Valencia

Valencia. This was actually just a city we stuck in to split up the drive from Granada to Barcelona. It turned out to be a gem. We didn’t do much (any?) real ‘site seeing.’ Instead, we went for a run! We started this trip off running regularly, but Monisha’s ankle was hurting enough that we stopped entirely. Unfortunately, I [M] have been feeling a bit blah more regularly than usual, and I think it’s because I just haven’t really been exercising. My ankle feeling good again, I suggested we get a run in. We ran several miles in what is actually the city’s most famous park, so is actually sort of a site itself. It’s a beautiful park that is perfect for running. Miles and miles long, great running surface, trees and greenery, fountains, children playing, dogs out for walks. It also happened to lead to the one site I [N] actually wanted to go see since the building looked awesome online: some sort of museum of sciences. And awesome it was! The architecture was crazy. It was actually right next to the opera house, which was equally amazing.

We walked through the city on the way back from our run and stopped by a famous horchata place. Valencia is famous for its horchata, and we discovered that Valencian horchata is very different from Mexican horchata. It’s made from ‘Tiger Nuts,’ and is described as a combination of hazelnuts, barley, and…something. Anyway, it was delicious. It tasted exactly like something else that I [M] have had before, I think with one of my parents. But I really cannot place what it is. (And it continues to haunt me a week later..)

We had yet another incredible meal in Valencia. Like really spectacular. We got this melted brie dish that had violet marmalade on it. We’ve made some damn good melted brie, but this was better still. We also got red wine and beer. Drinks in Spain are very cheap compared with the United States. Monisha has discovered on our Europe trip that Spanish wine is one of her favorites (she actually first decided this in Norway when Nolan’s relatives served us Spanish wine).

  

  

We had the whole morning in Valencia before we needed to leave for Barcelona, which should have meant we had just enough time to have breakfast at the huge marketplace! Monisha had looked it up online and it seemed to be a wonderful one! Unfortunately, it happened to be Día de España that day, so the market was closed :( Many cafés were also closed, but Nolan found a very highly rated place that was open. We soon discovered it was just about the most Bay Area style breakfast place / café you could imagine: the menu included avocado toast, chia bowls, eggs benedict, etc. Of course that also meant it was significantly pricier than any typical breakfast in Spain would be. But it looked delicious. After missing the market, we gladly treated ourselves to a fancy, very Palo Alto breakfast in Valencia. Yum.