Fallas -- Aftermath

When we went to bed last night, many parts of the city looked like this.

I'm so curious about how things will look today, after the crema.

Fallas Sunday -- La Crema

St. Joseph is famous both as a father and as a carpenter.  Craftsman and woodworkers in Valencia long had a tradition of a sort of spring cleaning, gathering up all the scraps in their shops to burn in a bonfire on this day.  Over time, the scraps were dressed up like humorous scarecrows, and eventually these became political and satirical, often reflecting anti-clerical sentiments.  These are the origins of the festival of Fallas.

So, we set out on a peaceful (more or less) Sunday evening.

Fallas Sunday -- Father's Day

In Spain, today is father's day, the feast day of St. Joseph.  Families are out everywhere today, and though it's father's day, the big display in the Plaza de la Vergin is the huge Madonna, now fully decorated with flowers.

Crazy Fallas Friday!

Here's how our day started, bright and early.

Characters of Fallas

Our daily walks have been more and more interesting lately, as the sculptures called "fallas" are being completed all over the city.  In this post I'll show some of the characters of Fallas.

Nerdy Image Post 2

A few days ago I posted some images that the Google photo assistant made from my photos.  I also mentioned that I was going to play around with one of my images and see how I could do compared to the assistant.  Well...

Mystery Solved!

I've been wondering about this sculpture since we visited Valencia for the first time, a year ago.

Nerdy Photo Post

This post is for nerds only.  I made the original photo, but google made this image.

Three Things Happening in Valencia Today

Here's a picture of what's happening in the days leading up to the big week of Fallas.

The Botanical Garden

Our apartment is in the Botanico nieghborhood, on Botanico street, and today we finally got around to visiting the Botanical Garden.

Just Playing Around

I don't have anything special to write about today, so, I'm just going to play around in this post.  Here's a really cool toy we discovered in a park in the Turia, right here in Valencia.

Santa Catalina Tower

Today, my sis and I climbed the tower at the church of Santa Catalina.

Oceanografic

Valencia has the largest aquarium in Europe in its City of Arts and Sciences complex.  We visited yesterday.

Valencia Beats Real Madrid!!!

I haven't posted anything for a few days because we have family here and we've been busy.  But, I have to post about last night's adventure.  My brother, Rick, and I went to the Mestalla stadium last night to watch Real Madrid destroy Valencia, but that's not quite what happened.

How to Make Paella

First, pick up your family at the Valencia train station.

Our Front Door

I've been playing with google maps, and decided to embed a few maps.  Here's the first.




I'll be adding more, I think, and updating some previous posts with maps.  Please let me know how they work for you.

Something in the Air

Valencianos are justifiably proud of their cooking traditions, especially paella, but though paella originated here, you can find it in many other places.  One thing that is uniquely Valencian, that happens nowhere else, is Fallas.

Favorite Statues

I discovered this interesting statue in the Plaza del Poeta Llorente.  What I love is that he's wearing a sword, but wielding a brush and palette.

Street Art

Since we arrived I've been taking pictures of the streets, especially street art.  So here's a little gallery.

Friends and Relations

Thursday night we went to a little bar called La Vitti to hear Devin, Mary's cousin, play.  Devin played drums behind a keyboard player and singer/bassist.  It was an intimate setting, with a very appreciative crowd.  It was tough to get pictures, but here's one of Devin and Mary.

The Engineering Challenge

My friend Mike Howland and I enjoy playing around with little engineering problems, like how to set up a shop with heavy floor tools that can be easily moved and rearranged, or how to make a simple and cheap humidifier--stuff like that.  We've been playing with a challenge related to being in Spain.

Our Neighborhood

We live in a mostly residential neighborhood with lots of first-floor shops, as is typical for the parts of Spain we've visited.  We have plenty of neighbors, of course, including this one getting a little fresh air.

Plaza Ayuntamiento

After a very frustrating session online trying and failing to buy tickets to the upcoming Valencia vs. Real Madrid game, we plotted a course in Google Maps to the Valencia Team Megastore.  That turned out to be a good decision, both because of the tickets and the scenery.  The store is right next to the Plaza Ayuntamiento, the big square in the middle of Valencia.

St. Joans

Right by the silk market and the central market is St. Joans.  It has a most amazing sculpture facing the silk market plaza.

Happy Super Sunday!

It's kind of difficult to watch the big game from Spain, but we're not really interested anyway.  We did go to a La Liga game last night at Mestalla Stadium.   The seating is steep, and it's a climb to get up there.  Here's how the city looks on the way up.

Cousins

By pure luck, it turns out that Mary's second cousin is here in Valencia.  By even more luck, Devin is studying music at Berklee, the same school our daughter Aleta attended, though he's at the Valencia branch, and Aleta studied in Boston.

Typical Days

Sometimes people at home ask us what do we do here in Spain for months at a time.  Well, a typical day starts with breakfast in the apartment, and we've gotten pretty fond of our little Italian espresso pot.  It makes great coffee, never bitter or too strong.  It is espresso, so takes a little getting used to, but I don't miss the coffee back in the USA at all.

Some days we have big plans for tours or trips, but on a typical day, we'll arbitrarily pick someplace in the city and navigate to it, usually on foot.  Yesterday we took a long walk to Mestalla, the soccer stadium.  We're going to a game this Saturday.

Euritos

We've been enjoying the intercambios de idiomas, and talking with la gente here in Valencia.  I practice and appreciate the Spanish language a little more each day.  Today I heard a word that made me laugh.

What's the difference between this

and this?

St. Ursula and St. Vincent

We like to visit the smaller churches as well as the cathedrals.  We've walked by St. Ursula lots of times, but yesterday was the first we've found it open.

Valenbisi

Valenbisi is the city's program to promote bike transportation.   Today we signed up, and went for our first ride.

Valencia Beach Bus

We set a simple goal today:  buy bus passes and take a bus to the beach.  Here's Mary on the #2 bus, now and forever the Valencia Beach Bus.

Sunny Odds and Ends

Yay!  Sunny again today, and a little warmer.  Our language exchange was fun again, though last night's crowd was much older than Sunday's.  It's possible to attend one of these exchanges every night, if you want.  Today, after two nights out in a row, we didn't do much else but a sunny walk.

Our day usually starts with a trip to Mayan Coffees.

Intercambios de Idiomas

We stumbled into a language interchange last night.  We were in search of a good craft brewery and a quick dinner, and navigated to, Tyris on Tap.  Turns out the bar was hosting a group of gregarious language learners who welcomed us into their intercambio de idiomas.

St. Nicholas Church

Mary attended mass at St. Nicholas Church, which has been recently renovated and restored.  

A rainy day---in Valencia?

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Valencia, we're having 1 of only 44 rainy days of the year.  Of course, we had another just a couple of days ago, and another is supposed to be on the way.

Rosa, my Spanish tutor, says, "Esto es historico aqui!!!"  (This is historical here!)  Those selling paraguas (umbrellas) are very happy, the rest of us, not so much.

In this next picture you can see that it's not all been rain.  That is hail.

Nevertheless, we're toughing it out.  This is not the weather we hoped for, but we're a lot more accustomed to it than the locals.

North Train Station Revisited

We often navigate by wandering, and discover, rathen than plan.  We stumbled onto the North Train Station during our short visit to Valencia last winter, and did the same again this year.  I'm happy to say it's still here and beautiful as ever.

The Silk Market

About the time Columbus discovered America, Valencia was a very rich city specializing in the trading of silk.  The silk market reflected the prestige and wealth of the city.

An Abundance of Angels

I'm so fortunate to be here, and though I don't really believe in angels, just in case I have a guardian, I want to say thank-you.  I am always on the lookout for angels either way, and so far in Valencia, I've seen an abundance.

Seems everyone has a different vision of angels. This one seems almost satirical.

Our Apartment

Our apartment is exactly as described in the airbnb listing, but of course, many of the details are not apparent until you arrive.  Here is a haunting portrait:

More about that later...

We're here!

We left the snow in Endicott around mid-day. Mary's brother, Michael, generously volunteered to drive us to the Philadelphia airport. When we arrived, as soon as we had put our luggage on the curb outside the airport, a gentleman in American Airlines uniform arrived with a cart, loaded our bags onto a cart, and accompanied us inside. He asked where we were going, collected our passports, and proceeded to check us in and route our bags, then returned with our boarding passes and directions to our gate. Ok, credit where credit is due. I've done my share of complaining about airports and airlines, but this was the easiest, smoothest check-in ever. I hope it was not just a reflection of how old I look these days.

We paid a bit extra for better seats this time, since a trip this long is always an ordeal. Here's how things looked to my right.

And even better, to my left.

We arrived ok, just absolutely exhausted, in zombie-mode. But, we're here!