Hop on and off

Today was our first full day in Valencia. Unfortunately Georgia is feeling really sick. I think she is very jet lagged.

This morning we headed out to the Valencia central market which is just a short walk away from us. This is the largest market in Valencia with more than 300 venders. I was so awestruck that I forgot to take pictures. I will take some tomorrow when I return and add them to this post.

We got to the market when everyone was just setting up and wandered up and down the aisles. The market is mainly food items such as fruit, meat, vegetables, and seafood. This is the place you would go to get the freshest ingredients for dinner. Occasionally, people have items you can eat or drink while walking around. I had a cup of fruit sliced for eating and a croissant. I’m not sure what makes European croissants so much better than what we can get in the US, but it was amazing. I plan to go back every morning for breakfast here.

We also got a loaf of rosemary bread and a jug of orange juice to have at our apartment. We were able to watch a machine slice the oranges and freshly squeeze them. This is the best orange juice I’ve ever had.

Today we went to 3 different grocery stores. When I travel anywhere, I going to grocery stores because you get a good sense for regional foods. It’s also cheap fun. Incredibly, food is overall cheaper here than back home. I suppose the grocery stores need to compete with all the fresh markets around.

Later, we rode the hop on, hop off bus. Georgia still was sick so I was hoping just riding the double decker bus would be relaxing. The bus has two routes so we rode on both routes. The first is through the old part of town and the second goes to the local beaches. The only place we hopped off was at the marina so I could pay for a future paddle board trip from SUPlife. It was also a chance to see the beach which I think we’ll go to Saturday.

We decided to take our first siesta like the locals do. It is used as a long lunch and perhaps a short nap. We both fell asleep and slept for 3 hours. This really helped Georgia and she felt much better after it.

Tomorrow, we’re going to Oceanogràfic which is the largest aquarium in Valencia.Read more