Our great friends, Myra and Richard from San Francisco, arrived via the train from Barcelona on Thursday, September 29th.  We were excited to see them and host them for the next 5 nights.  

We had so much to catch up on, including Richard's 70th birthday party at the Fairmont hotel, which we unfortunately missed, how Myra was progressing with her knee injury, how her parents are doing, catching up on the news from other mutual friends like Randy, Jay and Mattie and Kevin and Susan.  We could not stop talking.  

Friday, September 30th - we started the day by walking down Called Colón de Valencia, it's the place to shop and we are within steps of it!  Our goal was to take a short walk and circle back to our apartment.  We first walked by the the Plaza de Toros (bullring), which was and interesting architecture because it resembles Rome's Colosseum, it was built between 1850 and 1860 and is very interesting. 

Right next to the bullring is the North train station, Estacion del Nord with over 150 years of history.  Its facade, with plant motifs, oranges and orange blossoms, inspired by Valencian agriculture and includes, among other references to the city, the four red stripes on a gold background of the Valencian heraldic shield.  For more details about the decor read the description in this link and check out the photo's too!  In the train station was a car exhibit of the Seat 850 models, which you might notice is based on the Fiat 850!

From here we walked to the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, or "Town Hall Square".  It is a beautiful building. here are a few of the images Richard and I enjoyed, including a model posing for us!

  
We then made our way home to relax a bit before our next journey.  We took Myra and Richard on the Metro to the Marina Beach Club on Playa (beach) Malvarrosa.  We just HAD to buy Richard a drink to belatedly celebrate his 70th birthday!

  Are having a good time....you bet!  We followed cocktails with dinner at La Pepica, founded in 1898 and it was a favorite spot of Ernest Hemingway.  We enjoyed baby clams, fried patron peppers, of course some paella and just a great first full day!

When we got home with Richard we watched the Giants vs. Dodgers game in San Francisco....we won and it was fantastic to watch it with Richard 

Saturday, October 1st - we rented a car and took a drive down to Javea or Xàbia in Valencian.  We drove through Denia, which we all feel is not a lovely as Javea.  Next we took them to the over view so they could see the bay and town of Javea

The next thing we did was to have a wonderful lunch at Noray at the beach.  Excellent location, food and service!

This is the wine we had for lunch which we loved.

And Myra and Richard at the statue in front of the restaurant.

After lunch we went to the beach to get a little sun, swim in the Mediterranean sea, the water temperature was a wonderful 73 degrees, even Richard enjoyed it!  Another great day together.

Tonight with some Johnny Walker Black with some Cohiba's torpedo cigars.  SUCH A GREAT NIGHT, with the GIANTS beating the Dodgers and us living and loving life@

Sunday, October 2nd - Richard and me went to see the Valencia VCF they played Atletico Madrid, unfortunately we lost 2 nil.  It was my 2nd game this year and the 2nd loss I've witnesses.

This evening all of us were attending Erev Rosh Hashanah services followed by dinner.  Given the history of Jews in Spain, it is understandable that these congregations are very secretive.  I was not made aware of the location of these services, in which dinner followed until the day before.  Plus I received conflicting location address and a crazy hand made driving video as though I knew how to drive to this location.  To make a long story short we left at 7:30 for a 15 to 20 minute drive for 8:00 services....after 3 calls and and hour in the cab someone from the temple came to meet the cab, which I had stopped close to our location as I was using google maps.  It only took us an hour....it turns out it was near the military airport.  It worked out ok because we caught the ned of services then then the entire dinner.  Myra and Richard met our American friends Roz and Steven at dinner. 

Monday, October 3 -  Today we went to Rosh Hashanah for services and including Myra, Richard and me we made up 25% of the total congregation. This New Year is 5777!

Tonight we all enjoyed dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant Lambrusqueria.  Our last night together!

Tuesday, October 4th - We are sad to see them go but Myra and Richard are on their way Lake Como, followed by Parma, Bologna, to the Ferrari museum and then to Venice.

We relax for a few days before our next guests arrive....Michael Stelluto and Laura Flessel.

Tuesday, September 20th to Tuesday, September 27th

After our return from Mallorca we had 4 days and nights, in our home, to ourselves before our next guest arrived.  

Living here now for close to 5 months this is home to us.  Of course not forever, but for now.  Having Holly and Peter visit made us appreciate our friends and family even more. If only we could have our cake, eat it and not gain weight......enjoy this experience, learn Spanish, live this Spanish lifestyle and also have our family and friends with us....as Beth has always loved to say "Fantasies are Free"

Friday, September 23, 2016 - A day of remembrance for Janis Stelluto - she did so much to help to support to save...here is just a couple of her many projects to remember - the Gloucester's Sawyer Free Library she was the Coordinating Committee, Community Development Plan 2000 - Janis was the Chair and wrote 90% of this plan!

Saturday, September 24th - Our next guest arrived today Jim Sempere, the founder of GNU Foundation.  We met Jim in Kenya in June for a week of work and a week of safari.

Just as Jim arrived we had the American friends we met who live in Valencia for the past 5 years over Roz and Steven for some hors devours and drinks before heading to the Palau de Les Arts Renina Sofia to see Somos Arte.  

It is a beautiful building and as you can see it was packed!

Even the door handles are incredible!

The performance was beyond what I expected and we all had a great time.

Sunday, September 25 - today Jim rented a car, which I drove, as he wanted to visit a small town with his last name Sempere.  He didn't have any family here but it appears he thinks it's where his family from.  It's a one street town!

Beth and I have been wanting to visit Xàtiva.  We learned about it from the friend Kristen, we met in our PickUp Valencia Spanish classes.  Her family has a home here and so goes often

We were not disappointed.  We started by having a nice lunch outside at Canela y Clavo, we loved the building above it.  From here we went up to the Castle of Xàtiva which is quite amazing.  

Monday, September 26 - normal day back in Valencia, gym, Spanish meals with Jim.

Tuesday, September 27 - Jim left for Portugal today...we are free again for a few days until our great friends Myra and Richard arrive.

Great friends from Glen Ellen are visiting us - Holly and Peter - Saturday, September 10th to Monday, September 19th

Our wonderful friends Holly and Peter visited us in Valencia, with their daughter Jenna.  We were overjoyed to see friends from home. They arrived on Saturday, the 10th. 

They missed their train and we got worried as we did not hear from them.  Turns out they forgot their passports in the safe of their hotel in Barcelona, had to go back to get them and missed their train.  They made it later in the day.

We loved catching up and showing them our town.  While their visit to Valencia was a short they got a feel for it.  We walked around the Plaza de Toros de Valencia, just 5 blocks from our apartment.  Next door is the Estación del Norte, (North train Station) which is simply beautiful.  While it is difficult to capture the beauty of it, here is a YouTube video to get a feel for it.

From here we walked to Modernisme Plaza of the City Hall of Valencia. Ayuntamento is where we have experienced, day time fireworks or 10:00 pm Karaoke to the movie Grease and many other events.

Then on to Plaza de la Reina, home to many tourists.  I tried to get Peter to try the Fish Ice Cream but he wasn't about to go for it.

We then took them to the narrowest building in Europe. It is 105 centimeters or 43.3 inches wide!!!

Then on to the Plaza de la Virgen.  One of the first places we ate and enjoyed to environment when we arrived in May.  It is also where we experience our first festival on the second Sunday in May, known as, Virgen de los desmparados, or our Lady of the Abandoned or, the Lady of the Forsaken or Lady of the dispossessed.  Quite a special place.

From here we walked down to the Torres de Serranos, one of 12 gates that once formed part of the ancient city wall.  The Serranos Towers are considered to be the largest Gothic city gateway in all of Europe and were constructed at the end of the 14th century as part of the city's fortification.  They provisionally housed prison cells and served as a triumphal arch on many festive and solemn occasions.  

From Serranos Towers we caught cabs and went to the Marina Beach Club for a drink before dinner.  We had hoped to have Paella but we mistakenly realized after the fact that the restaurant we had a reservation at Casa Montaña (Mountain House) was a Tapas place.  Quite famous meeting point for politicians, intellectuals and artists, since its founding in 1836, today is internationally recognized for the best publications in gastronomy, wine and travel


Sunday, September 11th - We will always remember 9-11 no matter where we are!!!

Today we had lunch at our favorite Italian place Lambrusqueria.  From here we all went to our first every fútbol game, Valencia CF.  It was at Mestalla stadium.  It has a capacity of 55,000.  We had reserved seats under the over hang due to the fact that at game time 16:15 (4:15) it would be really hot, they were great seats.  They played Real Betis of Sevilla, who won the league last year.  Valencia got down 2 goals to none in the 1st half, and I think in fútbol this is almost a guarantee win.  Just after the half time a Valencia player got a red card, so not only were they down 0-2 they had top play the rest of the game one man short.  Amazingly Valencia tied the game BUT in the 3 minutes of extra time at the end of the game Real Betis scored a goal and everyone was devastated!  Great day though!

One interesting thing though....when I went to by beer the woman told me it was sin alcohol, meaning without alcohol.  I later learned that NO sports venues anywhere in Spain sell alcohol!!! 

Monday, September 12th - we all flew to Mallorca.  We were blown away by the size of the airport.  In Valencia we have maybe 4 baggage claims areas...in Mallorca there were 26!!!! TONS of German's and British visitors....I guess we just did not expect this.

So we picked up the car, I am the designated driver and we went to our AirBnB. OMG I had never been in an AirBnB but this was a 1.8 million euro home AMAZING!  Check it out!

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/11558862?checkin=09%2F12%2F2016&checkout=09%2F16%2F2016&guests=5&s=Lz81YN2o

It was SO nice that we didn't want to leave, and over the next 4 days were rarely did!  One day Holly and I hiked down the cliff to the sea below to go snorkeling. 

Mostly we hung around all day, read, ate, swam in the pool, watched INCREDIBLE sunsets and enjoyed relaxing!

One day we went into Palma.  

Holly relaxing after lunch in Palma.  Beth, Holly and Jenna went shopping.  I walked around the town, found the old Jewish quarter, some graffiti and finished at the HUGE.

Some art deco buildings and images

I headed toward the Major Call (meaning ghetto - local word for the old Jewish Quarter).  Starting in the Arab Epoch (901-1229) when the Moors pushed the Jews out of the main part of the city and forced them into a ghetto in poor living conditions.  

After the Christian conquest in 1229, the Jews of Palma, Mallorca were given a new quarter with more space and better living conditions for their help in overthrowing the Moors.

This is an statue of Jehuda Cresques a famous Jewish cartographer. It is probable that he and his father are the authors of the Catalan Atlas, the most important map in the medieval period! 

Some of the graffiti I liked:

I then walked to the Palma Cathedral

Friday, September 16 - We checked out of the AirBnB and brought Holly, Peter and Jenna to the airport.  They were flying to Seville and we were staying another 3 nights.  It was great having them and a sad departure, but we had a fantastic time!

We drove from the airport to the North part of the island to Alcanada.  It was perfect, small, just across from the sea, quite.  We stayed at the Som Far Hotel.  

Saturday and Sunday, September 17 & 18 - Beth caught a cold so she had some down time in the hotel.  

On Saturday, I went Scuba diving with Scuba Mallorca.  We did two dives, the first one at The Pinnacle then Cala Murta and Perdo's Wall.  Not very deep dives, but still nice to do some diving.  I saw flounders, chuttlefish, red star fish, anaenomes a few different Octopus and a couple of Moray eel's one in Pedro's wall.

Sunday, September 18th - Beth was feeling better and it was a cool and a little rainy kind of day so we ask locals what was their most favorite town and most everyone said Valldemossa!  So we drove there.  Valldemossa is a beautiful town in the mountains and is also know for having Chopin's piano.  He arrived in Valldemossa along with his piano in 1838 and it is said that he completed many works while in Valldemossa during what is considered one of the most productive periods in Chopin's life.

We finished the night off with a wonderful dinner at La Terraza, just at sunset.

My salad, nice

Wasn't it supposed to cool off in September? Thursday 9.1.16 to Thursday 9.9.16

I have mentioned how hot it's been in a number of my posts. The heat has been the motivation for our trips to Pamplona, Hondarribia, San Sebastian and Bilbao as well as Milan, Varenna (Lake Como) and Munich.   

BUT we thought it would start cooling off in September.....so far it has only gotten hotter.  Do you think the weather pattern is changing?  Here summer started later and is lasting longer.  

This week it has averaged about 33 or 92 with 40% humidity...hot. We went to our local beach both Saturday (9.3) and Sunday (9.4). On Sunday it was projected to be 37 or 99.  The air conditioner only cools our back bedrooms down to about 21 or 70, this is with the help of 2 standing fans.  When it is too hot it is impossible for us to sleep.

On Sunday night (9.4) we took a Spanish only tour called La XVIIa Jornada Europea de la Cultura Judía or The XVIIth European Day of Jewish Culture with the subject matter being Jewish languages. I'm sure it would have been more interesting had we been able to understand more than a word or two from each paragraph, but just touring around the city of Valencia, starting at 9:30pm was pretty cool in and of itself.

Since today, Sunday was SO VERY HOT we could no longer take it and we choose to get out of town for a few days.  We booked a car and the Parador Hotel in Jávea to leave tomorrow (Monday 9..5) morning.

Monday, September 5th when I was leaving our building to pick up the car I told our concierge (doorman) Javier that we were going to Jávea.  He told me incendios, which I did not understand.  I knew the word for fire, which is fuego, but incendios is fires....ah Spanish.  We don't watch the local news so we knew nothing.  We called the hotel and they said it was in the National forest and we should still come, so we did.  This link has the details of the fires. Once we checked in we saw some fires and smelled the smoke.  It was quite sad to see, especially to learn that they were intentionally set.  This is a YouTube video of the fires

Here is a photo overlooking our beach, with the smoke from the fires in the background.

  
We decided there was nothing we could do so we decided to go snorkeling in front of the hotel.  Photo's from our snorkel

Even a tiny pink jellyfish. I think it is the Pelagia noctiluca

On Tuesday, (9.6) we spent the day between laying on the beach Playa El Arenal, swimming in the sea and laying around our hotel pool and dipping in and out of the pool.  It is SO much cooler in Jávea vs. Valencia.

Wednesday (9.7) we booked a 3 hour kayaking trip along the coast of Dénia, the next town north of Jávea.  Its was through a company called Antias to Cova Tallada .

Their brochure states " We will leave from the Playa de las Rotas in Dénia.  Under the cliffs of the Marine Reserve of Cape San Antonio, we find an open sea cave, Cova Tallada.  We disembark visit inside the cave with flashlights.  The marks of generations of stone cutters (sandstone), be moved to another time, the fishing trips of King Philip III and marine use as a hiding place during World War II."

The Marine Reserve of Cape San Antonio has pristine waters and is just gorgeous.  We were told there are still some German boats sunk off this cove.  However Spain is not permitted to go into them as they are sovereign territory of Germany.

Such a great experience.  After lunch and on the drive (9 kilometers) back to Jávea we visited the Cap de Sant Antoni lighthouse.  Some of our photo's

Here is a link with more photo's of the area.

Next, just a kilometer down the road was Els Molins.  Perched on the ridge of the natural park Montgo mountain sit the old windmills looking out to sea.  The view is breathtaking, overlooking the town of Javea, Cap Prim on the coastline in the far distance an as far as the eye can see towards Ibiza, which is visible on a clear day.

The windmills were built in the 15th century, had large wooden sails and were used to grind the grain into flour.  Today they stand naked and in various states of renovation, but are still to look at.

Thursday (9.8) departure day, with a noon check out.  But the hotel allows you to store your bags, use the pool, with towels, take showers, etc.  So we took advantage of this by driving to the of a few different beaches that we had not experienced.  First was Cala Blanca, we did a short snorkel, but today the sea was choppy and the sea was not as crystal clear as it has been.

Cala Blanca

As we drove to our next spot, we saw and heard day time fireworks in the downtown of Jávea.  I guess when you love fireworks so much you don't just wait for it to get dark, you shoot them off in the middle of the day.  

Then a nice lunch on the sea

  

More snorkeling and tanning and finish with a shower at the hotel before our drive home.

We planned to stop at Ikea, since we had the car, to purchase a bed frame as our landlady only had a mattress. Since our good friends Holly & Peter, and their daughter Jenna are visiting us for two nights, this Saturday we needed it.  Well guess what the ONLY day in the month of September that Ikea was closed was Thursday, September 8th go figure.   Jenna will have to sleep on the mattress on the floor.

We LOVE JÁVEA!!!!!