Valencia Old Town

There is so much to see here!

A good nights sleep. The apartment is stunning and cool temperature wise. The bedrooms are at the back so no traffic noise.

We had our breakfast in the apartment and on our walk to the old town we passed at patisserie and seeing the variety of delicious pastries and cakes we just had to sample. I actually just ended up with a small croissant but S saw an apple thingy he had to have . So we purchased and walked to a picturesque area near the beautiful city hall and old post office buildings. Oh and a fountain.

First stop was the Old Mercado. Oh how I love a food market in Spain. The quality and size of the fruit and veg , the variety of the fish and everything else is unreal. Imagine you lived here and could just pop in every day to get the freshest of fresh products. I bought some blueberries for snacking on.

We were heading to the cathedral but stopped for a coffee in one of the little narrow streets. The cathedral was beautiful inside but not on the same scale as Toledo . I got bored after ten mins so headed out for a loo stop and popped into one of the restaurants.

I had seen an article about the best paella restaurant in Valencia - Navarro, which opened at 1 and it was ten two so we walked the short distance. There was already a queue so joined it. Not seemed that most people reserve a table and we of course had not but as we were the first of not having booked we got a seat - phew! It only opens between 1 and 4 and each table only has two sittings - 1 and 2:30. We ordered a seafood paella and it takes 40 mins to prepare. We didn’t bother with a starter, only some breads and olives , luckily. The paella arrived and it was majestic! The flavours, the smells ohhhhh it was divine! So good we have booked again for Friday at 1!

Next stop was the UNESCO building an old Trading hall. Hall is not really adequate to describe. It was again stunning inside. We had one of these guide talking things to explain all about the history and stories behind the building. Bonus too as it wasn’t too busy.

The was rather hot and we had been on the go since early so decided to go back to apartment for some chill out.

Later on , much later , to have a walk we went to the big store Corte de Ingles just for a wander and to see it. They always have a great food hall and restaurant/cafe on the tops of their buildings so we went up to the 8th floor to check it out. It’s kinda like a bigger John Lewis . I liked it. There was a famous Spanish author doing book signings on the ground floor with a huge queue of mainly women waiting to meet and sign their books. He greeted everyone with a double cheek kiss and I wondered about germs lol! Some of the young girls were starstrick and one even cried! He was quite handsome I must say - Javier someone and he has sold a fair few books……

Shattered again - bed by10:15.