Valencia

Day 1 in Valencia!

We started the morning off by bus to the beautiful city of Valencia. I was unsure of what to expect. I was thinking it would be more like Tarragona but it is so much different. It actually reminds me a lot of Edinburgh! Anyways, we made our way to Valencia. We watched the movie Eternal Sunshine on the bus and that was interesting and took my mind off the long drive. It was 5 hours to get us there! But that isn't too bad considering the other drives I had during the British Isles trip!

We got to Valencia and relaxed for awhile before we went to lunch. I started off with a pasta salad. It was literally a salad that had pasta! It was actually really good and had some seafood and tuna mixed on top. It also had corn and lettuce on the bottom. Then I had some paella. This is the city where paella was invented and continues to grow and be a big main dish. Actually while walking around the city there as so many shops that sell Paella pans and they can become massive! The biggest paella ever made was about 30 tons is what our tour guide said. But we finished our lunch which was delicious and then had some dessert which were some ice cream sandwiches. Then we hit the road for our tour.

We saw so much I feel like on this tour. We saw the different important city center buildings including the city hall and then we went into another building where there was a beautiful stained glass dome. It was breathtaking. Then we continued on and saw some of the more Gothic era style of architecture. We learned that some of this area had been conquered by the Muslim people back in the 6th century and then in 1492 everything was conquered again and made into a catholic or Christian area during the time. So most of the cathedrals that stand where they are today used to be mosques during the old days. That was evident in some of the structures. While walking we saw some of these towers that had been part of the mosques. They were beautiful. My favorite building was the main cathedral. Back during the time when the Muslim faith was prominent this cathedral was a mosque but over time it was changed. The first portion is Baroque, another portion is from the renaissance and is made to look more romantic whereas the final part is made to look Gothic. It has all three different time periods put into one building. This cathedral is also said to hold the Holy Grail. Super cool.

After the tour we went to climb one of the cathedral towers. This was part of the cathedral I just mentioned. We climbed all 207 stairs up (which were not small might I add) and at the top saw a gorgeous view. It was such an amazing day so I could see pretty far out and see the different landmarks. Including the arts and sciences museum where we will be going tomorrow as well as the futbol stadium. These are just some of the things we saw while up there. Then we climbed back down all 207 stairs. It was definitely a workout for today. While walking around the cathedral we were on the hunt to try and see if we could find the Holy Grail. After spending awhile searching we came up empty handed and found out that they use the goblet for mass. So we were very sad in the fact that we did not see it. However, it means that we will be going to mass sometime this week so that we can see it!

Afterwards I walked back home through the streets and just saw the boutiques and the quaintness of the town. I really like it here. It feels different than Barcelona. I feel like there are not as many people here compared to Barcelona. But every city is different I have come to realize.

Tomorrow will be a fun day also! Going to the beach and a couple museums. My kind of day.

Until then.