Mon 18.Apr.2016
Valencia, Spain
Two weeks I've been in Spain. On short notice, I replaced my laptop before
I left California. I've discovered that I did not back up my data near as
much as I should have before I left home. Sigh!
Anyway... Valencia! Someplace new in Spain! A pretty enough city, with
a language that they are quick to remind you is not Catalan.
Closely related yes, but distinguishable. Everybody seems
happy enough to deal with me in Spanish, or for that matter English. I don't
doubt that I would need only fake a German accent here, and people would
speak to me in flawless German. This is convenient for communication,
less so for learning any Valenciá.
Station Terrapins
Madrid, Puerta de Atocha Station, departure point for Valencia, and every
other Spanish destination I have visited. Valencia is my first departure
from the lower level; I had time to explore. A spacious atrium apparently
an older station building, has shops, a pool, and so help me terrapins!
Dozens of the little critters, on the hoof, so to speak.
The wonderful Spanish bullet trains use Madrid as their high speed hub.
If you ride around Spain enough, you will be back in the
terrapin station now and then.
Plaça del Ajuntament
Near my excellent budget hotel.
Two ways in to the old town center.
This one should make a Rhodian feel right at home.
Where The River Isn't
Floods in the 1950's led to the city's river being re-routed. The former river bed is
now a major city park, with a wildlife refuge at the upper end, a science museum complex at
the lower, and a vast chain of gardens, playfields, climbing walls, et al in between.
We will be in the river park for most of the rest of this page.
OK botanical people - who knows the name of these trees shaped like
proverbial Grecian urns?
.
The Gulliver Playground
From
http://www.visitvalencia.com:
Children can explore the Gulliver Park; an adventure playground
featuring a large fibre glass model of Gulliver tied to the ground with ropes. Children
can climb on the ropes, retelling the story. Gulliver's clothes make a network of slides
and ladders.
Museum of Sciences
I hope to devote a whole
page soon to the Museum of Sciences complex. It is visually playful.
OK, back in town. This is not a park, just a wide boulevard with a small playground.
Cafe sitting on a sunny afternoon. In the old days, that fizzwater would have been a beer.
Even so, it isn't bad.
I want to post at least a couple more pages from Valencia.
I am in Alicante now, but the sun didn't come with me, so I may
have time to get the Valencia pix up before I get distracted by new stuff.