go visit Xativa. It is about 45 minutes dive from the airport. I had read that it was one of the trips to do from Valencia. We had no problem finding the place and I had put the castle in the GPS. We saw a parking spot on the way to the castle and Wendy said ``Lets take it and walk up``. We started our walk and after 2 turns we saw how much we had to go up when we looked straight up. We quickly returned to the car and drove up. There were about 20 parking spots and half were open. Gotta love being off season. We paid our grand entrance fee of about $8.00 Canadian. That is for the 4 of us. Hard to believe it was only that once again. The Castle was long and narrow. Maybe 2000 feet long and 100 feet wide. It was also highest at the 2 end and lowest in the center. We climbed to one end of the castle and the views were amazing. Down to the center where Karen opted to admire the flowers and the 3 of us climbed to the other end. Saw more amazing views of the valleys below and of the whole castle. They even had toilets like in the old days which James and I took advantage of.

Xativa Castle

One end

The other end

For Gail

Amazing views from castle

After leaving the castle we decided to get something to eat as it was past 2:30. We found a parking spot and saw a café. We told the waiter, a table for 4 and he went inside. I saw people coming out of a store next door and decided to go check it out. Turns out, it was a takeout but the food is already made. They reheat it if you ask them too. We decided to go for that and eat in the park across the street. They had a great selection. We got paella, pasta, lasagna and salad, loaf of bread with a drink each. The bill came to just under $25.00 Canadian which was very good.

Paella anyone?

No problem finding the hotel except doing the traffic circles in town where 4 or 5 cars wide were merging in 2 or 3 lanes. Kinda wild, it was not Wendy`s favorite part of the drive. Otherwise it was not so bad. We found a free parking spot for the weekend. The car is not moving. We are staying at the Westin. It is very nice and much nicer than we usually stay at. The location is fantastic. One block away from a park and on the other of it is the edge of old town. The river was diverted in the 1950`s because it would flood the town in very bad years. They have used the space to create a multi-purpose park. Walking, biking trails, soccer fields, amusement sections for kids, green space, etc… When we go to Valencia around 3 pm it was 31 degrees.

Found some parking, we never got towed!

Beautiful hotel room

Once checked in, we decided to go for a walk. We walked to one of the main plazas in old town. The 4 of us decided to do a 48 hour hop on hop off bus. It is a great way to see the city. Wendy and I have used them in the past when we visited some other large cities. The bus company we choose had 2 routes, the red one and the blue one. We decided to do the red one in order to see some of old town main points. These buses are double decker and are open on the top level. We choose the top levels as the views are better even if it is a bit chillier.

Gorgeous large canopy on these trees

Patiently waiting for us to finish our ice cream

First food stop, surprise, ice cream

Grand kids would have fun here

Made out of ceramic pieces, football stadium in back

After our tour was done, we were on the lookout for somewhere to eat. We found an outdoor place and we were very happy with our meal. We ordered deep fried small fish to share as an appetizer. Kinda like very small smelts where you eat bones and all. James and I had calamari sandwiches.

Delicious fried small fish

Calamari sandwich

On the way home, the Andalucía region of Spain was having a fair in the green space right near our hotel. This is the region in the very south of Spain where the city of Seville is. At 10 pm was the official opening. They had lots of ladies dressed in their traditional dresses. They did a couple of dances. They also had about 20 bars set up, all of them having some type of food for sale. No fast food here, tapas, hams, sausages, etc… We left shortly after Wendy and James had hot chocolate which was more like chocolate syrup that was not so hot.