Valencia Day One

I arrived in Valencia around 10:30 last night. I thought I was going to be on a high speed train but when I was walking towards the train, I realized that wasn't the case. I guess there are no high speed trains to Valencia. My disappointment was that the 3 hour train I was expecting was the normal time for the trip and not some fast, shorter trip. Oh well, I got to Valencia and my hotel couldn't have been more convenient-it is across the street from the train station! I had a little trouble finding a hotel because it was difficult to judge where hotels were in relation to the "cool" areas of the city. I picked one that looked like it was the closest to the city center and booked it on Travelocity. It has free wireless, is new construction, and was reasonable. When I arrived, I was pretty tired and hungry so I dropped off my stuff and walked until I found a little area with lots of cafes and restaurants. I ate a salad and had beer at what proved to be quite a tourist cafe (it was the most --American-- English I've heard in two weeks. I've recognized more Americans (and other tourists) in Valencia than I have in Madrid. It may also be that Valencia is a laid back city on the Mediterranean Sea so I probably notice other people here as compared to the busy streets of Madrid.

I woke up today and was surprised to find the sky a bit cloudy as it was supposed to be very sunny. I took the risk and wore my shorts as I had planned. For the first couple hours out in the city I was concerned that the clouds weren't going to clear up. Today was going to be my day of walking and some beach time. I made a quick stop in my company's store to say hello and then I made way to the Ciudad de Las Artes Y Las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences). The walk to the Santiago Calatrava designed buildings is beautiful: image that your walk to the Eifel Tower was not along the Seine, but in it. The Turia river was diverted in 1960 and now there is a series of gardens that fill what used to be a river. It was refreshing to see flowers and blossoming trees (including some orange trees, although according to Wikipedia, "Valencia Oranges" is a California invention, so no connection).

Calatrava's buildings were amazing. (I'll be putting out an album this week, but below is one of my pictures). It is so interesting how a famous architect can build something and revolutionize the appearance of a city (as Calatrava's building did for Milwaukee and Gehry's Guggenheim did for Bilbao). After a lot of photos, I made my pilgrimage to the beach. It was about a 40 minute walk. When I got there, the clouds, which had dispersed for my time at the Ciudad de Las Artes y Ciencias, made another appearance. I sat and read my book on the beach and ended up with about hour and a half of full on sun which is showing now that I am back in the hotel. I think I got most of my sun while I was walking around, but it felt so great to be on the beach with my shirt off and my feet in the sand.

After a long walk back, I'm in the hotel and I think I'm going to take a shower and maybe a bit of a nap. Tonight and tomorrow I'm going to explore the Carmen district which Paola in my office said was a bit like SoHo in NYC, but on a small Spanish city scale.