Valencia home of the orange

Valencia is a beautiful city and once again we ended up staying longer than originally planned. The Mayor a woman has just been elected to her 5^th term……21 years in the job. Apparently she went to Sydney and saw the Opera House and the idea of Valencia having its own Opera House was created. Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia designed by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava. Certainly a great move for this city as there is now a school for students who want to study at this amazing place.

I knew very little about Valencia before coming here other than oranges. Lots of orchards. We did a walking tour which covered the old city where we were staying and a bike tour riding our bikes through the outer areas. Both were great value. The architecture both old and new is eye catching. We were warned not to eat the oranges from the trees in the street as they can give you a good dose of the Valencia Vapours.....diarrhoea and many tourists have spent their holidays in hospital. 

Apparently two Formula 1 races were held in Spain up to recently, with one in Barcelona and the other in Valencia. The one in Valencia has now gone to New York with the promise of sharing the last one between Barcelona and Valencia. Our sources tell us that the 2014 F1 event that was to be here in Valencia has not happened. Valencia was also a potential contender for the near recent Olympics, however it was suggested by the powers that be that all stops be pulled out for one single application by Barcelona, with the two cities sharing the events. Barcelona got the Games. But according to our source Valencia did not get one event; they were sorely disappointed. The area is world class sailing waters hosting the America’s cup qualifiers.

The people are very friendly and happy to assist the tourists. When we did our personal bike tour (we were the only two) with Constantine our guide we had the opportunity to eat at a family run restaurant called The Caves. Mama was very interested in how kangaroo should be cooked as it was available in Valencia but no one was sure what to do with it. Through Constantine we explained the method one should adopt to cook the kangaroo ( I should say I explained as Paul only makes spag bog). We returned to eat at Mama’s restaurant again before leaving and presented her with a kangaroo pin (thanks Beryl for these). Mama was pleased and we would definitely recommend anyone travelling to Spain to head to Valencia.

The 245 km train ride to Granada via Madrid is being executed.

A hat for any occasion......one chosen for Ross

Beautiful Barcelona

Ba Ba Ba Ba Barbara Ann Barcelona........ credit to the Beach Boys.

Flying from Lyon to Barcelona only took an hour arriving late afternoon. We had booked a private pick up at the airport which was very cheap thus not having to find our way by ourselves into the city to our apartment.

Settled straight into this place as it has a similar climate to Geraldton. It even  got to 24 one day as it is heading into winter. On our first night here we orientated ourselves to where our apartment was situated on Passeig de Gracia. Just a short stroll from our abode we stumbled upon two of Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces. Paul was goosed bumped seeing them. The signs of a groupie were once again manifesting in Paul. I was going to have to manage this with an open mind and hand.

The next day off we went to do our bike tour starting at 11am with Moritz from Black City Bikes. The bike trip, passed through a lot of the old city called "barri gotic" which took in this area and the Barceloneta beach and Gaudi’s famous unfished work the majestic Sagrada Familia not to be confused with the Sangria Fimiliar. Of course PC was the only one to go AWOL on the tour and that was within the first hour. I was in a dilemma when I noticed he wasn’t with us when we stopped at a monument. When the guide had finished his spiel and it was time to move onto the next stop I had to point out that one of the group was missing. Everyone thought this was a great joke as most of them knew how long Paul and I had been travelling together.
Without too much waiting Paul found us on his way to take a photo of the monument we were next to. I told him he needed to shout a round of drinks for holding up the tour.

So many wonderful touristy things to see and do. When Paul and I visited the Cathedral of all Cathedrals there were  ten Greenpeace activists who had clambered up the 19th century church and chained themselves to the façade displaying photos of the 30 Greenpeace members arrested by Russian police. Paul thought they were cleaners at first and was wondering how you would go about getting such a job......then we noticed the police and fire brigade and the crowd was swelling.
We have really enjoyed Barcelona, perfect weather, paella, tapas, red wine, Moritz beer, Gaudi galore, funicular, forts, churches, beaches, metro, trams and now the train to Valencia. Adios Amigos.

Gastronomy masterpieces in luscious Lyon and the fools fondue.

Alighting from the train at Lyon and getting into a taxi saw us at our next pit stop. This hotel "Domain Lyon Saint Joseph" a converted seminary was about 7k's out from the city centre of Lyon closer to where our friends Sophie and Sylvain lived. The pace has certainly slowed down since Paris. Even the taxi driver was scratching his head as to why we are staying here. It looks like we will be using l'autobus to see the old Lyon. It was very easy to catch the local bus into the city and easy to understand where you were at bus stops as they are all individually named. Drinking the holy wine at Saint Joseph's certainly adds to the ambience of the place.

We were unable to do a walking tour of Lyon however we booked a river tour instead. Lyon has the rivers Rhône and Saone flowing around it. The tour gave us a great insight into the history of Lyon and lots of architectural landmarks could be seen from the boat. An area of Lyon was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998.

To get to the top of the hill where the Notre Dame was we hopped onto one of the funicular. The view was amazing. Walking around Fourviere Hill we stumbled across a Roman Amphitheatre. Making our way further along we descended by another funicular to walk some of the many traboules. I love this place.

Lyon is famous for its wonderful food and there was evidence of this not only by our waistlines but from all of the restaurants and small bars/cafés. We did get to try out a couple of the eating places with most of the menus in French. As we knew some basic French it was easy to work out if we were being offered fish, chicken and beef. At one place Paul chose a dish and asked for the steak to be cooked medium to rare.......the waiter just smiled and said that "monsieur will be cooking it himself" as it is a "fondue de boeuf".....Images of beef being dipped into a chocolate sauce entered my head for a split second with 60's music playing in the background!

Eating in the suburbs at our hotel's restaurant last night was one of the best meals in France. I think the cook used to work in the President's kitchen. Very little choice and no set menu as it all depends on what she has made for the days meal. A great fish dish with heaps of vegetables and then finished off with chocolate mousse and strawberry tart. Not a fondue to be seen......we all know this dish came from Switzerland!