UPDATE: The whole point of eating buñuelos

In the Valencia post, there were pics of buñuelos on our table, and being delivered to our table; however, I neglected to post a pic showing the whole point of eating buñuelos which is that they are deep fried. Thus....

Valencia: water?

Valencia, the third largest city on the Iberian Peninsula, little visited by Americans, seems to have pretty many Europeans in town enjoying the sunny weather. For me, I will always remember Valencia for its strange illusions to water.

1. Valencia has rerouted its River Turia. Quite common. What is unusual is that the whole river bed has been turned into a giant park (awesome idea), with the all bridges intact. So, everyone is always walking or driving across bridges over normal looking city parks, instead of water. Some bridges have a pool at their base, as if to dignify their existence

2. Valencia is very proud of its futuristic looking complex of cultural venues "City of Arts and Science, built in the same dry river bed. To me the real stroke of genius are the shallow aqua pools that tie the buildings together.

3. For hundreds of years the Water Council have held their weekly meetings outside one of the doorways of the cathedral. On this Thursday, the meeting took place as usual, among inordinate fanfare, except they had no business to discuss, so the meeting was adjourned as soon as it opened.

4. When we finally across the rerouted Turia, the river bed only had spotty puddles of water. Mild weather needs water to make Valencia the bread, rice, fruits, and vegetable basket of Spain, maybe even Europe?

5. The largest festival in Valencia, Las Fallas, is supposed to be all about fire. We are missing it by less than a month. On this Friday night, we caught another "correfoc" (firerun) in one of the suburbs as a consolation. Correfoc is definitely the highlight of my Spain visit so far.

Not to mention that the streets are washed, with detergent, day and night.


The Water Council meets each Thursday at the stroke of noon.




Correfoc (FireRun). Devils and their Demon.







Old bridge with a "dignifying pool" underneath.


Some shots of the City of Arts and Sciences, designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava.














And here comes the horchata, and buñuelos (fried dough).




Valencia has tons of graffiti/murals.






Central Market.


I finally try out a Segway. My mouth is open cause I'm saying "look at me, look at me". ;-)


Monforte Garden.

Tarragona

Tarragona is just an 80-minute train ride south of Barcelona. We arrived in the early afternoon, and as our hotel was just 5 minutes walk from the train station, we were soon checked-in, at the TI for a map+info, and off on a 4-km walk north to the Roman Aqueduct.

The wealth of Roman ruins in Tarragona (the Roman city of Tárraco) is astounding. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and may well be the best preserved ancient Roman city outside of Italy. The UNESCO description here explains why.

We toured many but not all of the Roman sites in town, spotted some Modernista architecture, strolled the magnificent Rambla Nova, and ate some tasty veggie food from the 100-year old Market.

On the train.


The Roman Aqueduct...


...on which you can walk across. Cool!


The Nova Rambla ends at the aptly named Balcony of the Mediterranean...


...where we looked down and noted that REFUGEES are WELCOME in Tarragona.


The next day was Market Day on the Nova Rambla.


There is ongoing archaeology at the Roman Theater.


The lower Forum.


The Roman City Wall was built about 200 BC. Most of the stones you see here are from that wall. Amazing!


Some of the Roman wall sat on even earlier stones.


View from the Roman Wall to the city center where the Cathedral sits on top of a Roman Temple.


Cool passageway along side the Roman Circus.


More passages around the Roman Circus.




And looking down from the Roman Wall to the south end of the Circus.


The Roman Amphitheater, with remains of both a 6-century and 12-century Christian church inside.


The Cathedral.


Some Modernista Architecture.


Market Hall.


Former Slaughterhouse.

Off on Barcelona

We have been to Barcelona before (in 2000), so has everyone else, with stories to tell, too. On top of that I did much research. Turns out my idea of Barcelona was a little, a lot, off!

1. Barcelona has beautiful modernist architecture
I LOVED all the modernist architecture the last time we were in Barcelona, so much that I thought we would stay in the neighborhood the next time. We didn't end up doing that only because of the Saint Eulalia festival. We did lots of walking around looking at architecture. I was not at all impressed as I expected to be; probably I have gone seen too much great architecture in the intervening years.

2. Barcelona is Disney-esque
Coming here in February helped, festival weekend neutral (more tourists, but also more locals). We got some sage advice from friends to stay in El Born. Because of the festival, we ended up staying in the far corner of El Born, which meant every coming and going we got to wind through the labyrinth of back alleys free of tourists and tourist shops.

3. Barcelona is sketchy
Given the weather (compared to the rest of the continent) and number of tourists, were I a petty criminal, I'd choose to work in Barcelona this time of the year. So I was on high alert. Alas, I failed to spot anything remotely suspicious.

4. Barcelona gouges tourists on admission. Partly due to the festival, we didn't end up paying for anything.

• National Museum of Catalonia Art (the special Picasso+Romanesque Art exhibit forever changed my perception of both) 
• Modernist Hospital Sant Pau (Orwell referred to it as"the sanitarium")
• Barcelona City History Museum (fascinating multilevel underground excavations)
• Maritime Museum (old shipyard)
• El Born market (not so interesting)
• City Hall Mirador - on Saturdays, one gets to march right through Mayor Ada's office

I have to admit Barcelona has very nice museums; interesting and up to date.

If there is one thing, Barcelona did feel as progressive as I expected, lots of city services, many city employees, cafes and restaurants more egalitarian than trendy; and community participation as evidenced by the festival. We are talking about how we will return to Barcelona.

Casa Mila


Eixample Architecture.






Progressive Barcelona has free loaner bikes and bike lanes.






The peaceful night streets of the El Born district.


View of the city from atop City Hall (more or less).


The City Hall was open to the public on Saturday.


Brunch at Vegetalia.


View from the steps of the National Museum of Catalonia Art.


At National Museum of Catalonia Art, in the Picasso+Romanesque Art exhibit, one could photograph the Romanesque art (part of the permanent collection, but not the Picasso (on loan). Ha! This very large exhibit vividly showed how Picasso was influenced by Romanesque art.


The museum also featured some splendid works by Catalan artist Joaquín Mir - a new fav.




We were awoken Sunday morning by the Barcelona Marathon - a gentle wake up call outside our small balcony.


The Modernist Hospital Sant Pau was amazing. Thanks Kathy for the tip!








Born Market Hall.


Maritime Museum.


The Roman City under the Barcelona City History Museum.


And finally playing some tunes in the vegan Cat Bar after enjoying a hemp burger, fries, and IPA.