Valencia, Spain

A perfect day weather wise, beautiful sunshine, nice 23C with a light breeze. We took the shuttle bus from the Port area, we are docked in the Americas Cup dock where all the beautiful sail boats and yachts are. Some private yachts are so large you need a crew of 10 just to run the boat. I wonder who can the lucky owners be.

Valencia offers commanding views of the Gulf of Valencia, the mountains behind the city give way to rolling plains that extend to Castille, La Mancha and Aragon. It is know for its orange groves, art, architecture, cuisine and its science museum.

This beautiful city, founded in 138 BC by the Romans it was an important Colony. Rome ruled until 580 AD when the Visigoths arrived and took over. They will rule until 1094 when Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar known as ''El Cid'' takes the city in an effort to establish rule for the King of Aragon. Then in 1102 the Almoravid Dynasty, Moors from North Africa take over. It was King James I of Aragon who will give the name Valencia to the city and with the Knights Templar will reconquer the area in 1238 pushing the Moors out. The Moors will be completely expelled from Spain in 1490 by Queen Isabella I.

The river Turin crosses the city, in its new bed. The old river bed is now a large park area with all the old bridges connecting the two sides of the city. This feat of engineering was man-made to prevent any more flooding. Many monuments dot the old city landscape, churches and palaces. The Silk Market building is worth a visit, a stunning building witness to the wealth of the Silk trade in Valencia and to the Guild who ran the market. Valencia is also the Family home of the Borjas, known in Italy as the Borgias, who through Pope Alexander VI, Cesar and Lucrezia have a colourful history.

The central market is also great, you can buy all manner of fresh produce, fish, meat, cheeses, beers and wines, candied fruits etc.. all beautifully presented in an elegant copper roof building with glaze tiles and stain glass windows. You can also shop online and have your order delivered to your home, thus mixing beauty, architecture, epicurian delights and technology.

The Cathedral is an enormous building with Spanish Gothic architecture mixed in with Baroque art, it is a very huge church and contains a chapel to the Santa Calis, (Holy Chalice) again miraculous because it is said that when it was shown to the Moors they fell back and fled. Next to it is the Basilica of La Virgen de los Innocentes, Martires y los Desamparados, quite the name for a church, it has a miraculous statue of the Virgin a top the main Alter all covered in gold.

During the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, Valencia suffered greatly and the Nazi Air Force where used by General Franco against the people of the city. Later Franco will become the dictator of Spain until his death in 1975 to be replaced with the restoration of Constitution and the Spanish Monarchy with King Juan Carlos. While visiting historical buildings mention is made of the Civil War, though it has been 80 years it is still a scar with painful memories.

The streets of the old town are lined with polished limestone which can be very slippery on a rainy day. We found a great little restaurant on a small plaza, had some tapas, delicious with a glass of wine. The restaurant is El Rall on Tundidores 2 between Lonja and Plaza Negrito see the web site http://elrall.es/

Valencia is relaxing and pleasant city, clean and we had a very pleasant day admiring the architecture and the life in the city. We did a little shopping, found a great men shop and bought two shirts. The shop is called J.Palomar on San Vincente 8, in the old town.

After lunch we returned to the ship, happy and tired. We are happy we came to Valencia. We wish we could spend more time here because there is so much to appreciate.

street scene in central Valencia

looking towards the cathedral of Valencia

The old Roman centre plaza of Valencia 

Central Market of Valencia with fresh olive selection

Fresh seafood at the Central Market

Church and Central Market building, Valencia

Great Hall of the Silk Market

Automne, Autunno, Autumn

We were able to have dinner outside from 21 June to 31 August this year, a short period of time but we love this tradition of dining on our terrace looking at the Rideau Canal.

Since 1 September the weather has been sunny but cool and in the evening chilly. The days are noticeably shorter now so we are slowly moving towards Autumn.

The word Autumn in English comes from old French Automne and it seems that prior to the 16th century the word Harvest was much in use since most people lived on the land and Harvest meant that time of the year, Season, when most food is harvested. Only as of the 16th century when more people moved to Cities and learnt to read and write did the word Autumn gain prominence.

With Autumn new activities take place, Thanksgiving falls on Sunday 13 October, meaning that we decorate with various types of coloured corn, pumpkins and a variety of squashes. Last year I found a pumpkin which was a bluish silver colour, a heritage variety. There is a lot of so called Heritage vegetables on the markets now and many people love this new choice. Just outside Ottawa, the Gatineau Park has spectacular colours and it is wonderful to drive up into the hills and on a sunny day see the multi-coloured trees.

Of course many will cook a turkey and have the traditional stuffing and vegetables, potatoes, brussels sprouts, carrot, turnip and squash. I do not know what we will do. It all depends who is in town during this long weekend.

We are booked for our cruise in November from Rome to Seville, with stops in Sorrento, Trapani, Barcelona, Valencia, Gibraltar, then across the Strait of Gibraltar and along the Guadalquivir river to Seville. We also plan a side trip to Granada. This cruise is to celebrate our 35 Anniversary. We had such a great cruise last year from Amsterdam to St-Petersburg and Stockholm through the Baltic Sea. This will be our gift to each other and a wonderful way to celebrate. AZAMARA is tailoring the cruise for our anniversary and giving us little extras to make it memorable.

This will be our second cruise with AZAMARA, smaller ships, called mid-size with 700 passengers and higher level of amenities and service. The food was excellent and the wine list impressive, I also liked the fact that they poured drinks not measure them, so you got a nice stiff drink to make any sailor proud. We have never been on the super-size ships carrying thousands of passengers and I do not think we would like it. Also from a point of safety, I prefer a smaller ship. We were also able to dock in town where larger cruise ships had to dock often far away in sea ports. One final point that sold me on AZAMARA was the number of Canadians on crew on board, a nice touch.

Azamara Quest