VALENCIA THE WEEKEND AWAY
Myself, Mich & Max flew out to Valencia on Thursday evening. Two hour flight. The Metro also runs from the airport, so we only had to get one train, nice and easy. #Tip1 A single ticket costs 4Euros, but you can buy a ticket that has 10 journeys for 21Euros. Also, one ticket can be used by multiple people. We saw a group of French students take advantage of this fact. I felt sorry for the fella holding the ticket though who hand to stand at the gate swiping the ticket to let all his mates through.
A 10 min walk saw us arrive at our hotel (Silken Puetra Valencia), and a simple check-in. Mich sorted out Max for bed, whilst I went for a wander to buy some bottled water and a bit of grub.
Friday morning, we walked down to the Expo being held in the City of Art & Sciences; a collection of modern buildings with some amazing architecture situated in an oasis that runs through Valencia.
 |
| I wouldn't want to be the window cleaner! |
Collection was very simple and you collected your goody bag as well which was a smart drawstring gym bag itself, plus a quality technical t-shirt and a buff. I am not talking about complimentary polishing here, if you do not know, a buff is a material tube that can be used in a multitude of ways. In fact my Union Jack bandanna is actually a buff! The timing chip was incorporated in the number (which seems to be becoming more popular now days) so you had to scan that to check that it was registered correctly. Sad I know, but I had to take a photo. Oh I wasn't the only one either!
 |
| Ooh look, it's me! |
With collection all sorted, it was time for excursion number 1 a trip to the Valencia Zoo, known as the BioPark. Quite simply, an amazing Zoo the enclosure are huge and no unsightly metal fences and it is very well designed. Being in November, hardly any crowds either yet still t-shirt weather. A few pics that I took of the residents can be found here. Valencia BioPark
Late afternoon, we had a wander round the old city before having dinner and an earlish night.
Saturday was Max's 3rd Birthday, so Mich decorated the room whilst he was asleep with balloons and a banner and after opening his cards and some of his presents, we didn't take all of them on holiday, 20kg limit on baggage you see, we went for some breakfast before planned excursion number 2, a trip to the aquarium, known as Oceanografic (apparently Europe's largest aquarium)
Before we went there though, I stopped off at Mestalle home ground of Valencia Football Club to purchase tickets for the weekend's game versus Espaynol. Whilst trying to buy the tickets, I was asked which country I was from, which I though was a bit strange? then I was asked for my passport which was back at the hotel (luckily less than a 10 min walk away), so once back with my passport, tickets were finally purchased. It was only as I walked away, I noticed that the tickets I had been sold were for the Champions League game versus Bayern Munich for this week. Cue arranging a refund (and the realisation of the question about which country I was from) I then had to go to a different ticket window to buy tickets. The bonus was that the same seats cost 25Euros each instead of 40.
It was quite a walk to the aquarium, probably about and hour. But once we got there again you couldn't but be impressed. A huge shark tank with underwater tunnel, beluga whales, penguins, sea lions every species of fish you could think of, including (very important for a 3yo) Nemo! At 3.30pm we made our way to the show arena for the 4pm Dolphin show. Max loved this as did Mich and I. They actually had 10 dolphins performing at the same time which made for a spectacular show.
 |
| I know there is only 7 in this pic, but there were 10, honest! |
So I left Mich and Max standing outside the cafe whilst I ran back to the hotel with the empty pushchair, up to our room, to then find both key cards were not working. Eventually I got back to Mich (after muchos expletives) for her to tell me that Valencia had scored (muchos expletives again) Whilst we were trying to get in the ground, we heard a muted cheer and I mentioned that maybe Espaynol had scored. Eventually we found our seats with 35 mins on the clock. The 2nd half was a poor game of football to be honest, Iv'e seen better at The Den ;-). Oh, and Millwall fans wouldn't stand for all the theatrics even from Millwall players! The game was not helped by a referee who didn't seem to have a clue and he then awarded an 89th min penalty to Valencia (it was never a pen) Delgado who had come on as a sub stepped up and notched. So at least we got to see a goal even if it wasn't from open play. On the way back to the hotel, I purchased Max a Valencia scarf (his now adopted Spanish team) and we popped into a specialist beer shop to buy Mich a couple of beer (no drinking for me with a Marathon to run the next morning) The owner saw the scarf and signalled 2-1 with is fingers. Having forgotten about the muted cheer I promptly replies in my fluent spanish "No Dos, Zero" I even posted on Facebook that I had seen Valencia win 2-0. It was only today looking at the results in the paper that I saw Valencia DID win 2-1. El Raymondo, muchos stupido! Oh well, at least we got to see over half a game :-) Incidentally, I am not sure the ground would pass health and safety checks in the UK.
Sunday was Marathon day (see part 1)
Monday, our flight wasn't until 21:15 so we had the whole day to play with. We had previously seen a unique play park so as this was also Max's B'day weekend we went there. It is simply a 50ft fibreglass Gulliver. Again I am sure H&S in the UK would have a heart attack, but Max and all the other children seemed to be fine. In fact the only person who was close to having an accident was a hobbling and aching me as I followed Max around.
 |
| Laying down, just like I wanted to be doing |
Valencia is a great city and excellent if you have kids and I would definitely recommend it for a long weekend away
Well that concludes the trilogy
Until the next time
TJH
No comments:
Post a Comment