Exploring the City of Valencia

Glamourpuss
Originally uploaded by jovike.

Day 2: Breakfast in Cerveceria Bocateria, around the corner in Calle Antonio Suarez. This place is recommended: they do a bona apple tart and coffee for brekkers and at lunchtime something more substantial.

The picture is Espe on the Puente Exposition, a bridge that goes over the former course of the river Turia, now the Jardin del Turia because all the space has been converted to parkland. From there we traversed Calle de la Nave, Calle Bonaire and the Calle Comedias on our way to the Calle de la Paz and the Place de la Reina: half a square because the rest of the space is a different square, in front of the Cathedral.

Valencia is similar to London in that half the shops -- especially the shoe shops -- have a sale on. Sales are called rebajas (Spanish) or raixas (Valenciana). Also many houses and flats have balconies, but even though it is much hotter than London, people do not sit on them, just like in London.

In the Cathedral which was built between 1262 and 1702 we did the audiotour: one English, one Spanish, three euros and leave a credit card or something of value as deposit for the magic speaking boxes and headphones.

After refreshments in the Plaza de la Virgen we also visited the Basilica.

Espe is Catholic and she was hoping to find a cathedral that is up and running, to buy prayer books and so on. Although this is supposed to be a strongly Christian country, most of the churches are locked shut and do not publicize the times of services. The shops that we have in London around our cathedrals that sell plaster saints and souvenirs are not present here. In the UK churches are open and well attended: I often wander into strange churches to see the architecture, artwork and local history or just to look for the green man. We did find a church service in Valencia later in our holiday which held a very swift mass; the congregation was small, female and elderly.

Other contrasts: graffiti in Spain is usually confined to garage doors or run-down properties. In London this could be any large surface regardless of the cost of removing the scrawl.

In Valencia, pipework and garage doors are also often covered with stickers advertising the services of cerrajeros who are plumbers and electricians.

We wandered around before arriving at the Plaza del Ayuntamiento where we checked out the impressive main post office or Correos.

At 20:30 you find us at table 21 in the cafe on the top floor of El Corte Ingles in Calle Sorolla Colon. Espe was amused by the powerplays of the waiters and I watched a group of women assemble one-by-one for a meeting, sitting in different places before recognizing each other and commandeering a table by a window.

El Corte Ingles is like a cross between WH Smith and Debenhams that sells almost everything. Valencia has several branches and the two in the centre of town have different departments to each other, ie electrical goods in one but not the other. The largest branch has eight floors. They are pretty good for books and DVDs. I got a box set of Kojak in Spanish for Espe. I didn't get The Godfather because that was an outrageous €78. I also lingered over the Mont Blanc counter. Mont Blanc make expensive pens and gizmos in shiny black.

Supper was at Joe's, 18 Avenida Aragon, Valencia. I don't know why we went in here, perhaps reassured by the solidity of the coloured glass frontage which obscured the comedy within. The joke at Joe's is that they have only a €15 set menu but they won't tell you what is on it. A group near us left before eating when the waiter refused to produce a menu. We had a go, seeing there was plenty of food on people's tables. New courses keep appearing, about fifteen altogether. I was full halfway through. The waiters have fun. A lot of food goes in the bin. I don't get it. Taberna Joe: For stout trenchermen only.