Our Penultimate and Last Weekends in Valencia

Steven and Patricia brought Perry, who is apparently a very good dog who never barks unless you leave him along in an apartment in Valencia.

Sue’s part:

Two weekends ago (eek, sorry) our friends Steve and Patricia drove nine hours from Portugal just to see us. We are popular! OK, let me correct a couple of things already. First, Steve is a guy Steven went to college with and then, just like guy friends, they didn’t talk for 30 years or something (closer for 40!)until we moved to Maryland, and now it’s like they saw each other yesterday. Second, I’m not sure they drove here just to see us. I think we were a good excuse for a road trip.

We had a blast playing tour guides. We walked to the beach and ate paella overlooking the sea. Well, Steven and Steve did. Patricia and I ate salads because you can only have one paella per table. We wandered Old Town and sat outside eating Italian food and conversing with the Dominican waiter in broken Spanish.

It was great to have someone to talk to who wasn’t Steven (gee thanks). Plus, Steve talks to the baseball announcers and the four highlights on repeat ad nauseum just like I do.

Monday morning, Steve and Perry headed back to there place in Portugal and Patricia went off on a three-week camino. I like to walk, but 18-mile days may be a bit much even for me. More power to her!

The Last Weekend

Steven’s part:

This is our last week in Valencia before we head back to the U.S. for the summer and fall. As always, we spent the last couple of weeks trying to do all the things that we said we were going to do but didn’t get around to. This past weekend we ticked a few more things off that list.

Saturday, we had a fairly quiet day, mostly relaxing and running an errand or two. It is pretty unusual for us to do nothing on a weekend day, but every once in a while, it is fun to just do nothing. At least during the day. In the evening, we headed out with our friends Paul and Nancy to a jazz club called Jimmy Glass jazz bar. The place was long and thin – about the width of a small shop and twice as deep. The band was a quartet (drums, sax, piano and bass) that played John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and music of that ilk. I think that they were just jamming together for the evening, because, if I translated the intro correctly, they were called the No Name Band (give my translation skills about 30% chance of being correct) (Steven is right! His Spanish is better than he thinks). It was our kind of club, a place where the owner/manager warns people not to talk during the show and everyone obliges. The band hit the stage at about 11:00 and played through to about 1:00 with a 15 minute break. It was great, and I only wish we had been more diligent in finding this place earlier in our stay.

Sunday, Sue and I went out for a long morning walk, just to have something to do. We wandered through some new neighborhoods that were very nice. On the way back we stopped to get bread from our favorite bread store, Aspai Obrador. We love their bread and visit 3-4 times each week. After a quick stop at home, we met Nancy and Paul and headed to a new food court called Mercado de la Imprenta. We had a nice lunch in the historic building and afterwards, Sue and I headed home.

In the evening, we headed back out to a speakeasy called Apotheke. It is a prohibition style bar, with very interesting and delicious drinks. (I drank a sake creation that came with a little piece of sponge cake to eat first to prepare your pallet. I’m not that fancy, but I did enjoy drinking out of a bathtub.) It is by reservation only and when you arrive, you need to knock on a door and give them the password that you receive when you make a reservation. We arrived at 9 p.m. and the place was fairly empty, but by 11, all the tables were full. We left around midnight and walked home. We covered about 10 miles Sunday without it feeling like a death march.