Rain??? It rained all night, drizzle. It’s dark at 7am and just light at 9am. A light breakfast in house.

We seek advice from the Mons Suites guy 3 minutes walk away regarding a taxi for tomorrow morning. He’s advised of a toaster that trips the circuit breaker and is clearly faulty, a safe that’s needs to be unlocked to be useful and where to leave the key in the morning. The apartment is just average, looks like an ’80s reno by a home handyman, it’s a bit short on stuff. It’s position is OK but ideally I’d prefer to stay down the bottom end of the old city, near the Cathedral, about 10-15 minutes walk away. Wherever you are there are restaurants, cafes, Carefours corner shops so you won’t starve or dehydrate. Water from the taps or fountains anywhere is fine here.

We find the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus after an interesting walk through placed we hadn’t seen before. The Ceramics Museum is a spectacular building. Down town the modern architecture of the city is spectacular, stunning maybe. The Turia River bed ( the river diverted) is the green lungs of Valencia and splits the city into 2 sides, is spectacular. Apparently the others segued down it yesterday, it’s green, no cars, a haven for bicycles, sport, runners and all sorts of stuff. We traverse the marine area, the beach and then back to the old walled town. A walk to Plaza del Toros where the bull fighting stadium is doesn’t get us a result, we can’t get in.

We have lunch at a Cafe, then walk to Valencia Cathedral, €9 each gets us in. It’s spectacular, no wonder they hold the plates out at mass, the gold, scultures and paintings ( some by Goya) would cost a lot. This basilica is of significance because they believe the original chalice that was used in the last supper is on display. Monty Python eat your heart out, I know where it is.

Valencia has a very interesting history of being conquered by Christian, Islamic, Spanish dictatorship in recent times. It’s clearly a very Catholic place now.

Beer, hydration then some food to end the day at 7pm. We’ve been 9 hours on the go.

The Navigator and The Mechanic need to sort their eating out, they struggle to work out what they want to eat and at the end of a long day it makes for tension or bad decisions.

Tomorrow we’re on the road ( or the rail) again to Barcelona.

Ciao

Pauolo