La Liga

An art gallery, football and the beach all on the same day, before flying home from Valencia this evening. Football wasn't on our itinerary originally but as we emerged from the metro en route from the airport to our hotel on Friday, Valencia's Mestalla Stadium was right next to it. It then transpired that Valencia were playing league leaders Atletico Madrid at 12:00 today, and I managed to buy a couple of tickets in the cheap (very high up) seats online. I loved the experience - it's an impressive old stadium with seats banked high and steep on three of its sides, creating an electric atmosphere. It seems a shame that Valencia will be moving to a new stadium further out before too long, but I would imagine the money they will reap from vacating the current central plot of prime real estate has made the move inevitable. As temporary locals we were rooting for the home team, but unfortunately Atletico were just too fast and skilful (Frenchman Antoine Griezmann in particular) and won comfortably 2-0. There was something for us home fans to cheer, though, as goalkeeper Diego Alves spectacularly saved two penalties.