We’re back in Valencia - for the fifth or sixth time - after a hiatus of two years for the plague. We’d had a lovely, if rainy, visit in Firle with family over Christmas, but were longing for sunshine and warmth. You can be pretty sure of getting it here.
Cabbing in from the airport, it almost felt like coming home. I cranked the window down on my side to feel the warmth of the sun - it got up to about 20C on Saturday - drank in the familiar landmarks and recalibrated my mental map of the place.
It’s such an easy city to get into - 20 minutes by cab from the airport to the centre. We’re staying again in the Ruzafa neighbourhood, just north of the historic centre. We could have taken the tube from the airport but it would mean a 20-minute walk from the nearest station, dragging three big suitcases and one small one, plus my backpack. The cab cost a little over 20 euros: no-brainer.
When we first started coming here, Ruzafa was a kind of funky neighbourhood of immigrants and lower middle class folks. It’s come considerably up-market since then - and grown younger and trendier. It’s also of course grown a lot more expensive.
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| View along Calle de Sueca from our balcony |
Our place is a basic two bedroom flat on the fourth (fifth in Canada) floor of a typical Valencian mid-rise apartment building: six floors, two flats per floor, tiny elevator, front windows on the street, tiny Juliette balconies, bedrooms at the back looking out on the centre of the block. Much of the rear view is taken up with a school playground. (I can hear the kids out there as I write this.) The flat is spotlessly clean. It has comfortable furniture, dishwasher, washing machine, most of the kitchen stuff we need - even decent sharp knives. The two queen-size beds are particularly good.
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| View out bedroom window at back |
There’s a Consum grocery store right across the street, a Mercadona a couple of blocks away, green grocers with tempting displays spilling out on the street, trendy clothing boutiques, art studios and galleries, and more bars and restaurants than you can poke a stick at. It’s a lively neighbourhood, always people out on the street - young people, families, very vibrant.
We got into the flat a little after 3 on Saturday. The cleaning lady, Adriana, a friendly soul, obviously very proud of her city, greeted us. No English, but we managed. After she left, we went out and did two grocery shops, one at the Mercadona for Karen’s favoured Cava, one at the Consum across the street.
We spent the evening in, resting - and wrestling with logging into Netflix and Prime Video on the flat’s smart TV. Prime in particular was maddening. They wanted me to respond to a security message sent by text to my Canadian mobile number - to which I have no access here. In the end, I talked to someone in California who changed the registered mobile number to the UK one I’m using here. Then I could log in. Insane.
Sunday was another mild day but mostly overcast - though the sun did peak out from time to time. I was feeling a bit shaky with some kind of gut ailment in the morning, but we got out for a walk around the neighbourhood in the early afternoon. We noted lots of new businesses, but lots of old favourites are still here too. We also noticed an unusually large number of bike rental places, some at least new since we were here in 2020. You can tell the neighbourhood has become a bit of a tourist mecca.
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| New street art in Ruzafa |
Later in the afternoon, after our main meal of the day, we hiked over to IVAM, the modern art museum - a walk of about 40 minutes - for an exhibit by a very interesting local artist, Carmen Calvo. She’s a woman of about our age. It’s a retrospective, with work from the 1970s through to last year. A lot of collage and mixed media stuff, some installations. Strong feminist themes. We both liked her.
By the time we came out, it was getting dark. We walked back through Carmen, a very bohemian nightclubby neighbourhood, past the central market and into the city centre. Everywhere was lively, with families and young people, suburbanites in for a Sunday meal in the city, tourists - including in our neighbourhood. The bar on the nearest corner was particularly lively with a great hubbub of competing voices as we walked by.
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| Artist's studio in Carmen |
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| Near the Central Market |
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| Balcony looking out on Turia Park |
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| Statue of Virgin and Child on Pont de Mar |
We set out with the idea of walking past the place we stayed in 2020. We took one wrong turn, though, and caught ourselves going back in the exact wrong direction. Quickly corrected and we eventually did stroll past the building where we stayed last time. We agreed that we liked our new ‘hood better.
In the afternoon, we went out again and walked over to the City Park, a very modern park with gardens and playgrounds. This had just opened when we were here in 2020. The plantings were a little sparse and half-grown. Now, it’s starting to look quite lush. It’s built on railway lands - it’s only about half a mile from the main Estacion del Nord train station - and they’ve preserved, and beautifully restored, the exteriors of old warehouses and other industrial buildings. But most are still completely empty inside. Vandals have started tagging them and smashing windows. Not sure what the plans are for them.
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| City Park |
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| Across the street from the park |
Two English-speaking young men were surfing one of the shallow ponds that dot the park. One would charge along the pavement carrying his boogie board, throw it down in the water and leap on it all in one motion and then careen down the water course standing up. The other guy ran along beside him, filming the action with a cell phone attached to a monopod. I don’t think I’ll try it.
Most of the other park denizens were singles and small family groups. There are all kinds of quiet little corners with benches where you can sit and read or just enjoy the burgeoning plantings.
And then home for the evening.
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