Spain - Valencia

We flew to Valencia from Soller and had an easy Metro ride into the old town. Our Hotel Venecia on Ayuntamiento Plaza was within walking distance of all the old town sights and restaurants. We weren't really planning on staying out late on our first night, but somehow we ended up out until 4am with some locals. We found a great dance club called Radio City and danced the night away!


The next day, we were both in the need of good old American food (enough of this tapas nonsense) so we found one of the most scenic McDonald's in Europe and enjoyed...

We also took one of those open top bus tours of the city since it was really too hot (100 degrees F) to walk anywhere. It was a good way to see the sights, and a good value, but I have to admit, Valencia doesn't hold a candle to the sights of Barcelona. One of the really neat things about Valencia is how they have turned the old river bed that circles the old town into a public park area. After a few too many years of horrific floods, they decided to divert the river and it is such a great opportunity to add park space to an otherwise completely built up historical district. I saw soccer fields, paved pathways for runners and bikers, and open grass and landscaping.



From Valencia, we took an 8 hour train ride to Granada. The interesting bit was that we kept losing carriages along the way. At four different stops, the train disconnected and reconnected so that by the time we pulled into Granada, it was only the front engine car and our car. Good think we didn't try to sit somewhere else on the train. Who knows where we would have ended up!