Our good friend Pam just left us yesterday after visiting us in Valencia for the weekend.
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Pam arrived on Thursday afternoon and after freshening up we went to meet Mia on the terrace of Lisboa. It was great seeing each other again, last time I saw Pam was in September on a boat in the Amsterdam canals.
That afternoon we climbed all the stairs of the Micalet (Valencian, in Spanish: Miguelete) to have a great view of Valencia.
We had a tapas dinner at Tasca Angel and went for another drink on Plaza Negrito.
The next day was “tourist-day”. Mia went to school and Pam and I went on a long walk through town. We visited the Mercado Central (Central Market), La Lonja (Silk Exchange), the Plaza del Torro (bull ring) where posters hang to announce the bull fights during Las Fallas – Mia and I are planning to see our first bull fight in the next few weeks.
After a quick comida (lunch) in the sun on a terrace in Ruzafa – an old area of Valencia that is becoming hip and bohemian with all kinds of restaurants and little bars – we walked to Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) with its beautiful architecture. We had another drink on a terrace in the afternoon sun and walked back home through the Turia – the riverbed turned massive park – and the Jardines del Real (the former gardens of the Palace of the King), which are next to our home.
In the evening Pam invited us for a fantastic dinner at Tapa2 Gastronomik, a “fusion-tapas”-restaurant recommended by a friend.
Saturday was a rainy day, but we still managed to do some fun stuff, see the Torres de Serranos (one of the old city gates) and we went to Museo del Carmen to see a fantastic exhibition of 80-something drawings by the masters. The drawings come from a private collection of 19th and 20th century artists such as Van Gogh, Miro, Picasso, Salvador Dali, Gaugain, Renoir and many, many more.
Of course is a visit to Valencia not complete without eating paella, so we had that as part of our lunch in a small cafeteria nearby the Mercado where Pam also bought her own paellera (paella pan).
We skipped the dessert that was part of the menu del dia (set lunch) and instead went for a horchata with fartons (horchata is described in linked post, fartons are the sweet and sugared bread-sticks that you dip in the horchata) and chocolate con churros (cup of melted chocolate with sugary deep-fried bread-sticks).
The rest of the afternoon we lazily spent at home and Mia and I cooked dinner in the evening. Early Sunday morning Pam went back to The Netherlands after a quite intense and fantastic 3 days! We were still so absorbed by her visit that we didn’t even realize it was March 1, the start of Las Fallas and totally missed the first Mascleta.
So I will leave now to pick up Mia from school and we will then go to Plaza del Ayuntamiento (the City Council Square) to see (and mostly hear) our first Mascleta. From what we have heard this type of fireworks is way more intense than that of Chinese New Year…
More photos of our days with Pam here.
Piet and Mia,
You are perfect hosts and did a great job showing me the city and welcoming me in your casa. Thanks angels! See you soon
hopefully!
Lots of love
Pam
P.S. Piet, so that was all the hassle about when passing that government square, bummer that I missed the start of the festivities.
[...] Friday we took Inge to the Museo del Carmen to see the same exhibition of drawings we saw with Pam. In the evening I cooked Inge’s favorite Chinese dish: coca-cola [...]