We pretty much relaxed and took it easy. Met Carmen in Atocha and walked around a bit near the Prado, got coffee, etc., then said our goodbyes, or rather “hasta luegos.” Having been to a book fair with us a few days prior, Carmen bought us both books as parting gifts – El Principito for Charlie and Patas Arriba—La Escuela del Mundo al Reves for me. An unexpected treat.
As Charlie and I awaited our afternoon train to Valencia, we wandered around the newly completed indoor park in Atocha – quite a sight – and visited Charlie’s best friends, the bootleg CD hawkers outside on the paseo.
We had about a 3 ½ hour trip to Valencia, through gorgeous countryside strewn with lunar hills and villages with windmills, then about an hour on cercanías to Gandía. Stopping outside, we noticed it was a little warmer close to the coast, though an evening chill was setting in.
Once we met aunt Kate and her friend Anne, we hoofed it through the town, which had a very attractive feel about it, to the car, then headed out to Villalonga, about 15 minutes’ drive away.
We had a very nice time relaxing in this area, hiking in the gorgeous mountain trails, seeing a ruined Moorish castle and numerous orange groves; walking along the sandy beach at Oliva; seeing the castle/home of the Borjas in Gandía, and simply enjoying the quiet and scenic setting of Kate’s new home.
On our second day on the coast, we passed through Valencia again on the way northward to Barcelona. After being pursued by some Chinese tourists to the oficina de turismo in the ayuntamiento, we wandered around the downtown indoor market and tried (unsuccessfully, since it closed a few minutes before) to ascend a campanile in the old downtown that reputedly offers a nice vista of the city. Then, we took a horrid tourist bus out to the new “ciudad de las ciencias y artes” and got off there to take pictures and skipped the rest of the tour, walking back to have a true paella valenciana before catching our train. Valencia is a gorgeous city, full of lovely architecture and a very interesting converted dried river basin (since the river was prone to flooding and was diverted around the city – now the basin is all lush green park and sports playing fields, traversed sublimely, in its dryness, by many arched bridges), but I would say it is definitely better suited to a summertime visit.
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