more Valencia

The market was a bg draw to us - after our visit last year I looked for a rental nearby for the tie we would be in Valencia. It has turned out to be a good news bad news thing.  The place is swarming with tourists making it nearly impossible to just get a coffee and relax. But on the other hand it is centrally located and we are within walking distance of much of the city center. 

Here are 2 photo I took the other night on the way to dinner of the market at night...

and we passed a tattoo parlor with some great ads- 

Then we headed to a terrific marisqueria that we had gone to last year and loved- and we loved it again. 

and then- the next night we went to Llisa Negra - a Quique Dacosta (famous chef from the area) restaurant. It was fabulous- we had the tasting menu and loved it all but especially the caramelized ensaladilla rusa. 

The dish of the night below- 

and then weather finally warmed up and we got blue skies so I took a photo from the living room balcony of the street up to the market (the white building on the left with the three peaked roofs - two visible in the photo)

After I spent an hour at the banco Santander nearby, we shopped at the market and bought all kinds of goodies - strawberries so fragrant that we couldn't walk by them and ate them all in less than eight hours LOL Valencian oranges (unlike our Sevillano ones which are bitter and inedible, these are eating orange- big and juicy) Breads and Charcuterie and a couple of bocadillos for lunch. Some smoked salmon for Easter Sunday breakfast. Then because we had a larger mid day feast we went for pizza for dinner nearby.

one spicy sausage with mushrooms and onions and the other (above) with truffle paste... both were quite good. 

Phil tried the carpaccio starter and I had the veggie lasagna slice as a starter....

an excellent local wine (monastrell) 

Tonight - good Friday- we are scheduled for sushi... with a Brazilian twist. So we will see how that is. Next week we are headed to Madrid to visit Megan, Christian and Oscar. So more to follow.

a trip to Valencia

 We took the train to Valencia because it was a four and a half hour journey when a car would take close to seven without stopping except for one gas stop. It was also less stressful than getting on a plane and checking luggage which we would have to do...  I will attempt to insert a video of the train ride here....

We arrived - had a quick cab ride to the apartment street - Phil went up the street to retrieve the keys and we let ourselves into our new home for a month in Valencia.  It is not particularly homey but it is exactly what we need. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, along with an open floor plan kitchen-living room- dining room combo.  We had made an 11 PM reservation for dinner because we knew we would be arriving late - so we went to dinner shortly after arrival and had a nice meal about three doors down the street.  

Then some photos of the area around the apartment- 

our first "meal" out- breakfast at Trencat the coffee sandwich shop around the corner- 

Then on to exploring some more and an overwhelming dinner of waaay tooo much seafood- 

 

Then on Sunday - when things were closed in many instances we walked around a bit more - had churros and chocolate with a couple of fartons and coffee at a really old place that is an institution here.

could not resist having my photo taken with Kong by the City Hall... LOL so more to follow....