Karen bailed out of our evening walk the night before last, citing sore knees after her first bike ride in quite a while. Fair enough. So I went out on my own a little after six and meandered about Ruzafa for 45 minutes, dipping into shops and observing the rich street life. Being a flaneur. I’ve begun a new photographic series: Ruzafa After Dark. I don’t have the nerve to take pictures of people on the street. It seems too intrusive and rude. But I don’t have a problem taking pictures of people - or dogs - on the other side of glass. As long as I take them quickly, before anyone notices.
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| Evening adult art classes |
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| Doggy beauty parlour |
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| News stand at our corner |
Yesterday, Thursday, January 12, I went for a run in the morning, down Sueca to the Gran Via, along it to Regne de Valencia, along Regne de Valencia to the Turia, and down a ramp into the park. I turned toward the centre and ran to the next up-ramp, which as it turned out, was one too soon. No matter, I continued on to the Gran Via (it angles away from Regne de Valencia) and ran along its boulevard back to Sueca. It was about 4 km total, I think - so I still have a ways to go to get back to 5 km.
Karen surprised me by saying she was up for a bike ride down to the beach. It’s about a 40-minute spin at the slow pace we keep to preserve her knees. We were struck again by what a fabulous thing the Valenbisi service is - and the wonderful network of mostly off-road bike lanes. You just never feel at risk, as you do cycling around Canadian cities. And Spanish drivers are very conscious of bikes and bike lanes and usually very courteous, often stopping for bikes even when they have the right of way.
We stopped once to return our bikes. The first thirty minutes of any loan with Valenbisi are free, after which they start charging. So you just turn your bike in at another station along your route before the 30 minutes is up, then take it out again right away. If you manage it properly, as we always do, you never pay anything beyond the annual subscription fee.
It was another lovely day, not quite as mild as yesterday, but 17 or 18 degrees, full sun, little or no breeze. After dropping the bikes, we had a leisurely stroll up the beach promenade for a kilometre or so, then sat on a bench for a while, reading. I started another of my Christmas books, Jason Webster’s Duende: A Journey In Search of Flamenco.
Webster is a Brit married to a Valencian - a flamenco dancer, in fact - and lived in the city for several years, although they now live in England. He wrote a series of crime novels about a Valencian police detective, Max Camara, which Karen and I have read in the past. This one, though, is a series of essays about the history and culture of flamenco, along with a personal narrative about the author’s early and abiding interest in flamenco and his attempts to learn about it.
I had listened to a podcast on my morning run that featured an interview with Webster. He talked about a new book on the same subject he has out now, The Book of Duende, as well as his time living in Valencia - in Ruzafa, in fact. He and his family left 15 years ago and have settled now in Dorset. The podcast, Valencia Life, is done by a British ex-journo, Eugene Costello, who moved to Valencia when he (semi-)retired three years ago. He now lives in Ruzafa. His pal, Lily Chan, a Belgian woman, co-hosts.
The other mammoth book I’m reading and also enjoying very much is one Caitlin and Bob gave me for Christmas, The World: A Family History by the wonderfully named Simon Sebag Montefiore. It’s the history of humanity from prehistoric times to present day, told as a series of family histories, from pharaohs to Trumps. It runs to 1300 pages, so I’ll basically be reading it for the rest of my life. Given that I’m also reading a novel - Maggie O’Farrell’s latest, The Marriage Portrait, itself a substantial 450 pages - I won’t be finishing any of them anytime soon.
We biked part of the way home, then took the tube the rest of the way.
Later in the day, after our late-lunch main meal, we walked over to Avenida de Colon and the Camper store, where Karen purchased a back-up pair of the little black half boots she bought here three years ago. She’s worn them a lot and loves them, and they were a reasonable price: 10% off in the post Christmas sale. I tried on my shoes and may go back and get them before the sale is over.
The first Scrabble game of the winter season in the evening - a pretty even contest that ended in a narrow victory for me.
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In the late morning, we got bikes around the corner and rode down to Torre del Quart, dropped the bikes and walked around Carmen for 40 minutes or so. We saw a few nice new wall murals. I really like Carmen but wouldn’t want to live there. The streets are too narrow and dingy, there’s too much night life - Ruzafa is bad enough - and it’s a bit grotty in places.
We walked home via the city centre, passing through Plaza de la Virgen, but mostly avoiding the busy touristy streets. Karen went on ahead to cook our dinner while I did a small shop at the Mercadona. We’ve been in this afternoon since our main meal. We were going to head over to Bomba Gens, one of several art venues run by charitable foundations - there are a couple of interesting-looking exhibits on - but we’ve seemingly run out of energy. We’ll maybe do a walk around the neighbourhood later.
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Karen was too knee-weary after today's bike and walking excursion so didn't want to go out after dark. I went on my own and just meandered around Ruzafa, snapping the odd picture. The one of the car is the Xev YoYo showroom on the edge of Ruzafa. I'd never heard of it. It reminds me of the Smart Car. It's an Italian company. The cars are all-electric and the technology supports battery swapping. You can also plug them in.
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| Another atelier offering art classes - the neighbourhood is very into art |
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| Me riding the world's smallest elevator |
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| I think this street art was there the first year we came, 2011 |
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