Valencia

Valencia is a city about three and a half hours south of Barcelona by car. My friend, Mary Elizabeth, has spent the month of July there and we had a visit planned together, but then I was in the hospital, so we aborted. Therefore, Bucky and I decided to drive down to Valencia (with India of course) last Saturday and spend the night. We drove down on the autoroute and noted that the surroundings were arid and bare, different from our experiences driving north. We rented an Airbnb apartment in the Rufasa area so that we could be close to Mary Elizabeth, and the apartment was a little funky. The air conditioner, however, worked like gangbusters so that was a plus!

We spent the afternoon walking around Valencia with India and eventually met Mary Elizabeth and her mother and aunt (who were visiting too!) at the bell tower, El Miguelete, for the evening concert. We then walked around the El Carmen neighborhood to view the wonderful street art and found a lovely cafe to enjoy dinner outside. The next morning we met Mary Elizabeth for a wonderful breakfast at Bluebell Coffee Company. After a quick trip to see the city and my friend, we got back on the road to head home to Barcelona.

India enjoying downtime at a cafe.

Bucky at one of the parks we walked through with India.

Bucky enjoying another cafe spot!

Me and ME!

Street art in El Carmen.

Souther ladies in Valencia!

Bucky, me and art!

There were lots of these trees in El Carmen. They looked like banyan trees, but were ficus trees from Australia (per a placard by them!)

Cool art - Rough translation - It doesn't matter the color, we are all immigrants.