Cartagena

The boat is relaunched just in time for my niece May’s arrival. She spends two nights on board Regal and her cousins give her the highlights tour of Cartagena. She is here for a week so we do a little road trip to Valencia where we have booked a love home swap for three nights.
We are staying in Nacho’s place and he and his family stayed in our house in Cork a few years ago. His apartment is the perfect location for exploring Valencia because its in the city centre. On our first evening we have a great walk around the city and have dinner in the Mercado Colon.
The next morning we hire bikes for the day and cycle through the city down to the old dry river bed, which is far more beautiful than it sounds. It has been turned into a wonderful park all along the city and we cycle through it as far as the Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias.
Our jaws drop when we see the white and glass buildings here. It is like something from a Star Wars or a science fiction movie. We cycle in between the buildings, under huge arches and pass several man-made expanses of water, some even have little row boats for hire.
We continue on our cycle and find our way to the marina and beaches of Valencia. We soak up the Saturday atmosphere as people are out walking, cycling, rollerblading and having their hen nights (days) here. One hen group have a brass band accompanying them as they walk and dance along the promenade.
After a lovely brunch at a beachside restaurant we cycle back to the Science park to visit the Aquarium. It is huge and we spend 4 hours there moving from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, the Mangroves the Atlantic and the Artic. We love seeing all the amazing fish; Sharks, Jellyfish, clown fish, Rays, barracudas, angel fish. We experience a mix of emotions when we see the Beluga Whales and the Dolphins. At the dolphin show we see them do incredible jumps and tricks and the Belugas too move to the trainers cues. On the one hand it is amazing to see these animals so close up and on the other hand we feel its cruel and feel bad because we are watching. We are happy to leave the show halfway through as a kind of a protest but also just because we have to cycle back to the city and its getting dark.
The cycle lanes in Valencia are fantastic and they lead us all the way back to the rental shop.
We get empanadas to take away and have them back at the apartment for dinner.
This weekend is the beginning of Valencia’s most famous festival; Las Fallas - which will run for the next two weeks and culminates in the burning of lots of huge Papier Mache characters. We won’t be here for that but this evening we will get to see giant figures as they are paraded through the city.
After a delicious breakfast, of Irish sausages, rashers and pudding, thanks to May, we walk to the plaza del Ayuntamiento.
We join the thousands of people who have gathered here for the Fallas day time fireworks display. We aren’t sure what to expect. The crowd is full of glee despite the increasingly rain. We are pretty wet by the time the first bang goes off but it was worth waiting for. There isn’t a whole lot to see besides smoke and flashes of light. This show is all about hearing and feeling the fireworks. For ten minutes the noise is so loud it goes right through us. Hundreds if not thousands of bangs reverberate through our bodies and for some reason this makes everyone laugh and clap. As we walk back through the streets adults and children are throwing their own fire crackers and bangers.
Our ears are ringing and we are wet through so we return to the apartment. The rain continues to get heavier all afternoon and we find out that the parade has been postponed because of the weather.
It is still raining the next morning when we do a final walk around Valencia to see the Mercado and a some fancy clothes shops.
We hop in the car and head to our next love home sway in Cullera, a beach resort 40 minutes south of the city. The house is a fabulous American style house up in the hills overlooking the coast. It has a pool, hot tub, gym and a gas fire and an enormous telly. For the next two days max out on all these luxuries and enjoy our time with May.Les mer