Driving along Spain's eastern coast: Valencia and Alicante

Like I said in my last post, on Monday morning our group left Barcelona for Valencia. Our group changed a bit that morning, as Molly and Amy headed back to Granada. Thus Anais, Jayson, Liz, John, Courtney and I caught the 12:00pm train and arrived in Valencia around 3:30pm, meeting our other friend, Lacie, at the train station. Lacie had gotten into the city the night before and was able to lead us on the 10 minute walk to our hostel. Exhausted, we freshened up and rested for a little while before leaving the hostel around 7:00pm to walk around the city. Valencia is beautiful at night and we were lucky to run into lots of friendly people willing to take photos of our whole group. A few minutes from our house was the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. This plaza contains a beautiful fountain, the City Hall, the main Post Office and other buildings from the city's golden age. The plaza was decorated for Christmas with garlands of lights and a giant lit-up Christmas tree in the center. From this plaza we walked to the cathedral and took a look around. However, there was either a mass or some kind of meeting about to begin just as we were arriving thus we didn't spend too much time inside.

Valencia at night.

Group photo in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

The fountain in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

Courtney, Lacie, Jayson, Anais and Liz... being silly.

Valencia's cathedral.

Inside by the alter.

Late night walks are my favorite!

Me and John.

Tuesday morning we got up early and made our way into the city around 11:00am, wanting to take full advantage of our one full day in Valencia. We started the day off at Valencia's port. While there's not much there now, the port was the host of the 33nd annual America's Cup (sailing races) in 2007 and we were able to see all the teams buildings, etc.

Finally... Valencia in the daylight!

Valencia's small port.

Anais and John.

After spending a little while walking along the port, we made our way to the City of Arts and Sciences, an incredible group of museums, venues and monuments that Valencia is famous for. The "park" is amazing- it's impossible to describe and almost as impossible to capture in photos. Here's a description that I snagged from a website: "The City of Arts and Sciences is a huge futuristic educational complex designed for Valencia by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrva, as a present to his home city. Calatrava's vision is that of the space age, inspired by animal skeletons.[...] The City of Arts and Sciences is composed of 5 elements, all bound together in a luxurious landscape of clear water spaces and greenery. It is truly a city within a city- you will find yourself far, far away from Valencia, on some distant planet in a distant time." While in the park, we were able to spend time at both the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (the Concert/Opera Hall) as well as the Museo de Ciences Principe Felipe (the Museum of Science). If I ever get the opportunity to return to Valencia, I'd love to visit the park's L'Oceanografic (the Marine Park), the biggest aquarium in the world!

Approaching the City of Arts and Sciences.

The Science Museum.

Left: The Concert Hall; Right: The iMax Theater

The Concert Hall.

L-R: Lacie, Courtney, Anais, John, Liz and me.

What a cool place! I wish that I could have visited it for a longer period of time...

It began to rain as we were walking around the City of Arts and Sciences and while having lunch at a nearby shopping center, Lacie suggested that we make our next stop the Museo Fallero (Museum of Las Fallas). Las Fallas is a festival that takes place in Valencia every March and it's undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. Originally started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, Las Fallas has evolved into a five-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire. Here's a brief history about the celebration: "the focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (“puppets” or “dolls”), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely lifelike and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots, often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes on the day of la plantà (the rising). The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning). Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly midnight." It was a really interesting museum and we had a great time looking at all of the sarcastic and satirical winning ninots. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to see the celebration in person this upcoming March!

Museum of Las Fallas.

Lacie with one of the winning (and therefore spared from burning) ninots of a previous festival.

It's hard to believe that the figures are made from paper mache!

Who's grumpier, Jayson or the old woman?

After walking around and thoroughly enjoying the Museum of Las Fallas, we caught a local bus and headed back into the city center. We strolled through Valencia's Central Market and ended the day with a traditional Spanish meal of paella and tapas at a local restaurant. It was a busy day but we definitely enjoyed all that Valencia had to offer!

Central Market.

This would make a great Christmas card photo!

The next day, Wednesday December 8th, was the last day of our vacation and time for us to head back home to Granada. We said goodbye to Courtney who took a train back to Granada and Anais who had to take a bus back to Madrid. The rest of us (John, Jayson, Liz, Lacie and myself) decided to rent a car for the day and to make our own way back to Granada. It was going to be a long drive- about seven hours- but we were excited to be able to make the trip at our own pace, with our own music, enjoying each other's company. So, armed with just a map of Spain's major highways (nope, no GPS on this road trip!), we left Valencia and headed south along the coast, reading the highway signs to direct us. After a few hours of driving, we began seeing signs for beaches. Hungry and anxious to stretch our legs for a bit, we stopped at La Playa de San Juan located in the coastal city of Alicante. We were shocked to discover free parking just a minute's walk from the beach! Getting out of the car, we took off our shoes and sweaters and made our way to the water. We couldn't believe that on December 8th we were enjoying 72 degree weather and wading in the Mediterranean Sea!

Playa de San Juan.

Wait... is it really December 8th?!

Loving the warm weather! (L-R) Liz, Lacie, John, me and Jayson.

We spent a few hours enjoying the day and grabbed a hamburger and beer at an outdoor cafe before heading back to the car and finishing up the drive to Granada. By the time we arrived home that night it was already 11:00pm and we were exhausted, but thoroughly happy with a wonderful long "weekend" and lots of new memories! What a great vacation!