The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow Jeff and PoJamma

I take an annoying amount of pictures and use them as memory cues.

Day 16 Sevilla

Sevilla was the one time center of the Christian world and a major center of political and financial power. Today we see some cool stuff. But first about the April Fair. It is a celebration of Sevillain culture in full regalia. Men are dressed in dark blue but not “Blue not black Mercedes” blue. Women are wearing the frou frou dresses you stereotypically associate with Spain and Flamenco dancers. Old women, little girls, teenagers, middle age, moms, daughters, granddaughters, every shape, size and age of women are dressed in their finest in a riot of different colors and polka dots and flowers in their hair. Whole multi generational families out for a walk. The old men in their suits have excellent mustaches. The horse drawn carriages are working overtime. There are couples on horseback, with her riding side saddle of course, in matching light blue suits. There are groups of men on horseback sauntering down the main boulevards of the city. The traffic waits on them. They are the kings of the road. It is a beautiful sight and they are EVERYWHERE. It is very much a see and be seen occasion. I still feel weird and creepy taking photos. These are real people not Disney characters and I am a guest. I suspect they really wouldn’t mind but it still feels creepy to me so I don’t… much. We decide to not actually go to the fair because we did not bring proper attire and I already stand out in crowd quite enough. If you go, bring a blue suit and a frou frou dress or buy one here. They have them for sale. We have a tour booked to visit Royal Alcázar of Sevilla. It is a palace complex constructed by the Moors and then added to by the Christian kings.The historical evolution of the city in the last millennium is held within its walls and gardens. The scenery and horse carriages remind Pam of NOLA. You enter thru the Lions Gate. Why? Because we are in the ancient kingdom of Leon and Castille. Lion and Castle. That imagery is on everything. The interior is splendid in the grandest sense of the word. The detailed work of the moorish craftsman is so fine it is hard for the eye to focus. It boggles the eye. The ceilings are the wooden ones we had seen in Toledo but of an exquisite design. This is the oldest royal residence still in use in Europe. You can book tickets to tour the royal quarters but only on the day of. Not in advance because the royals could pop in at any moment. So that is probably not true but in theory it is so no pre sale. The palace is cool. The rooms are cool. The history is cool. The craftsmanship is superb. But none of that justifies the tour cost. What does is the early entry before the masses and access to the gardens. The gardens are magical. Talk about garden of earthly delights these are more like garden of unearthly delights. We finish the tour in about 70 minutes and then wander around the gardens for hours. There is a maze, open parkland, formal English and French designs, specimen trees from across the globe, fountains, palm trees galore and even more orange trees. There are orange trees everywhere. There are oranges growing on the trees right below our apartment terrace. Every street, park and plaza has them. Must be all different types of oranges because some are fully fruited out and others are in bloom. Some are both which I don’t understand. The whole city smells of orange blossom. And this park especially does along with the scent of roses. And there are birds singing. You have to really concentrate to hear the sound of the city just the other side of the wall. It is a paradise. We spend a long long time just meandering wherever the next beautiful vista takes us. But then we need to leave and find some lunch. I am getting kicked out of paradise by my stomach in search of tapas. We grab an outside table at Cerveceria Giralda because they have shade and some veg tapas options. Pam goes for an agua con gas and sangria but I think the one at Tapas & Friends in Lisbon with Todd & Melissa has ruined her. I opt for cervesa. The tapas look pretty decent so we order Queso de Cabra con Frutos Rojos (Goat Cheese with Red Berries), Alcachofas a la Parrilla (Grilled Artichokes), Falafel con Salsa de Menta y Ensalada (Falafel with Mint Sauce and Salad), Pulpo a la Parrilla Sobre Verduras Asadas (Grilled Octopus Over Roasted Vegetables) and my personal favorite Camembert Frito con Langostinos (Deep Fried Camembert with Prawns). I now have a go to if I ever need to put on an extra 200 pounds or so. Stuff a big fat shrimp in a block of camembert and deep fry it. It’s going to be the next big deep fried thing at the state fair. People pass by on horseback snapping selfies. Hey look there’s a cathedral. Let’s go. The Catedral de Sevilla is the largest gothic cathedral in the world. I may have just made that up. It is HUGE. Double HUGE. Here is some stuff from googy that is mind blowing… After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for nearly a thousand years. It is the third-largest church in the world as well as the largest Gothic church. The total area occupied by the building is 23,500 square meters. The Gothic section alone has a length of 126 meters, a width of 83 meters and its maximum height in the center of the transept is 37 meters. The total height of the Giralda tower from the ground to the weather vane is 96 meters. Since the world's two largest churches (the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida and St. Peter's Basilica) are not the seats of bishops, Seville Cathedral is still the largest cathedral in the world… Wow. The one in Toledo is the 5th largest by the way. They have a real neat severed head of John the Baptist. Christopher Columbus is buried there. Sevilla is proud of Chris. The kingdoms of Leon and Castile kicked in on the voyage but Navarre and Aragon said no thanks. His coffin thing (Pam says sarcophagus) is supported by the 4 kingdoms with Castile and Leon proudly in front and Navarre & Aragon in the back with their heads hung low in shame. That was info gleaned from an earlier tour guide we would have missed. The place is cavernous with the stoutest columns supporting the roof I think I’ve seen. Sections of the ceiling are relatively plain while others make up for that in spades. There are double back-to-back pipe organs that look like they can honk. It has the first oval dome constructed in Europe. There is a tourist that loses sight of his group trying to snap a picture of every single thing in the treasury. He may be casing the joint or is just compulsive. They have a shadowbox altre like Toledo but even more over the top. You exit into a walled plaza filled with orange trees. It is serene, or would be if all these people would just get the hell out of here. But time to move along to the next amazing park. But first we pause for gelato and espresso. Pam gets her dark chocolate on and the make the piccolo cone look like a chocolate flower. Folks decided that what they needed was some other folks to come and invest in Spain and Sevilla in particular. So how better to do that than to have a World’s Fair in Sevilla. SO they built a grand, really grand, exposition space called Plaza de Espana. It is a large semi circular plaza with a big fountain in the center, a water feature large enough for rowboats, tiled bridges and gorgeous tile work spaces for 50 different regions. It is beautiful to behold. They built it in 1929. Oops.Nobody came. Nobody invested. Money down the drain. But we are the recipients of this stunning space many years later. There is massive parkland associated with it that we wander. There are fig trees with nearly mature figs on them. Feets are starting to complain so it’s time to head home. Before we leave the area we take a walk part way across the pedestrian friendly leading to the fairgrounds. It is a moving feast of frou frou. The walk home is slow and pleasant. We, I, stop at a craft beer bar I had spotted earlier and bought a local to go. After a bit of a rest we decide to take another shot at Bar Garlochi. Tupper Ware in Madrid was weird. Bar Garlochi is freaking me out weird. So how many baby Jesus have you seen in 1 bar? We have seen more. I guarantee it. By a factor of 10. Easy. Lots of chandeliers and other stuff. If Jesus was a vampire this is the bar he would open. Brenna would totally decorate her house in this velvety goth surrealistic style. Drinks are not cheap but they are stiff free pours and you pay to gawk. We forget to go check out Metropol Parasol at night when it’s lit up. But Pam is lit up on vodka tonic and multiple Jesusses. Time to go home. Tomorrow we travel.

Day 18 Cordoba

We wake up slowly and enjoy our rooftop breakfast. It’s overcast with a chance of morning showers so no need to rush today. We don’t have very many things scheduled to do. We take off walking thru Cordoba to reach the old part of the city. Along the way we pass Discos Vitalogy Record Store. There is a small crowd and it reminds me that it’s record day. Hope ya’ll scored big. Our path takes us thru Plaza de las Tendillas and there is a Cordoba/Japan festival going on. Apparently cos play and Japanese toons are just as popular here as at home. First stop is Tablao Flamenco El Cardenal for tickets to the show tonight. Secured and now on we go. I have a calendar at work with scenes from Spain. Last month was a picture talked from Calleja de las Flores, Street of the Flowers, so that is a must stop. It would appear that a lot, a whole lot, of people have that same calendar. It is packed. I snap the obligatory picture and we fight our way back out. A bit further down the street is our goal. We are heading towards the Mezquita. At one time Cordoba was the center of Muslim Iberia. It was home to the great mosque. You enter thru the base of the Torre Campanario into a large plaza filled with orange trees, Patio De Los Naranjos. Buy your ticket, get in line and enter a giant space filled columns topped with iconic orange and white double arches. They stretch in every direction for as far as the eye can see in this dimly lit expanse. It looks like infinity. Or it did until the fall of Cordoba to the Christian Reconquisition and they built a cathedral right in the middle of it. Radically different approaches. It’s easy to talk about cool stuff you see in the cathedral like a dog holding a torch, a crazy looking St Michael statue with a ghost Pam, the old bell tower clock works, two tone pipe organ, angel light fixtures, chapels, choirs and alters. It’s not as easy to talk about what you see and experience in what remains of the mosque. The detailed plaster work is plentiful but mostly it is just the expanse of the space. When you can get in a quiet spot and let everything around you melt away is the real magic of the place. There are really beautiful ceilings in both. As usual we exit trfu the gift shop except we don’t. There isn’t one. This is freaking Pam out a bit. After thoroughly determining that no indeed there is not one. Seriously. None. It’s time to go find some lunch so we pop out and just at one of the corners is Bar Santos where you get a slice of a gigantic tortilla. Again it isn’t what we think of when we think tortilla. It is more giant potato, onion, cheese and egg baked Spanish omelette. THis was dry enough you could slice it thin. The line is long but moves fast. Besides that we get a solmorejo, a patata bravas, a coke and cervesa. You take it out of the tiny place and eat standing up or sitting on the massive stone base of the Mezquita. As we sit there we are passed by what we think are hen parties. But I have my doubts. They are groups of young women, always 6, dressed in matching tee shirts with one being the focal point. Yellow tee shirts and one dressed as a banana, black tee shirts and one draped with a cowhide carrying a bull’s leg(?), pink tees and one dressed with a piggie mask, greenish brown tees with safari hats and one dressed as a T-Rex on parade and singing. We couldn’t tell it the T-Rex had a fun meter or not. One would assume so. After we walk down to the Guadalquivir River and take a walk across the 1st century Roman bridge to the other side , get a pear and orange smoothie and walk back. We take our time and walk along the river to Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, Alcazar of the Christian Monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian Monarchs, play a big role in Spain’s history as well as the rest of the world. They were they most powerful people in the western world. Their marriage united vast kingdoms and this place plays itself as the spot where they granted Columbus the charter to go discover America and Ray Charles. The gardens are said to be some of the finest around. It’s closed. At 4:00 on a Saturday. Have to admit that caught me by surprise. I was figuring we would see the Alcazar, go have some dinner and then hit the flamenco show. How we have a couple extra hours to kill but don’t want to leave the general vicinity. Well we could always grab a table at Casa No. 10 Taberna in the Jewish quarter and have a glass of wine. There must be an upscale event going on because there are a bunch of people converging nearby that are not dressed like tourists. Let’s go check the street of flowers again. Now it is far less crowded which translate to only about a third full but you can almost take a selfie with no one else in it and isn’t that a win on the vacay scorecard? Pam spots a craft beer sign at Taphouse Cordobeer and there is an empty table outside so we stop. Table is being generous. It is a ledge. I order myself an IPA which they pronounce as “Eeepa”. After a bit we go to the rooftop and have a few bites, well I do. Pam isn’t doing food right now. Finish up my chorizo in wine sauce and seafood salad, one of the lesser dining experiences, and off we head to the show. Not front row this time but decent seat and the people in front of us don’t show up until half way thru and they are short. This is a very different show than we saw in Madrid. It is like a history lesson in flamenco styles. The guitarist is exceptional, the singer not as much. Overall, I found it far less expressive but some of the dancers to be as good emotionally as we saw before. To put it in simple terms that I can understand there was a couples dance, a 3 way chair/hat dance, a shawl dance, a 3 way “oh yeah watch this” dance and then everybody dances. We take the long way home and pass thru Plaza del Porto with it’s fountain topped by a colt and then the iconic enclosed Plaza de la Corredera. I had to get a beer at one of the cafes, Casa de Munecas, just so I could sit on Plaza de la Corredera, drink a beer and take in the scenery. Wish I had more time to get friendly these look like my people. During the day it is surrounded by cafes and tables in the plaza center. Another time perhaps. We wander back in the general direction of home and pass thru empty plazas and streets. They do a particular style of stone work in their plazas. Elongated black and white stones in patterns. All different designs all over the city. They are not that comfortable on the feet. Off to bed. We travel tomorrow.

Day 20 Granada

Happy Birthday Pam! I wanted her to wake up to that view on her b’day. There is a plan to all this madness. Today’s goal is to walk up the hill to the Alhambra. A little breakfast first. We were only there 2 days but got used to breakfast without thinking when we were in Cordoba on our roof. But I have a nearby breakfast spot picked out so we climb the hill and try not to take too many wrong turns. Along the way we pass Mirador Placeta Carvajales with it’s long pool and views of the Alhambra. Granada, like Lisbon, is all about the miradors. Not much farther we come to Cafe 4 Gatos. In our hosts welcoming literature it said if you hear weird noises at night don’t worry, it’s only the cats walking around on the roof. It is a tiny place with tables out front which are all full. There are 2 spots open at the bar and we grab them. We both order off the Desayunos Especiales board. Pam goes for the coffee, toast and orange juice and subs tea for cafe. They serve the tea in a tumbler on an upside down saucer. The toast is just buttered but I think it is sufficient to get Pam her butter fix. Mine is nearly the same but is Tostada de Salmon Ahumado, Tomate, Queso Crema & Alcaparras with a cafe con leche and zumo de naranja. I add a nice drizzle of olive oil. The orange juice is of course fresh squeezed. Every single place in Spain, at least the south, has 3 things. 1) a beer tap 2) a coffee machine and 3) and orange juice squeezer. Whack an orange in half drop them in the machine and there you go. They are everywhere. And all the orange trees we see growing in cities are all sour oranges and grown mostly for shade, decoration and the scent. We are told ”In Spain we say, “Seville smells like orange blossoms.””. It did. A quick stop at the apartment then down the hill to walk along the most beautiful street in Spain. It really is lovely. And narrow. And there are cars. And REALLY narrow in some places. It is mostly shops on one side and you can see the river/stream flow along in its channel 15 feet below street level. Occasional stone bridges cross the gap to the other bank and you can see a few houses and cafes on the short dead end streets. Downstream a few blocks and the river disappears under the city. Upstream after passing plaza filled with umbrellas and tables the street turns left and there is a bridge to the right that crosses the river and that’s where we are going. The river continues up the defile and forms the Sacromonte, the valley with the gypsy caves. Up the hill we go. It is make your lungs hurt and legs burn steep. There is a arched opening in the side of the what I am now going to refer to as the cliff face with a stream waterfalling out of it. We stop and admire the view. Further on there is nothing but a plain stone wall. We stop and admire that view. We stop and admire many views. After forever the path flattens out with stone and brick walls on either side topped by towers. There is a spot where water is sprouting from the wall. It forms a beautiful little stream with a little lush glade around it before it joins the stream beside the path. That stream is the one waterfalling out of the arch far below. We arrive at the top in half the time we alloted ourselves and there is a restaurant with an open table in the shade and cold refreshing beer & Coke. Sold. Location is everything and this has a location. Just about every single person that comes up the cliff behind us stops. Both of our beer & Coke drink orders come with a tapas. First order is 2 slices of the dry version Tortilla and the second is deep fried cheese croquettes. Both flecked with ham. Sorry Pam. It’s time to meet our guide Juan. He is wonderful. He is knowledgeable, engaging, has humor, answers questions thoughtfully, and seems to be genuinely still amazed by a place he has seen countless times. We have him for 2.5 hours and instantly wish it was for more. He knows this place and doesn’t have a script memorized. The Alhambra is a palace fortress complex built by the Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada, starting in the mid 13th century. We go up along the outer walls that overlook where we are staying and the Rio Darro. We thought we would try and spot our place from the walls or towers. We could see people up there yesterday so if we can see them then they should be able to see us, right? We tied a red bandana around the railing on the upper deck. That should be easy to spot. No it wasn’t. One look and I kind of waved and said down there somewhere. Granada was the last city to fall and ended the Reconquisition in FILL IN THE BLANK. It is easy to see why. The Alhambra is built on a promontory of rock and that cliff we climbed is one flank of it’s defensive wall. There is a cliff on the other side that serves as the other flank. Steep mountainous ravines protect it on both sides and the only approach for an army is across the plain in front. To the rear? To the rear those mountainous ravines all spring from Sierra Nevada. Here is something to blow your mind and the true wealth of Granada. Sierra Nevada is a snow capped mountain. Year round snow capped mountain. In southern Spain. WIth a ski resort. It has 120 km of trails and 1000 meter drop. Granada is about a 50 minute drive to the beach and essentially at the base of a ski resort. It looms over the city and is the source of year round water making the plain very fertile and productive. Oranges, avocados and pomegranates are the major crops. The name Granada is derived from an Arabic word for pomegranate and is the symbol of the city. After learning this we see them everywhere. To protect their water and to provide hydraulic pressure they built a dam 8 km upstream and had running water throughout the complex. That water spouting out the side was the result of Napoleon trying to wreck the place. He and his troops finally did and stole whatever they could and then tried to blow up the rest. Our designated time to tour the Nasrid Palaces has arrived. Time to get gobsmacked. The artisans and craftsman who created to thile work, frescos, fountains, glaster work and wood inlay were amazing. The carved plaster is intense to look at hard. But if you let your mind and gaze loosen up in becomes very serene. Part of the decoration is Arabic writing and it is everywhere. The Alhambra is a book. They say the most important visitor to the Alhambra wasn’t King Charles, Napoleon, Queen Ysabella or anyone else like that.It was a New Yorker. Washington Irving came to this place in 1828 and it was in a state of ruin. His book, Tales of the Alhambra, is what launched its rebirth in to the world heritage sight that it is today. It was meant to be the capital of the world. Charles V was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella and thus inherited Castile and Aragon, was a Habsburg, got Austria, Poland and most of central Europe, inherited Burgundy, southern Italy, north Africa, all the Spanish colonies in the new world and Asia AND was the Holy Roman Emperor. He honeymooned in Granada and liked it so much he decided it was his new capital so he started a palace right in the middle of it. Never finished, died and his son moved everything to Madrid. After the splendor of the Alhambra it is time for the other part of the complex, The Generalife Gardens are connected by bridges to the palace and used to include orchards, pastures, crops, hunting forests, a summer palace and tiered gardens. The palace and gardens are still magnificent. And that is where we say goodbye to Juan. We walk back down into town and pass shops making wood inlay and a guy making guitars. Granada has a cathedral so… we skip it! And go to the Royal Chapel of Granada where (F&Y) were buried until getting moved to Madrid. The audio guide guy is the same voice everywhere. We walk thru PLaza de Bib-Rambla and the very odd Fuente de los Gigantes. There is a guy with a small carousel. All the rides are handmade wooden one and it is bicycle powered. It plays a Spanish medley of Disney songs. A walk up into the old Jewish quarter to look at a Vegetarian restaurant but Pam isn’t feeling it. Considering all of the “Old Jewish Quarters” we have seen we haven’t seen a single bagel and I miss them. Pam is having bagel withdrawl. So we go wandering thru the Moroccan souk and end up at Tajine Elvira. I was hoping for some Moroccan version of Elvira Mistress of the Dark. No, it’s just the street name. I had picked it out as a possibility ahead of time and got caught up in “the plan”. It usually serves me well but not this time.I was focused on a premade decision and the challenge of navigating there instead of looking at what we were walking by. The hummus was not completely flavorless but close. Pam got excited at the sight of carrots in her veg tajine and decimated them. My lamb and veg was actually quite good and I swiped her leftover potatoes to mash up in the remaining sauce to get it all. Walk up and down a street in the souk and all the tapestries, jewelry, incense, multi-colored lights, sparkly things and Pam makes the observation “It’s just like being at a fest shake down”. That it is. Since it is her b’day we go in search of chocolate cake. We pass pastry shops and bakers but chocolate cake eludes us. We walk back up along the most beautiful street in all of Spain and still no chocolate cake. There is one sight left to see but it’s going to take some work. Mirador San Nicolás is a hike up the hill but when we finally get there it is so worth it. Pictures from my phone just can’t capture it. The whole of the Albaicin and Alhambra spread out before you. During the construction of the Alhambra there were a lot of refugees streaming into the city. But they were left outside the walls and were known as “The Miserables” kind of their Outside the Beltline. Later another wall was built to incorporate them. 540? The wind in blowing hard. What I thought was haze turns out to be the Sahara. It coats everything in a brown powder/grit/sand. The SAHARA is blowing in the air. If there are cats on the roof they are getting airborne tonight. Walk back down the hill and the little tea/coffee shop at the corner is open so we stop in for a tea and coffee. We join a couple from Chicago and 2 young guys that are students at U of Granada. My Moroccan coffee is strong and cardamom spiced. Time to call it a day. Tomorrow is a special travel day.

Day 22 Valencia

I’m liking this. The sightseeing drive is starting to subside. I don’t feel driven to see everything, just most things. A slow moving morning with no real agenda. The first thing we do is go to The Central Market of Valencia. This place is cavernous in a beautiful old building. Wiki says this “The Central Market of Valencia is one of the largest in Europe, covers more than 8,000 square metres, over two floors, with a predominantly Valencian Art Nouveau style. Its unusual roof comprises original domes and sloping sections at different heights, while the interior seems to be lined in a range of materials such as iron, wood, ceramics and polychromed tiles. The beauty of the building stands out especially on account of the light that enters through the roof at various points, and through coloured window panels.” It is amazing. I am dumbfounded. The produce is beautiful. The biggest red peppers I have ever seen, tiny heads of lettuce, baby greens of all varieties, azur tomatoes, nippled Valenciano tomatoes, pears, oranges, grapes, fruit I have never seen… There are shops that only sell figs, raisins, dates and prunes. There are shops that only sell snails and have 8 distinctly different kinds. There are stalls with 20 different kinds of fresh and dried mushrooms. The largest oyster mushrooms I have seen. There are cheese shops and olive shops and bread shops and cured meat shops and wine shops and butchers and spice shops and dried bean shops and… Then we get to the seafood. Pam can only handle a single aisle. I am in heaven. I never knew there were that many kinds of crustaceans. There are stalls with a dozen different varieties of shrimp. It is insane there are things that may or may not belong to the animal kingdom. There are things that look like a cross between a shrimp and a roach that are 4” long and I would eat a plate full of them. There is one stall where you can get an oyster and a sea urchin for 5 Euro. Oh hell yes. The oysters are local and huge. She indicates I should choose one. I just pick a likely one up and hand it to her. She hefts it in her hand shakes her head no and I choose another. Again no and she head nods me in the right direction. I lay hand on another while watching her and she head nods to the next one. I hand it to her, she hefts it and gives me a good student smile and pops it open. They are so big she cuts it into 6 chunks. They are mildly briney and a firm texture. The urchin has a flavor all its own. I carry it out and share an oyster bite with Pam. Then we make some buys. Both the Valenciano and azur tomatoes, an olive mix, a semi firm goat cheese and a mild sheep cheese, 100 grams of a sweet Iberico ham, a slice of breakfast/dessert pizza like bread that has an orange pulp filling, walnuts and raisin topping and liberally sprinkled with sugar, some sundried tomato, some marinated artichoke, a cheese, tomato and arugula sandwich for Pam, a take away of Paella Valencia made with chicken (I didn’t see the rabbit and snail version) broad green beans and giant white beans, a bottle of Mestizaje, a Valencian white wine from Bodega Mustiguillo made from the almost lost Merseguera grapes, a local IPA AND some olives stuffed with mussels. Olives stuffed with mussels. This is crazy. Take it all home, put away things and have our lunch. It has been one of the highlights of the trip. For both of us. Seriously, ask Pam. After that it’s time to go see some sights. There are so many oranges around here that they use them to hold down napkins at outdoor tables. First we go to La Lonja de la Seda, the 15th century gothic mercantile exchange and the seat of the Tribunal del Mar, a marine merchant tribunal. Cool building with a lot of history, cool spiral columns that are unusual in their lack of capitals, our new laundry room floor albeit in marble, deeply coffered ceilings and the same guy on the audio guide. It has awesome gargoyles and bizarre carvings in the arches. After that we go check out… The Cathedral! The official name is Església Catedral-Basílica Metropolitana de l'Assumpció de la Mare de Déu de València in Valencian! Add Valencian to the list of languages I didn’t learn. I was not even aware there was Valencian to learn. Cool cathedral with a total mashup of styles architecturally, paintings, museum, alters, pipe organs, beautiful painted dome of angels rocking out playing instruments, the largest monstrance in the world (we’ve seen better), history and stuff. Oh yeah it also has The Holy Grail. Yep, that one. Graham Chapman should have just come to Valencia and avoided all that nasty trouble with rabbits and such. The ribs in the domed ceiling look like a tarantula. It is Mona Lisa far away but hey there it is. Speaking of Mona Lisa did I mention we saw the other Mona Lisa at the Prado. Up close. They are relatively certain it is completely by the hand of Davinci. It looks huge but is the same dimensions. You just get to see it from 3 feet away not 30. We walk out and the gift shop is closed. What? Pam has a troubled look. We were going to go on a hike but head for the house instead. I am pushing her system too hard and encouraging her to eat weird crap that her rather sensible body is rejecting. Unwellness has returned. She is hurting but tells me I should go. Not until things settle and I know she is resting. Around 9 things have quieted enough so I go for that hike alone. Valencia used to have a river running thru it, the Turia. After a devastating flood in 1957 they diverted it. Now they just had an old riverbed running thru the city so they turned that into a park. A 7 km long green space with gardens, playgrounds, sports fields, music venues, bio-parks, skate parks, a kid park in the shape of a enormous tied down Gulliver, putt putt golf course, bike trails, jogging trails, dog parks, fountains, the Palace of Music, an oceanographic park, and is the landing spot for the gigantic alien fish gods that will one day consume us all. I am not kidding and that is what I came to see. Some say they are just strange impractical buildings from the mind of architect Santiago Calatrava but I have seen them and know better. There is the alleged “Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia” opera house. Alien fish god. The “Hemisfèric” performance space and IMAX domed theater. Alien fish god. “Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe” science museum. Alien fish god. “Àgora” convention center. Alien beetle god that is forming a protective outer shell out of scaffolding. And Umbracle which is just a nice walk thru a palm tree park. Inside an alien fish god. There is even a nice restaurant inside one of them. My pictures can never do this justice. They are huge and weird beyond description. I hot footed it down there and now I need to hot foot it back. Pam is resting easily so I head to the roof and eat my olives stuffed with mussels (I can’t get over that) some ham, cheese and bread along with my IPA. There are a lot of tv antennas on the surrounding rooftops but I don’t see any satellite dishes. Time to call it a night. Tomorrow we travel. I hope it goes well.

I think we're gonna need a bigger server...

Words 54479
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Still one more week to add right?

I wrote 0-25 or 26 while I was there. Then 30 on the plane back and then 26-29 after we got home.

Exactly

He went out ticket hunting with his internet and mouse
PoJamma screamed at him,"You're mortgaging the house!"
"Quiet you!" snapped Jeff,"Or else I'll get another spouse!"
ALL DE CHILDREN SEENG...