Adiós a Valencia

I will still be posting a couple more blog entries from Madrid and Toledo, but tomorrow I leave Valencia, so I thought I’d round up a few parting photos. Today I met with and said good-bye to the staff at the AIP school, which was hard to do…everyone there has been just lovely to work with. My son Jordan and his girlfriend Kelsey took off by train this morning to return to the states. A great travel story here: we were at the Juan Sarolla train station right on time, about 6:45 for a 7:10 train. Unfortunately, all of the clocks showed 7:45, and the 7:10 train was long gone. I definitely did not get the memo that daylight savings time kicked in this weekend! Fortunately, they were able to get on another train and made their flight, but only with the addition of a 50 euro taxi ride from the train station to the airport! Just one of the joys of travel, and really, it is a joy even with bumps in the road. Valencia feels like home and I will miss it very much.

Triumphal Arch, Plaza Tetuan, Puerta del Mar

At the beach with book group and kids.

City of Arts and Sciences with friends

Jordan and Kelsey try the traditional Horchata drink, made from chufa nuts.

Jordan was brave enough to have the pulpo (octopus) at the Vintaro Taverna.

We also got pizza at Nam-Nam’s–the best! Homemade on the spot.

…and we managed to work in cupcakes along with churros and chocolate..all the basic food groups!

I finally got to a flamenco performance at a small club..sorry for the blurry photo but she was moving pretty fast! The music was local and wonderful.

While some of my students went to see the bull fights over Fallas weekend, I passed on this one. I understand the cultural significance, but it doesn’t seem like a fair fight and I’d rather not see what happens to the bull.