2019.02.21-25. Valencia, Spain for a long weekend

We went to Valencia, Spain for a (blues and fusion) dance weekend. The dancing and music was mostly meh, although Saturday night was quite good. Since we only had the pass for the parties/dances, we were able to spend the days playing tourist.

Thursday: Arrived in Valencia, had amazing dinner at Huerta y Huerta. 

We were 6 people. 3 of us split this menu (3 appetizers, 2 mains, and a plate of 3 mixed desserts for 25€), an extra appetizer and an extra main. Was delicious. 

Friday: Headed to Sagunt(o) to hike.

Sagunt/Sagunto is a town about 30-45 minutes from Valencia by train (2 trains an hour, either direction, about 5 Euros each way). They have a castle/fortification which you can walk up to and around. There are some mountains nearby, but we felt sufficiently challenged by the castle.


The old town of Sagunt was very pretty and quaint and full of buildings for sale (which seemed rather sad -- I am guessing people are moving into the modern apartments on the other side of town). First time seeing a jade plant blooming (left pic), and that was an impressively tall cactus (right):

One thing rather interesting was the intact Jewish cemetary adjacent to/just below the fortification. They mentioned that they had two types of burials there, one being in fake caves, which you can see here on the left:

It's a bit hard to read, but it really looks like that stone at some point said "FORUM".  (The fortress of course started life as a Roman structure, so there are some semi-reconstructed Roman ruins)

reconstructed Amphitheater on way up to fortress

Here are more gratuitous pictures of the awesome views from the fortress. Including the mountains which we thought were right nearby and would offer a good hike. We were pretty warm in long pants and shoes, and it would take another hour easily to get to the base of the mountains, which would mean coming back might happen after dark (not interested in doing that).

the mountains where there is good hiking

Some pictures from Old Town Sagunt. This reminds me of the Spanish Colonial kind of feel of old town Albuquerque:

I really liked the texturing of the brick on this building (the individual bricks kind of lean out or are recessed): 

Friday Afternoon: Walk to and along the "River" (Jardin de Turia)

In 1957 there was a really devastating flood (e.g. the bridges over the river were a meter under water), and after that, Valencia rerouted their river to run south of town, split in two, one artery going to irrigation. Originally the town was going to replace the river with a highway, and much protesting led to them making it a very nice part instead.

weird trees

 I was very impressed by this cross-stitch-on-wire in town:

Dinner at Flammam Gastrobar (outside of the desserts, just as good as Huerta y Huerta).
We had wine from a grape we had never heard of (Bobal). It was fruity with a tannic finish.

"It is native to the Utiel-Requena region in Valencia, Spain. The name derives from the Latin bovale, in reference to the shape of a bull’s head. It is grown predominantly in the Utiel-Requena DO where it represents about 90% of all vines grown, and is also present in significant quantities in Valencia, Cuenca and Albacete. "

Saturday: "Free" Walking Tour of Valencia. 

The standard basics tour. There is also a tour for just the murals, which I would do if/when I return to Valencia. That and/or the boat tour of Albufera, the swamp/lagoon where the rice for paella is grown.

The tour started in the town square (which has been since the foundation of Valencia, the town square). We learned that when the Christian King James I conquered Valencia in 1258 or so, he was pretty pissed off at the Muslims he had just bested, and ordered all of their buildings to be torn down (unlike Cordoba, Granada, etc). As a result, there are no buildings from that earlier period, just the ones built starting in the 13th century (e.g. the Church). 

The city had flourished under Muslim/Moorish  rule, and in the 1st century afterwards the population doubled -- because it had been made the capital of the kingdom around it, and capitals are centers of commerce. They built walls around the expansion in around 1400 or so, which were then torn down in the late 1800s when the town needed more space (and more space to build) and the silk trade suddenly did rather poorly and tons of people were unemployed. The solution was to employ everyone to tear down the walls, which they did with gusto and within 2 years. 

This gate and one other were not torn down because it was a jail at the time: 

It turns out that there is a rule in Spain that when they rebuild something old, they have to make it clear that the new stuff is, well, new. The way this was done on one building (the former Silk merchant headquarters) was by carving a bust of Chewbacca between the busts of people:

Chewie

Nearby the Silk Merchant building is the largest covered market it Europe, and I think maybe also the longest/continuously running market in Europe, the Mercado Central.  It is open 07:30 to 14:30/15:00.  We were allowed a 15 minute break during the tour, and sped through it, buying several tiny servings of snacks for a quick lunch on the go.

The building on the left is the narrowest building in Valencia -- 107cm. It houses a family of four. The daughter's confirmation dress was too big to put on in the house, they had to dress her in the streets. Picture on the right is a cool tower. I assume the funky pattern has to do with Spain's rule about making renovations obvious: 

Stuff we learned:

• There is a bat on the coat of arms of Valencia because supposedly while James I was working on attacking Valencia, some of the then-inhabitants of Valencia snuck into camp to try to kill him. Supposedly a bat was startled by them and knocked into a bunch of stuff in the King's tent, waking him up, and he then killed the would-be assassins with his sword. 
• The Cathedral took something like 3 centuries to build, and has 3 architectural styles 
• There is a water tribunal which dates back to the Muslim/Moorish period and still runs now.
• one person per irrigation canal to serve on the tribunal 
• farmers bring in their disputes/complaints, and get a (legally binding!) judgement within an hour or less   

Sunday: Short walk around in the sun. 

 There was a sort of odd dance party something going on on Sunday, so we walked to the venue to check it out. It had the kind of sound you would expect on a beach in summer, but inside and with the bass turned up too high. There was also a drone flying around (filming, I think). Short video on the right. View from the dance venue ("The Palace of Arts and Sciences") on the left:

Monday: returned to Germany.