My Spanish Sabbatical, 2007/8
Daniel W. Koon
Hi All--
The weather here continues to be warm & sunny, but brisk & breezy in the mornings.

Last week we spent 4 days in Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, a 3.5 hour ride in the superfast (120mph) train. Valencia's Estacion del Norte train station's main room has art deco-style mosaics on the walls with 'buen viaje' in many languages, and the outside has garlands of oranges and greenery in painted plaster relief. The bull ring is next to the train station. Have I mentioned that many bullrings have medical operating rooms in them? 'Be prepared'.....

We visited the main 'sights':
The cathedral dates from the 13th century and has plenty of the paintings gilded sculptures we've come to expect, which are explained in a very helpful audiotour. Parts of the cathedral have been added or renovated through about the 1800s. Next to it is a bell tower; we climbed up to see the views and feel the breezes. In front of the cathedral there's a metal model of it and the bell tower especially for the blind, with a text in Braille and bumpers on the sidewalk around it to prevent people from walking into it. (What Judy forgot to mention - the most important part for any Monty Python fans - is that the cathedral contains THE Holy Grail -- well, that's the claim and I've got pictures.)

The Palacio del Marques de dos Aguas, a very spiffy looking mansion, now houses a ceramics museum, which has pieces from various periods of Spanish history. It seems that Spanish ceramics mostly developed when Spain was ruled by the Moors or the Romans, so what we think of as Spanish-style tiles, bowls, etc. owe a lot to other countries. There's a reproduction of a kitchen that includes wall tiles w/ pictures of most foods that Spaniards eat, both animal & vegetable. This mansion has patterned marble floors and walls in just about every room, and the front door is surrounded by marble sculptures of the 'dos aguas.' The exterior features more marble sculpture & trim--maybe this Marques' family made its fortune in the marble business. Speaking of tiles, every sidewalk we walked on in Valencia seemed to be of a different pattern: there was a very nice red-marble sidewalk right down the street from our hotel, for example. Also, we should note that the "old town" of Valencia is not nearly as concentrated with old buildings as Segovia or Toledo, but we found ourselves bumping into gorgeous buildings almost every time we turned a corner.

We also went to one covered open-air market, with a couple of hundred stalls selling mostly fish [the smell--poor Eli], fruits & vegs, and bulk spices, nuts and dried fruits. This place was so big it resembled a train station, and a few of the windows had stained glass. It had a lot of gross looking foods, including the odd pig's head and quite a few rabbit carcasses whose bugged-out eyes reminded me of something out of Goya's works. (Don't worry: I wasn't tempted to take any photos.) The other market has been renovated into fancy cafes & shops, and the exterior was restored a few decades ago in an art deco style with a bit of Gaudi, a little craziness.

Our most productive market visit was to a small plaza's flea market on Sunday morning, where D got a watchband and I got a fan that's painted on both sides. D also picked up a few cards showing St Lawrence and his grid. (In the painting, it looks like St. L is about to put a big sprig of tarrgon "on the barbie")

We had a lot of unremarkable food, but luckily we stumbled on Babalu, a Caribbean restaurant, and had some very good tapas there, made by their Pakistani chef and served by the Colombian and Belgian waiters. (And Eli actually didn't mind the curry! Hurray.)

We did take a day to go to the beach at El Saler, about a 1 euro bus ride down the coast. It's a quiet beach but has 2 restaurants for tapas, drinks, etc. The water was pretty warm in the afternoon, so Eli stayed in the water quite a while doing battle with the waves.

Our Madrid neighborhood suddenly woke up on Monday, with many people back from vacation--more pedestrians, more traffic, and more shops open. We even heard a young man and woman chatting with each other in American English on the way to the Metro. Now 'real life' has started--we went to orientation at Eli's school yesterday, and his classes start tomorrow. He's pleased with his schedule, which includes French, band and computer art but not Spanish, which conflicted with the math course he needs....It might be a while before we have anything interesting to write about again....

We hope you're all well and enjoying some good, insect-free early fall weather.

Judy, Daniel, Eli

Estacion del Norte [Art Deco] Train Station
 
The Palacio del Marques de dos Aguas Museum
 
The Holy Grail from the Cathedral of Valencia
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