A wedding and looking around Valencia - May 2008
We were lucky enough to be invited to Erik and Ana's wedding in Valencia. We went even if the wedding was on the 17th of May (Norwegian national day)... and it turned out to be 100 times more fun than any 17th-May celebrations we've had. We stayed some extra days to have a look around and here are some photos to prove that we were there.
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We used a whole range of transportation this holiday: Driving: Ottawa - Montreal by car (Yogi) Flying: Montreal - Barcelona and Madrid-Montreal by Transat. Trains: Barcelona - Valencia and Valencia - Madrid by train (great trains with movies on board - albeit in Spanish...) Taxis: Hotel - Church and Hotel - Train station (Taxi had TV screen with entertainment - but the trip was too short to enjoy a whole movie). Metro: West Valencia - East Valencia and back on a number of occations (multi-day tickets are the way to go!). |
Driving | Flying |
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| Trains Trains Trains | Taxis | Metro |
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Rob found his shop not long after we started walking to our hotel. Either a slice of England or a short Englishman... the latter is our preferred choice as it is funnier... (but less gramatically likely). | |
| Our hotel... | ||
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 We chose an affordable and nice hotel on the western side of town. Pleasant with a bedroom, livingroom, bathroom and a small kitchen. We also spent some time finding a supermarket on the first night - and then on the second night we found several within easy walking distance. Only problem was finding non-UHT milk....
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| A wedding... | ||
Greeting the groom (also known as Erik) - and enter the bride (also known as Ana) |
The beautiful church Santa Maria del Mar. 
... and the intricate cake-cutting ceremony using a real knife (read: a shiny sword!) |
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| Sightseeing... | ||
Visiting the beach. Hild's first time ever at the Mediterranean!!! |
Hild at what remains of the original gates to the city. This one has canon holes and all. |
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Around the cathedral in Valencia. |
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Various old buildings discovered during our many walks around Valencia. |
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Tired tourists need churros and hot chocolate. We found this wonderful cafe (Valor Chocolaterias) and had a plateful of traditional churros. Even Rob agreed that the hot chocolate was nearly too chocolatey - someting he generally claims to be an impossibility. |
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The nice park running through Valencia (previously a flood-prone canal) was used for soccer, rugby, baseball, basket ball, and track & field in the short time we observed it .... and we also used it for an early morning run. |
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In the same park they also had various simple gravity-based gym equipment that we just had to test... |
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We really enjoyed a paella lunch/dinner together with the other wedding guests. Our preference was the traditional Valencia paella - without fish - with chicken and rabbit!! |
We were also pleased to see that smoked meat is such a big deal as we love that too. This picture was taken (in secrecy in case photography wasn't allowed) in a supermarket! |
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So much fun to be had! Mental note to go back to Spain again and see more of this country...
Hild Rygnestad
May 2008