We had pre-reserved a rental car through Europcar, and
planned to pick it up at the Barcelona Sants train station, because that was
closer to our hotel than the airport. We took a cab to the station, easily
found the rental counter and received our car. I was a bit worried that the
pink monster wouldn’t fit in a tiny Euopean rental car, but the VW Golf handled
it just fine.
That's the pink monster, glowing in the back!
And…we were off! Using Google Maps GPS, we headed for
Valencia. Because there is a Valencia, CA very close to us at home – and it is the
location of Six Flags Magic Mountain – we kept joking that we were driving to
Magic Mountain. Along the way, I introduced Adam to the wonders of gas station
food in Europe. We stopped at a rest stop that had a full barista-staffed
coffee bar, a fresh salad bar, freshly squeezed juices, hot handmade pizzas and
sandwiches, etc. Seriously, if gas stations were like this in the US, I would
actually spend more time (and money) there!
At the gas station, we saw a Lamborghini with rally race
stickers on the side, and noted that it would most certainly go blowing by us
back on the Autopista. It never did, but a few miles down the road, we found ourselves
in the middle of the rally! A Porsche Panamera, F-Type Jaguar and Mercedes AMG
GT with the same stickers all flew past. Sweet!
The drive was an easy three hours. I told Adam that
kilometers go by much faster than miles. We both laughed. I know that’s because
they are smaller – duh! But it’s true! It makes a trip feel faster!
When driving in Europe, finding a hotel and parking is
always the most stressful part. We pulled into Valencia and found our hotel,
but couldn’t figure out where to park to unload. Finally, we just pulled over,
dumped the bags, and I stayed with them while Adam drove 4 blocks to the
parking garage.
Our hotel
Our hotel was amazing!
It was the One Shot Reina Victoria, which was the first ever hotel in
Valencia, built in 1913. I didn’t even know this when booking! I never read
reviews when making reservations because people are crazy. I book purely on
photos. If a place looks cool, I’m in. Turns out Hemingway stayed at this hotel
while writing The Sun Also Rises in 1925. Faithful blog readers will know that
I accidentally follow Hemingway everywhere he goes. Without planning to, I went
all the places he did in Key West, Paris, Cuba, and now Valencia! It is like we
are travel soul mates separated by a century.
I loved Valencia. There isn’t a major landmark, so there
weren’t many tourists. But for me, the attraction was the city itself. It is
full of clean white baroque and colorful art deco buildings. Compared to
Barcelona it felt more graceful – softer and brighter. Orange trees line the
streets.
We walked around, taking photos and shopping. Adam scored a
great vintage poster in an old dusty book store for $5. I stopped at a place
called Zumm Salads to grab a quick sandwich and had the best turkey/cheese/green
apple sandwich I have ever had. I also wanted to try fresh OJ since Valencia is
known for its oranges. OMG. Best orange juice EVER.
Valencia also has a section outside the historic quarter
that is full of modern buildings. They are art museums, an oceanographic studies
center, a zoo, and a few other things I don’t remember. It was such a nice,
airy district – all centered around a huge park where locals run, ride bikes
and picnic.
We returned to our historic hotel for showers, and headed out
to dinner. We picked a place because it had my initials above the door
(unrelated to the name of the restaurant, and we still don’t know why it was
there).
Beautiful blue glass bottle full of plain water; note the empty restaurant
We arrived at 7:30, but the kitchen didn’t open until 8 (of course), so
we sat on the patio and had sangria. When we finished dinner at 9:45, people were
just starting to fill up the restaurant. But we were exhausted so we said buenos
noches to Valencia.
Tomorrow: Cartegena shows us the real Spain.
xoxo
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