We had a fantastic time, Madrid is a real city and we both felt right at home there.

The hotel Mia booked was located near the city center, 3 minutes walking from Puerta de Toledo.

On the first day we just wandered around and Mia had arranged dinner in a restaurant that serves typical Madridleña food. Since we had only a few days we decided that taking the city tours by bus would be a good option to see what Madrid all has to offer, so we did that on day two. In the afternoon we visited the Thyssen Museum and we had a lovely evening at several wine/tapa bars in La Latina area.
Our last day was reserved for the Prado where we spent quite some time to take in all the art. I could have spent hours looking at the truly amazing Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch!

Yesterday evening we came home and we promised each other that we will visit Madrid again soon!

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Alcalá del Júcar is located in an exceptional setting, on a hill below which we find the gorge formed by the Júcar river.

The plan was not to visit the village of Alcalá del Júcar, but instead to do a walking route to the neighbouring villages and back.

To find the beginning of the track was a bit hard, but the friendly locals helped us along and around 13:00hr we started our steep ascent of the mountain. A few minutes later we had fantastic views over the village below, with its castle, the church and the river gorge.

Then our hike took us along a plateau to La Gila, the first stop on the map, where we had our picnic lunch. In the “town square” there was a picnic table that seemed made for us.

After lunch we decided to cut our route a bit shorter and walked down the mountain to the river bed. There we could see a place with a rooftop terrace that looked gorgeous, so we went there for a couple of refreshing drinks.

Back on the track we continued our hike along the river and after a good hour we came back to Alcalá del Júcar where we had another couple of drinks before heading back home.

All in all it was a fantastic day!

I had my GPS tracking device with me, so I could track our hike and I have been able to import it into Google Earth. I also tried to add some pictures, but I am not entirely sure whether that worked out the way it should have… In the next couple of days I will look into it a bit more to see how that all works. But for now at least you can see below the map with the route we walked; a total of 15.3km, 6.5hrs from parking to finish.

We enjoyed our time very much and saw many animals in the specially designed areas of Madagascar, Equatorial Africa and the Savannah. In the “amphitheatre” there was a “show” with birds, giant ones even condors that were flying closely over the gathered audience. As one can understand it is much more difficult to train a bird than let’s say a dolphin, and it was truly amazing!

We only took a few pictures, most of them in our head, but Mike of HolaValencia has described his first visit to Bioparc with a lot more photos.

I did quite a bit of research on how to get to Granada from Valencia. Flying: only possible via Madrid (or Palma or Morocco), no fantastic deals. Train: more than 7 hours, no fantastic deals. Bus: more than 7 hours, relatively cheap, but traveling by bus is far from ideal.

Via Ivan I learned of a car rental at the airport that does offer fantastic deals. We now pay EUR 70 only for 5 days car-hire with unlimited mileage!

From other friends we got another tip that you need to pre-book (and pay) your visit to the Alhambra, so arranged that too and now we’re set to go.

Only got to wait 2 more weeks before we can actually go

These items of total delight did not fall from the sky. They were brought by Inge, my best friend for more than 15 years now.
She left us earlier this week, after a stay of 5 days.

She arrived on the last day of Las Fallas and therefore had the great chance to see a glimpse of this pretty unique yearly festival. A pretty important glimpse at that, because the last day is the day of the cremas, the public burning of all the puppet structures that have been set up in more than 300 locations in the city! Earlier I already put photos online of the fallas tour we made.

Below I have added a video impression of the fireworks show that rang in the crema of the last falla on Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

We did quite a bunch of nice things together with Inge and because she already had visited Valencia before, we also could do some things that are most of the times not included in a first visit.

On Friday we took her to the Museo del Carmen to see the same exhibition of drawings we saw with Pam. In the evening I cooked her favorite Chinese dish: coca-cola chicken.

The next day we took the train to X‚àö‚Ćtiva to see the castle on the top of the hill there. I already visited in November 2008, but for Mia and Inge it was a first timer and because the last time we didn’t have time for the Moorish part of the castle, for me this time was again very nice and interesting!

Back in Valencia we had a great tapas dinner at a restaurant that Inge went to on her first visit: the extremely popular Bodeguilla del Gato.

On Sunday we had a long walk up and down the Turia and visited the Oceanografico that is part of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. We saw a great dolphin show and we saw two walruses mating, which was quite funny to watch. The only part that left us not impressed was the penguin area, where we immediately had to think of the not so happy zoo-scene in the movie Happy Feet.

In the evening we had dinner at Sagardi where we ate a whole bunch of the most delicious pinxtos! Especially Inge loved the strong cider there too, a combination that ensures that many people return to that restaurant after their first visit.

The days were flying by with so many things to do and Monday was Inge’s last day already. Mia had to go to school and because the weather was absolutely gorgeous we went to the beach, where we sat on a terrace enjoying the sun and each other’s company the whole afternoon.

All in all we enjoyed Inge’s visit very much and in a couple of months it is our turn to go visit The Netherlands…

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PS yesterday I had a go with Google’s Picasa 3 and I am using the great Shashin plugin to show the photos above that I uploaded earlier.

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Coincidentally today in Valencia also was gorgeous: 20 degrees and blue skies. The perfect day to finally take some nice pictures at the “Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias“, the City of Arts and Sciences.

We walked along the Turia all the way down to the Ciudad and had a cup of coffee on a terrace in the sun. We walked around a bit to enjoy the beautiful architecture and walked back through the areas of Monteolivete and Ruzafa with all their little streets and plazas.

On the way back we found a Japanese store with all kinds of Asian imported foodstuffs where we bought some goodies.

Below one of the pictures we took today, this one is from the Palau de les Arts and L’Hemisf‚àö¬Æric; more pictures follow soon!

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Jávea and Dénia are situated halfway between Valencia and Alicante and it is the most eastern point of the peninsula; we drove it in a bit more than an hour.

The first spot we visited was the lighthouse of Jávea. Nils already had been there once and told us to blindfold Mia so the gorgeous view would be a real surprise. Very considerate of him and the view was indeed amazing!

We walked around a bit and sat around to enjoy this great place before we drove down to Jávea. A winding road took us down the mountain and many people have built very expensive villas here that are dotted on the slopes.

In the center of Jávea there was a cultural market where we had great Argentinean BBQ before we had a walk on the pebble stone beach. From the beach we could see towers up a mountain that looked like they were part of a castle. So we decided to visit them on our way back to Dénia.

The towers turned out to be ruins of windmills that were built here in the 14th century to grind wheat and other cereals. Most of them are now part of private property and turned into guest rooms, but few are still open to visit. We watched the sunset and it was really beautiful.

Then we drove down to Dénia where we had a walk through the pitoresque center and had a look at the walls of the castle. We will definitely have to come back here in summer as it looks promising and the castle is something we cannot miss, it’s giant!

All in all a great day out! Have a look at the pictures if you’re interested.

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The train took us in 45 minutes to Xàtiva and when we arrived we walked up the small streets and already could see our destination: Castillo de Xàtiva, the castle of Xàtiva.
The castle once was a massive defensive structure.

From Spartans: The ancient settlement of Xativa was founded by the Iberians who prospered here and minted coinage before they were ousted first by the Romans and then by Hannibal’s Carthaginians on their way to Rome. A Visigothic episcopal seat, the town was conquered by the Moors in the 10th century before being taken by Jaime 1 in 1244. The town was eventually burnt in 1707 and was rebuilt but lost its political importance.

The walk up the mountain followed an ancient trail that led us past some buildings that were used in those times. One of them was building that served as a refrigerator and another that served as water storage in the times before there were irrigation canals.

When we arrived at the castle we decide to go up to the highest point, the western side of the castle. All buildings or what was left of them had a function, such as the chapel, prison, oven, vaults, guard rooms, etc.

In one of the gardens we found a great place for our picnic and the amount of food Carolina had brought was massive! We had all kinds of delicacies such as tortillas, salsa, jambon, croquettes, aceitunas (olives), pimentas, seafood paste wrapped in pimentas and two lovely bottles of wine.

After our picnic we moved on up the western part and as the sun was setting the light on the castle and the valleys below was of an extraordinary beauty!

For me it was great to visit a place like this as these ruins obviously reminded me of the Great Wall in China I have visited so many times. I will certainly be back here!

Since Barcelona, where David lives, is only 3 hours away by train I decided to give him a big surprise!

The train travels at a pretty high speed and at times drives along the coast. It is easy to see from the landscape when traveling through Valencia province by the many oranges farms lining the railroad track. The train also traveled past Sitges, a nice little coastal town that I visited in 2004 when I was in Barcelona.

Upon arrival at Barcelona Sants I took another train to Barceloneta where David lives. On my way to his home I gave him a call to make sure he was indeed home. He said he was very busy to which I replied that it sounded he could use a helping hand. When I said I would be there in 10 minutes he couldn’t believe what he heard and when I was standing in front of him it took a while to realize that I was indeed there!

The afternoon we spent catching up while preparing for the party. David’s brother Sergio, who I saw for the last time 7 or 8 years ago also came by with his son, great seeing him too again!
This month Shona, the daughter of Cho who runs Cafe Sambal and Paper in Beijing, is staying with David and his wife Shun and she did most of the cooking of the gorgeous food. She was managing the kitchen like a pro, preparing 3-4 dishes simultaneously.

On the party I met another familiar face from the Beijing times, Italian Fabrizio who lived in Beijing and then moved to Shanghai later on. He now also lives the better life in Spain. Maria, a friend Sergio came to China with, came to the party too with her sister.

Great to retell all the stories of the old times in Beijing! The story about the ayi we shared and who ate two very strong space-cookies from David’s fridge or the story of David and I getting arrested one morning at Trendsetters for borrowing a bike of some Chinese guys…

The party went into the wee hours and the next morning we first had a much needed coffee on the beach in fantastic weather. The rest of the day we spent cleaning up the mess and at 4pm I took my train back to Valencia.

All in all a great party!
Fantastic to see old friends and making new ones and knowing that Barcelona is so close to Valencia, I think I will go there for more weekends!

Quite a bit different than what I expected, we actually went there because of the Utiel Gastronomica. More about that later.

We left in the morning by train and against expectations it took 2 hours to get there; a “boemeltreintje” as we call it in Dutch. Didn’t really matter, there were students from 3 schools so we used the time to get to know each other.

After arrival in Utiel, we first went to a wine museum. A guide was explaining it all in way too rapid Spanish, but afterwards we could sample all the different ingredients of wine by smelling and guessing them.

Then on to a honey “museum” with basically just an “ancient” press and some explanation about it, pretty lame.

Onwards for a walk through the historical center and because it was pouring down we supported the local community by buying lots of “paraguas”, umbrellas.

Then to the tourist information which was located in the building of an old “grape-stamp”-factory.

Finally we went to the place where we came for: The Utiel Gastronomica, an event they hold every year in the area. Basically it’s a harvest festival where visitors have the chance to sample lots of food and lots of (mostly) excellent wines.

Of course the weather didn’t help to get the crowds and I’m sure that on a sunny day it would have been even better, but we had an awesome time! Talking Spanish, with each other, random others and stand holders, sampling the different foods and wines of course! A great relaxing atmosphere and everyone found it a pity to leave when we had to go back to catch the train back to Valencia!

Once we finally arrived back in Valencia we went for another drink with a couple of people and then back home for a very much needed shower and change of clothes. Tonight we’re gonna hit the town with a group of people, OH YEAH!

Pictures of the day (taken with my phone) can be found by clicking on the photo below and tomorrow there will be a Twitter update of today.